SENTENCED TO DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 270, 16 November 1887, Page 4

SENTENCED TO DEATH.

Pale Death, whose "equal foot" was commended by the Roman poet, is once more showing that he is no respecter of persons. The Crown Prince of Germany—the heir to an Imperial Crown, and destined, as was imagined, to be the arbiter of Europe—has received notice that he is marked as the Destroyer's prey. Differing in matters of detail and of treatment, the specialists who have examined the cancerous growth in the Prince's throat are to all appearances at one in this opinion—that the extreme duration of the patient's life will be "possibly" five years. There can be no mistaking the significance of this verdict. It means that, though surrounded by the luxuries of a palace, and free to roam the wide world over in search of health and happiness, the Prince is in reality a wretched prisoner, under sentence of death—a death which in all but the ignominy is a thousand times more painful and saddening than any Which the cruel ingenuity of mediaeval barbarians ever devised for the punishment of offenders. As the husband of an English princess, as well as in the character of heir to the German Crown, an intense interest is felt in the doomed Prince over all the British dominions. On the destinies of Europe and of the German Empire, the fatal termination of the Crown Prince's illness will exercise a tremendous influence, especially in view of the feeble health of his aged father, and the certainty that a few years will, in the natural order of things, terminate his career.

A recent cable message declared that there was a probability of tbe youthful Prince William being proclaimed Regent of the Empire. This would doubtless give great satisfaction to the army and a section of the German people; but it is to be feared that it might have a disturbing effect on the peace of Europe. The Crown Prince, like his Imperial sire, is devoted to the cause of peace, but Prince William, who is 27 years of age, has decidodly warlike tastes, and with the activity, impetuosity and ambition of youth, would be apt to adopt a vigorous foreign policy. He is a great favourite with his grandfather—himself a man of war and credited with being "brutally ambitious" for the aggrandisement of his family. and were the adoration of the German people to be transferred from the now peaceful nonagenarian to his fiery grandson, the war spirit might be suddenly developed. An element of safety is found in Prince William's avowed liking for Russia and

the Kussians, and. his accession would probably mean the adoption of a more conciliatory attitude towards that Power.

Frederick William, or Fritz, as the Crown Prince is familiarly called, is now 56 years of age, and he appears to be a man of no superior character, but, like the Prince of Wales, is a great favourite with the people, and an excellent man in society and in his own family circle. He detests politics, dislikes hunting, and prefers the softer pleasures of life. He is said to consider war the greatest of calamities, and to have said to some . one that the sovereign who brouaht on a war assumed an awful responsibility. A reason for the development of the deadly disease from which he now suffers may be found in the fact that he has long been an inveterate smoker, a habit which clung to him despite the many solemn lectures delivered to him on the subject by the Crown Princesst He has a warm feeling of friendship for England, as is natural in the son-in-law of our Sovereign; but his lack of brains aud "go " causes him to be held in light esteem by Bismarck, and even by the Emperor of Germany himself. Distrusted by the army, and regarded by his nearest relatives as a political failure, poor Fritz may, after all, 1 not regret the fiat which has doomed him to an early death. If he may be accused of weakness in calmly resigning the splendid future that was opening out for him, is there not a measure of heroism in the fortitude with which he contemplates his certain fate, and the " marvellous composure" which he exhibits under his painful affliction ?