QUEEN'S JEWELS AT AUCTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 91, 10 January 1908, Page 8

QUEEN'S JEWELS AT AUCTION.

Tho diadem of a dead Queen was expected to bo /put iip for sale' by auction recently. It was reported, however, that the Brussels municipality was attempting to stop the sale and securo the diadem and other jewellery for local museums. . '

Princess Louiso, oldest daughter of tho immensely wealthy King of the Belgians and divorced wife of Prince Philip of Coburg. has Tun np debts which exceed by several thousand pounds sterling tho relatively trifling annual alimony of - £2000 which sho receives from her father and her ex-husband. Tho courts have decided that she is entitled to a sharo'of tho personal estate of the lato Queen Marie Henrietta," her mother, who died in September 1902. -Tired of waiting, tho-Princess's .creditors ■distrained on sufficient of the said personal estate to pay thoir combined bills, and the sale bv auction was fixed . for October 24. The day beforo the Princess's counsel induced the courts to order a mouth's postponement of tho sale, on tho understanding that tho Princess would probably bo ablo to find sufficient money to stay,th<3 hand of her creditors. But although tho Princess has got together ovor £8000, the creditors will only be satisfied with £1600 moro than that sum. So.the sale is to take place. Tho property distrained upon includes a diadem which was• presented to the late Queen by the women of Belgium on tho occasion of her silvor wedding in 1878, when tho snmo loyal femalo subjects also gave Her 'Majesty' a valuablo lace veil. King Leopold—his reasons wero purely artistic, and liad .nothing to do with any desire on his part to help his daughter out of her difficulties—bought tho veil for himself ero it was taken to the auction-room. But, in spite of repeated overtures, ho firmly rofuscd to repurcliaso tho diadem.

It is urged, and not it must bo admitted, without a certain amount of reason, that the diadem—and tho veil as well for that matter—wero both given and received on tho tacit understanding that they were to remain tho property of the Queen of the Belgians and'her'successors'in that Toyal title, and were not presented to her in her personal capacity. In short, tho present was meant to remain as an heirloom of tho Royal Family of.Belgium. This was mado a point of, and successfully, too, . when tho Princess's counsel applied for, a. postponement of. the sale.