The Revelations of Caroline Bauer.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 5465, 24 January 1885, Page 4

The Revelations of Caroline Bauer.

"HKSBY" writes in "Truth":—l should think that ovorybody who roads anything will read tho momoirs of Carolino Bauer, which, in thoir revelations of Court pcandal, and in tho light thoy throw upon tho real chanctors of many notablo personages, surpass in interest ovon tho works of Hervoy, Walpolo, VVraxall, and Orovillo, Carolino Bauer draws a most shocking picture of Court Hfo in Germany during tho early partofthoprosontcontury, and her reminiscences onablo ono to form some idea of what brutal wretches most of tho Gorman Princes really wero. Sho givosastartling account of tho Into Duke Ernest of Saxo-Coburg, tho fathor of tho Princo Consort, whose procoodings in rcspoct to his mistress, Paulino Panaw, provo him to havo boon aconsummuto scoundrel, and his mother, tho Dowager Duchess, appears to havo boon oven moro villainous. Tho Princo Consort does not seoiu to havo been fortunate in either of his paronts, for his ciro was a perfect D6n Juan, and in 1822—"Tho Duchoss liad now likewise bogun to wpin lovo throads on her own account, and in Coburg tho vory sparrows on tho roof twitterod stories of the amours both of Duko and Duchosa."

As to tho late King Loopold, wo at last sco him in his truo colours ; and a more thoroughly contemptible boing could scarcely bo imagined, Evorybody remombera tho eulogios which wero so frequently lavished on Loopold for giving up (very roluetantly) his allowance of £50,000 a your to tho Treasury, when ho loft England for Belgium, tho arrangement boing that Claremont was to bo kopt up, and certain " salaries, pensions, and allowances " wero to bo defrayed, and " tho British exchequer " was to got thp balance. Hero is Caroline Bailor's version U this transaction :—" Princo Leopold and Stockmar understood how to make out a pretty littlo account against the English, so that of the £50,000 no very groat sum ever returned to the English exchequer till the death of the King of the Belgians. Naturally, also, the ' pension' which I drew from King Leopold ,was, under some heading or other, among the allowances "which (as Leopold wrote to Lord Grey) will appear to me suitable awards for those persons who have claims on me for their faithful service* during mysojourn in this country." Also, Christian (Baron) Stoekmar's ponsion "was put down to this account."

There can be nothing moro horrible and Inferno-like than the description of Baron Stoekmar's last days at Coburg :—" Tho man who once had ruled princes and peoples was now powerless, face to face with the tyranny and sordid avarice of his wife, During his illness, which lasted several years, he could not always, either by prayers or commands, procure in his own house even a bowl of broth. , . . His last hours were terrible. When he lay at the point of death, his hard wife took off his back his shirt and flannel jacket, so that, after his death, according to Coburg custom, the undertaker might not claim these objects."

How ghastly, after these disclosures, must be the Bight of the sumptuous monument which was erected to Stockmar at Coburg in 1865 by his Royal friends, and how dismally ludicrous the recollection of the teler grams of condolence which his exemplary spouse received from the Queen and other Royal personages!