CŒLEBS IN SEARCH OF A WIFE.

Press, Volume VI, Issue 673, 26 December 1864, Page 3

CŒLEBS IN SEARCH OF A WIFE.

[From the Globe.'} T The heir apparent of Russia, the future master' of t a realm of more than seven millions of square miles — i an empire comprising one-seventh of the territorial' t part of the globe, and about one twenty-sixth part of i its entire surface —is in want of a wife, and cannot * find one. This astounding piece of news is going the > round of the Continental papers. Grand-Duke - Nicholas, heir-apparent of all the Russias, twentyl one years old ; tall, good looking, in splendid uni--1 form, speaking five languages, and with all acconib plishments, is willing to wed, yet cannot get a wife. c The story, as it is told by the public organs of Ger--3 many, must appear strangely improbable to all those who are uninitiated in the mysteries of royal courts f and courtships ; but there seems nevertheless some f amount of truth in it. It may be remembered that, f a few years ago, when the matrimonial hopes and t expectations of our Prince of Wales were discussed f in this country, it was generally asserted— on the basis, we suppose, of the statement of some i wonderful King-at-Arms, world-deep in all the i genealogies of all the crowned people upon earth 1 —that his Royal Highness had a choice only between : seven Princesses in tbe election of l_a future partner, a There were many then, no doubt, who thought this c a very hard case, seeing that John Smith and Tom ] Brown can choose their spouses from among thou-

s sends of fair damsels, each as good as a princess [ But the people who then pitied the Prince of Wale: i hive still more reason now to pity the Prinet? linpei rial of Russia, who had even le« th-m the junnbei ' svven for his matrimonial choice. It is said thai tin Grand-Puke Nicholas has only five royal princesses 1 offered for hi* selection ; and that, unfortunately, oi • these live ladies, he does not like three, ami • iiis Imperial father does not like the other two. So ' that, in point of fact, the heir-expectant of oneseventh of the earth can get no wife at all. Poor 1 Nicholas! That the autocrats of the great Russian empire should ever get into trouble about the selection of a cojsort denotes ono of the most extraordinary changes in the modern history of royalty. There was a time when the Czar and his family were allowed to pick their partners from among a whole flora of f:iir princesses, all of them so eager f~r the honor of becoming members of the Imperial family as to incur the ri*k of a speculative journey to the unknown realm of the East. It is recorded of Peter the Great —the story is pleasantly referred to by Mr. Carlyle — that, when he wanted a spouse for his sou Alexis, he circulated a round robin among the five score of reigning families in Germany, bidding them send all tlieir marriageable daughters, deducting the plant ones, to Moscow for inspection. The invitation was responded to by a crowd of fair and illustrious damsels ; and although King Frederick William of Prussia stopped a number of them on the road, deeming the new export trade illegal as well as unpatriotic, yet a good many reached the capital of the Czar, and the fairest flower from among them was picked by the drunken and dissolute heir-apparent. Subsequently, with growing civilisation, the matrimonial traffic was carried on in a somewhat more decent manner, the business being conducted mainly by advertisement. A hint "iven iv one of the Hamburg papers, then considered the organs of the Russian Government, generally brought a lot of portraits to the Imperial Court, from the inspection of which resulted further negotiations. Princess Clera, of HohenhausenOhnebrod, being held the most eligible of the matrimonial candidates, was then invited, together with some old Ohnebrod aunt, to spend a couple of weeks at the Imperial Court, where she was kept if finally approved of, or if not, returned to her loving parents at the grim castle of Hohenhausen. It was thus the Czars, and their sons and brothers got their wives for several generations, till the time of the Congress oi Vienna, when a notable change took place. The sweeping away of nearly a hundred crowned heads from tlie field of royalty had the effect, of greatly lessening the charmed circle within which the Czars were wont to move, while the simultaneous spread of Teutonic kingship into other countries increased the demand, and thereby lessened the supply of valuable princesses. It was laid down at the Vienna Congress as an important article of the royal code that " mediatised" —that is, extinguished —reigning families should not be held embiirtig, i.e., equal in birth with the remaining royal houses, and this restriction alone had the effect that for the future the rulers of Russia had to woo, instead of being wooed. Czar Nicholas, when not yet heirapparent, had to pay assiduous courtship to win the hand of the King of Prussia's daughter, and his three younger sons experienced actual diliiculty to get a bride. The young ladies of " good family," finding that they were eagerly sought after, and that, in fact, the demand was far greater than the supply, refused to go to Russia. They objected to the country as too cold; and to the rulers as being given to the ugly habit of beating their wives, royalty notwithstanding. Thus the circle narrowed more and more around the Czar's proud family, until it has now become the humiliating necessity to declare that the hoir-apparcnt of Russia cannot find a wife at all. It is the greatest victory the ladies have achieved in the nineteenth century. On the face of it, this little matrimonial difficulty has a comic aspect ; but it has also its serious political side. Royalty in Europe, at this moment, is forming a caste by itself, strictly separated from all other classes of society, aud there is a wider guif between the wealthiest and tho most powerful nobleman and the poorest princess than exists between a peeress in her own right and a crossing-sweeper. There is nothing to prevent the peeress man-Ting hear groom, or the peer his scullery maid, and leaving perfectly legitimate children ; but should the indigent prince or princess ever so far forget themselves as to make an alliance with a commoner, however noble or wealthy, their offspring, by the code of royalty, is bastardised, and held to be " morganatic." A case in point is that of the late Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, premier peer of Scotland, who married the penniless daughter of Grand Duke Charles of Baden, and had to see his alliance registered as " morganatic " in all the court guides of Germany, with his children entirely ignored and absolutely illegitimate. It is this state of things which threatens to break down under such perplexities as now beset the heirapparent of Russia. He seems really to want a wife; and one would think, if he cannot find Ins ideal inside the magic circle of ebenburtig damsels, he will look to the wider circle without. There are still ladies left in the world, it is to be surmised, who would not object to marry a tall young man in uniform, speaking five languages and thereby become one day Empress of all the Russias. True, former Emperors did beat their wives ; but it is highly probable that they havo given up this bad habit loug ago, though the fear of it seems still to linger among the illustrious fair ones of the Fatherland. This, however, may be only pretence. The real reason why German Princesses do not lend a willing ear to the wooing of a Russian heir apparent appears to lie in tho fact that, they, like other young ladies, have become fast in their notions, and prefer a vivacious lieutenant to a gloomy and solemn prince. Tliis alone can explain why so many of them have married morganatically, with all the risks and penalties appending thereto, and the ultimate risk of forcing the male constituents of their families into the same breach of princely law and etiquette. Already there are signs to the latter effect. The eldest son of the King of Italy, it is rumoured, has offered his hand to a plebeian Murat, imitating in this respect the ruler of France, who preferred the daughter of a Spanish hidalgo to a German Princess. Should the example be followed—it is unlikely as yet but not impossible by the heir apparent of Russia, there would be danger of the princely code of marriage being swept away, and European royalty becoming extinct as a caste.