Miscellaneous.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 698, 20 October 1909, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

France spends .£300,000 a year in improving the breed of cavalry horses.

Brandy and water is supplied free of charge to all members of the Belgian Parliament who make a long speech.

Thomas Cranness, a postman, of Attleborough, Norfolk, has received the Imperial Service medal and pension. During thirty-five years he walked 2i2.,000 miles.

A Lancashire police sergeant who has just retired weighs 25SL 7*lb., ; s 53in. round the chest, and sßin. round the waist. He is stated to be the biggest constable in Great Britain. Dwarfs from every part of the world will be exhibited in the Paris Zoo. this month. About 300 pigmy people will be assembled and will live in tiny hu>ts on the lawns r . taking driving exercise in miniature gala carriages. The smallest of the dwarfs to be shown is not quite 17 inches high. He will be accompanied by his mother, whoseheight is 39 inches. SECRETS OF ROYAL "MATCH v • MAKING." The news that negotiations have been completed for the mar;iage ol King Manuel of Portugal to Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg, youngest daughter of the late Duke of Edinburgh and niece of King Edward, may give the average reader the impression that the engagement has been as easiuy arranged as an ordinary one upon which "papa" has been asked to bestow a blessing. This, however, is not the case. Before a Royal marriage can take place Royal consent to that union must be obtained, not as a matter of custom and duty, but to make the ceremony valid. The marriage of an English Princess without the consent of our King would be nu>li and void, even if the "knot" were tied by all the archbishops in the kingdom.

Choosing a Royal Bride.

When a young- King- wishes to marry he can seldom choose his own bride. Directly an heir is born to Royal uarents those parents begin to consider the Royal nurseries of Europe, and mark down suitable Princesses for their boy. So it happens that when the heir to the Throne arrives at a marriageable age a certain number rf eligible partners are mentioned to him, and his final choice must not only please his parents* but also the Ministers of his country, the Parliament, and the people When the engagement of King Edward, then Prince of Wales, was hourly expected, Lord Palmerston stated that the bride, in. accordance with Royal law, "must be handsome, must be well brought up, and must be a Protest ant." Quen Victoria chose a German Princess for the King, but he himsel f preferred the beautiful daughter of the King of Denmark. His Majesty first met ,Queen Alexandra at a children's party at Buckingham Palace when he was only thirteen years of age. but he did not meet her again until six years had passed. His relatives arranged an "accidental" meeting between the Royal couple in the Cathedral of Speier, and shortly afterwards their engagement was publicly announced. Queen Victoria's Courtship.

Almost from his eradle the idea of a union between Prince Albert and Queen Victoria had been a favourite day-dream of his father, the Duke of Coburg; and his wish somehow foun I an echo in the Royal nursery, where Alberts' nurse would amuise him with tales of his bride-to-be across the sea. Queen Victoria first saw Prince Albert in 1836, when he visited England with his father and brother, Prince Ernest, and spent a month at Buckingham Palace. From that day onward the Princess and the Prince were dra.v-:i together, but when the latter visited England for the second time in 183Q it was with no thoughts of marriage. He had been informed that the young Queen had made up her mind to remain single for another four years, and he was far too manly to attempt to persuade her to alter her decision. Love, however, found out the wav. and in Queen Victoria's own words: "I do feel so guilty . . . Albert has completely won my heart, and all was settled between us this morning, j. . I feel certain that he will make me very happy. I wish I could say that I felt as certain of making him happy; but I shall do my best."

A Famous Matchmaker. Queen Victoria used her influence on several occasions to further the I cause of love's young dream. When ! the engagement was announced between Princess Frederica of Hanover and Baron Von Pawel-Rammingen, the King of Hanover's secretary, all the members of the Royal Families of England and Germany opposed the match, and the Queen of Hanover was so cross with her daughter that she practically cast her off. Queen Victoria thereupon stepped in and acted the part .of fairy godmother. Our late Queen not only encouraged the match but gave the bride away, and provided a home for her and her husband at Hampton i Court Palace. Again, it was Queen Victoria who encouraged the deep attachment of the Princess Louise for the Marquess of Lome, now Duke < f Argyll, when all her relations were violently opposed to the match. Where William Met his Wife. The German Emperor's marriage on his twenty-second birthday to the Princess Augusta Victoria of SchleswigHoistein, a niece of Prince Christian, was immensely popular throughout i Germany, the reason being the fact that the bride was a native Princes rand not one l:om a foreign cbme. It is said that '.saerji Victoria 1 roiuriit about the union between the Kaiser and the Princess, and we all know I that the Emperor made his future ' wife's acquaintance at Balmoral when he visited his grandmother in 1878. The acquaintance was renewed at Silesia in the autumn of the following year, when the Kajser was shooting on the estate of Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, the father of Princess Victoria. Here an engagement was arranged, and the marriage was solemnised on February 27th, 1881. Born in 1862, Prince Henry, the Kaiser's brother, married, on May 24, 188S, his cousin. Princess Irene -A Hesse, daughter of the late Granl Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice. Queen Victoria helped to bring this union about, and it is said that she was partly responsible for the marriage of the Kaiser's sister with the Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, G.C 8., on February 18th, 1878.