The Press Monday, December 13, 1920. The Prince's Marriage.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17016, 13 December 1920, Page 6

The Press Monday, December 13, 1920. The Prince's Marriage.

Tho fierce light' that boats upon a throne, much more searching to-day Ohiin -when Tennyson wrote of it, spaTes neither the monarch nor any member of his family. All live in the glare of publicity; privacy for the Royal Family may he said hardly to exist. Therefore, there is little surprising in the fact that tflie possibility and desirability of the Prince of Wales marrying this or that young lady is- the subject ot gossip throughout the United Kingdom and of editorial articles in London .papers. So far as the Prince is concerned, the interest taken by the public in'his private affairs is one of the penalties of an almost embarrassing popularity. He is the idol of the warmhearted British public, which, being also of a somewhat sentimental turn of mind, is profoundly interested in the* Prince's mating, and deeply anxious, in its heart, that he shall mako a marriage of inclination and not of policy, tflie circumstance that so far nothing is definitely known of the Prince's inclinations merely adding to the common interest felt in discussing his possible choice. The King, some time ago, as no aro reminded by a correspondent of "The Times," publicly removed, so for as ho could, the embargo on freedom of marriage- which Tested on his sons, but this grant of independence can only have referred to the right of veto that ho possessed over the marriage of any of his family under the ago of 25. There still remains the barrier of the lloyal Marriage Act, passed in the reign of Goorgo 111., who was bitterly opposed to Hho marriage of his brothers to ladies who were not of Royal birth. The chief operative clause of that Act runs a3 follows:- — - * "No descendant of his lato Majesty Goorge 11. (other than the issue of Princesscs married or who may maTTy into foreign families) shall bo capable cf contracting matrimony without the previous consent of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, signified under the Great Seal. But in case any descendant of Georgo 11., being above twenty-five years old, shall persist to contract a marriage disapproved of by his Majesty, such descendant, after giving twelve m'onths' notico to tho Privy Council, may contract such marriage, and the same may bo duly solemnised without tho consent of his Majesty, etc., and shall be good, except both Houses of Parliament slinll declare their disapprobation thereto." . Any marriage contracted in defiance of this Act is null, and those who celebrate or assist at it are liable to the «eualties attaching to praemunire, "an " offence of tho nature of a contempt "against the Sovereign and his govem"ment." AVhatcvcr good purpose may hare been served l>y this restrictive Act in the past, js no doubt that in iheso democratic times, when democracy is perfectly willing that a Princo shall, within certain limits due to the position ho may occupy iii the future, marry whom he pleases, it is an anachronism. "When, however, a member of tho House of Commons asked a few weeks ago whether the Government would introduce legislation repealing tho harsh terms of tho Royal Marriage Act,, tho reply was made that the Government did not propose to adopt the suggestion. Such an answer was only excusable on the ground that tho Government believed, with good roason, that) in the case of one so well trusted as tho Princo of Wales, there was no danger of the Legislature oxer cising the power of veto, conferred upoi it by €h© Royal Marriage Act, on anj alliance that ho proposed to make. As we have said, the Prince has no yet given any definite indication of thi i direction in which he may go a-wooing 1 Thcro is no necessity for believing th I utory appearing in some America!

papers that the King and Queen hare refused their consent to his marriage ■with the daughter of a Ihike whose family has been for years on terms of the closest intimacy with the Royal family. The Princo is beyond the ago when that consent might be necessary. As for the statement cabled from London last month, that rumour lately had been busy with tho names of the Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret of Denmark, an attractive girl of 25, now visiting the King and Queen, it may bo noted that the fact that tho Princess is a Roman Catholic j is, under t'le Act of Succession of Queen ] Anne, a bar to her marriage with the J Prince. A year or two ago, in n speech j in London, General Smuts remarked j that he would not bo surprised to see j the time come "when our Royal j "Princes, instead of getting their con-j " sorts from among the princelings of I "Central Europe, will go for them to. " tho Dominions, and other portions of j '•'the British Empire." That may yet j happen. Meanwhile, the average young ; man has good reason to be grateful that in his choico of a wife he has only to abide the criticism of his and her ; own relatives, and not that of an admiring Empire.