The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1892.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 12, 15 January 1892, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1892.

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Our cable messages to-day are invested with a peculiarly mournful mterest. They announce the deaths of two of the most prominent personages in the Empire; the one rendered so by the accident of birth, theotherbytheforceof genius. Anhour after the Prince of the Roman Church had breathed his last the tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's made known to the inhabitants of the capital that the illness of the Duke of Clarence had terminated fatally, and that Prince George had succeeded to the position of heir-presumptive to the throne.

The interest attached to the untimely fate of the Duke of Clarence is almost wholly due to the place he occupied in the succession. The young Prince has never taken any prominent part in the public affairs of the nation, aud we are left largely to conjecture as to the character he. would have developed with increasing years .and responsibilities. It is the misfortune not only of the Heir-Apparent, but of all the members of the Royal Family who are in the direct line of succession, that they are precluded from becoming an active force in connection the political and with social movements of their country. A prince so situated takes his seat in the House of Lords on attaining his majority, but it is understood that he is to be a mere gilded figure, and not a leader in politics. No one expects him to inaugurate any scheme for the benefit of the people, or do anything else but record a silent vote.'

In social life the Prince who has his foot on the steps of the throne is similarly handicapped. It is not surprising, therefore, that during the early years of manhood, a young man thus' situated, unless possessed of unusual force of character, gives himself up chiefly to those social enjoyments that press upon him from every side! It'he Duke of Clarence has lived twentyeight years, but outside the circle of his own immediate associates, he was but little known to the people over whom in the course of nature he expected to reign. His. visits to these lands showed him to the. colonists as a quiet, amiable youth, whose virtues were chiefly of a negative order, and who, when his character was' shaped by the mellowing influences of time, might develop into a very respectable member of the order of constitutional sovereigns.

The aged Cardinal who has just disappeared from the world's stage was, in every respect, a contrast to his youthful companion in death. The world-wide celebrity he has attained was not in any respect d ue to ' llus " trious birth or to those adventitious aids that sometimes raise men on a pedestal above their fellows. The son of a British merchant, Henry Edward Manning was one of those men who would have been distinguished in any age. His lot happened to be cast in a period when the ecclesiastical mind of the Empire was undergoing a great apd rapid change- Fifty years ago the feeling of active hostility to Roman Catholicism was much stronger than it is today. During the first few years after Manning seceded from the Established Cnurch, it would have been almost impossible for him tq work hand-in-hand with English prelates and Nonconformist ministers in carrying out schemes of national reform. The spirit of toleration that has streamed into modern life and is sweeping ecclesiastics along with it opened up to Manning opportunities ' of usefulness for which he was eminently fitted. He was in every thread of his being an ecclesiastic, but, like his great predecessors, Beaufort and Wolsey, he possessed the essential qualities of a statesman. In his private life bis simple tastes, devotional habits, and rigid austerities marked the churchman ; in his connection with the temperance movement, the labour struggle, and indeed nearly every philanthropic movement set on fooc in England of late years, he displayed the qualities of a genuine social reformer. The lower classes of the people, while they were suspicious of his creed, learned to respect its representative. Nor were his efforts a mere perfunctory discharge of official duty. ; Those most intimately acquainted with I him represent him as moved by a genuine human sympathy. His deep I interest and unwearied efforts to settle I the dock labourers' dispute earned him | the gratitude of thousands of the poor-

est in the slums of the capital. As an ecclesiastic, a social reformer, and a distinguished member of literary circles, his death is a distinct loss to the English nation.

The solicitude that has been displayed by all classes of people during the illness of the Prince is both instructive and touching. Englishmen are fond of having a growl at the Royal Family, and the peccadillos of princes are often dwelt upon with exaggerated eloquence. But in any real emergency the,warm hearts of Britons are loyal to the reigning dynasty. The burst of national emotion when years ago the Prince of Wales was lying at the point of death, the solicitude displayed more recently during the illness of Prince George, and the intense excitement which has prevailed during the closing scenes of the Duke of Clarence's life, all attest the warmth of devotion and loyalty in the English people. In death we forget the errors of the illustrious departed. It is well that it should be so. Even the -most radical section will respect the sorrows ofthe Royal Family. The death of Manning will be mentioned with respectful sympathy in the pulpits throughout the United Kingdom, and religious papers of all shades of opinion will deal lightly with the " errors " and eulogise the good qualities of the oncedreaded " son of the scarlet woman."

In the colonies, although the names of these distinguished personages are but an echo, tbe announcement made in the cablegrams will, we are sure, be received with widespread and melancholy interest, and all parties will join in deploring the untimely end of the young Prince whose star was rising in an horizon bright with golden hopes, in heartfelt regret at the blow that has fallen upon the young Princess, so lately a bride-elect, and in warm sympathy with the sorrows of the Queen and Royal Family.