QUEEN WILHELMINA AND HER CONSORT.

Dunstan Times, 28 December 1900, Page 3

QUEEN WILHELMINA AND HER CONSORT.

The wedding of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland and Duke Henry of MecklenburgSchwerin, which has been fixed for the 17th of January, continues to form the subject of European -gossip. The Queen, says a special correspondent of the ' Daily News,' wishes to he married in the new church of Amsterdam, where she was invested with her constitutional sovereignty. But an article of the Civil Code must be changed to enable her to do so. That article provides that one member of every couple desiring to Be married must reside for some months previously in the parish where the marriage is to take place. This prevents a Royal wedding at Amsterdam, where she has never resided. A wedding at the new church would enable herjo invite a far greater number of her subjects than if the, marriage took place at The Hague or Loo. Amsterdam is also more associated with the elder branch of the House of Orange, which was remarkable for the great personalities of its members. That, btanch began with William the Silent, and ended with William of immortal memory. A Dutch advocate states that the future Price Consort will not have the slightest scope for political influence, nor any excuse for using it. The Prince Consort may share the Queen's popularity by being just the good husband of his wife, an exemplary head of society, and, above everything else, a patriot. The Parliament, the Cabinet, the Council of State (in which the Regency was vested), for all purposes of government, exercise legislative and executive power. They are the root, stem, and branch. The Queen is the flower. Her husband has no place in the Constitution, and would be ill-advised indeed to try to create one. In some respects he resembles the Comte de Pans His face, for instance, reddens easily, and his manner is shy. Feeling himself the observed of all observers imtde him uncomfortable. But he was quite at home when driving. The Queen in her phaeton and four looked° pleased and proud at finding herself beside him. He bears a high character 111 the German Army, and was an officer in the Guards at Potsdam. Prince Henry is not as German as the Berlin Press would make believe. A proud boast of his house is that they are Wends that is to say, Slavs. Nothing annoyed the late Comte de Paris more than to read in the papers that he was the son of a German Princess. He claimed that she was a Wend. As a child she was called by her erudite tutor " The Queen of the Wends." The Grand Dukes of MecklenburgSchwerin have also been from time immemorial Princes of the Wends. The high sense of dignity shown by their daughters in not changing their religion as they might a garment is surely no German characteristic.