QUARREL WITH THE EMPEROR WILLIAM.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11122, 14 January 1899, Page 6

QUARREL WITH THE EMPEROR WILLIAM.

STRONG LANGUAGE TO A GERMAN PKiNCE. A Vienna newspaper has (says the Berlin correspondent of the Ljndon Daily Telegraph, writing on November Id) just published a copy of a memorandum sent to the Germau Federal Council by Count Ernst zur Lippe, Regent of Lippe-Detmold, setting forth the details of a complaint made by tbe Regent against Zaiser Wilhelro. The memorandum uho contains verbal im tbe text of the Cmnl'd letier, addressed to the Kaiser last June, and his Majesty's telegram oent aa a reply to thia letter two days lotcr. Persons living in other countries than Gormany would probably be disposed to clinruntoriso tho dispute between ilia two fcdcial princes »v a trifling quereile d'Allemiwid— » wrsnglo of worun calcula'ca to stir up nc thing more than a storm in a teacup, and certainly not one that could upset the eqnauiiuity of the Goimau Empire. Tliore ia, however, somo p.io B il)ility ot its becoming a cause celobre. 'JLho priccip«lit_9 of Lipp", which is now iv conflict with Kaiser Wilbolm, King of Prussia is a speck on tba rasp o! Germany, representing 121."J square kilocaolrc, «»cl ("jn'aiuikj: n population of about 110,000 souid. Its capital 113

Datmold. Tho little country has to be governed for the nonce by a Regent, it* legitimate Prince boine id capable of exercising his sovereign tights and duties. Another branch of the Lippe family is distinguished from the X>3tmold Lppers by being styled SohauaibDrjj-Lipppj and its residence tjwn in Buokebarp. Tbi3 principality la about one-quarter the size of LippeDattuold, and its population is also about a quarter of tbat of tho latter province. When Prince Adolph zu Sohaumburg-Lippe married the Kaiser's siater, Prinoess Victoria, it was generally supposed that he would eventually come in for Lippe-Datmold. As o matter of fact he was appointed Regent, and remained iv that position for some s oar B. Uount Ernat zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, the head of another line, claimed, however, c, prior right ; and the King of Saxony, to whom the matter was referred for arbitration, decided in the latter 'i favor. Prince and Prinoess Adolph had accordingly to make way for Oount and Countess KeasK This incident caused bad blood in Berlin and Buckeburß, and it is to secret that Kaiser Wilhelm was very annoyed that his brother.in law did not win his case. The Schaumburg Lippers then insisted that even though Count Ernst was entitled by law, in bis own person, to tbe Eegency, his issue would be excluded, teeing that be had married a Countess von Wartensleben, who was not of equal rank to himself. The Detmold Lippers have thereupon, in order to cut the ground from the other side, deotded the matter for themselves by passing a law in their provincial Parliament declaring that tbe issue of Oount Ernst shall succeed to the throne. Tbe Schaumburg Uppers determined to appeal to the Federal Council of the Empire to quash this decision, and lawyers would have had to give an opinion an to whether the Federal Council was qualified to p»BS judgment on the question. Meanwhile a question of etiqaette arose. Count Ernst gave orders that the troops quartered in the principality were to present arms to his children! as well as to himself, and that these ohlldren were to be addressed by the title of 'Brlaucht' — whioh he himself bears — instead of merely Count or Countess. His orders were at first obeyed, but later on the General commanding tbe 7th Army Corps issned a counter-order, prohibiting hie offlcors and men from aooordins; military honors to any of the Eegeni's children. Count Ernst not unnaturally saw in the General's aotion a slight to bis own person, as sovereign of the principality, and he appealed to the Kiiser in a long letter. His letter was coached in almost cringing language. It reads more like tbe humble petition of a subject to hia Sovereign than si the missive of a prince to another prince. It began in the high-flown Teutonic style—* Most illustrious of all, ifliser and King i Most gracious of all, Kafcer and Lord ! I pray that your Majesty may most graciously be pleased to give me a most gracious hearing in the following matter, and afford me your Majasty'd mighty protection and assistance., He then tells Kaiser Wilhelm all about tbe etiquette dispute, and says that if any wish had been expre<sed to him personally that his instructions should be modified he would have fore gone tbe presentation of arms to members of his family ; that k was not ia consequence of the refusal to accord these military honors tbat he appealed to the Kaiser, but because the General of the 7th At my Corps bad by his action trespassed upon his fights as sovereign of the country, and as one of the princes supplying a contingent to the Imperial Army, whereby the Prinoipality of Lippe had been subjected to a treatment different from that accorded to the other Federal States of the Empire. The Kaiser's reply, despatched two days afterwards, was en open telegram, delivered to the Count from the Detmold Post-office, running as fallows : ' Berlin Castle, Juno 17, 1898- — Received your letter. Orders of the general in command issued with my consent after I was previously consulted. To the Regent, what is due to the Eegent— nothing more. For the rest, I forbid once for all, the use oE the tone in which j you have thought fit to write to me. — W. S. Oount Ernst, in appealing to the Federal Council, Bays that the language of tbe Imperial telegram prevents him from corresponding further on the subjeot with tbe Kaiser. He says he has done all he could einoe be assumed the Begenoy of Lippe to win the favor of the Kaiser, whereas he has repeatedly had bitter experience of the Imperial ill-favor. 'la my quality as Regeat, by the Grace of Uod. and called so by law over a Federal State of Germany, I am in duty bound to protest humbly, but decidedly, againßt the form and contents of the message sent to me by his Majesty tbe Kaiser in his telegram of June 17 of this year.' Of course, tbe publications of tbesa documents has been deliberately permitted. It has been intended that tbe public of Germany shoold be informed of what has taken place. HOVTA PLAGUE WAS FOUGHT. Dr. Gordon Sharp, of Leeds, has sent to the 'British Medioal Journal' the following Interesting aooount of the manner in which a Dirbysbire olergymsu fought the plague in the seventeenth century. The village of By am (pronounced Earn), sometimes otlled the 'Plague Village,' is situated in Derbyshire, six miles north of Bakewell, and 12 from both Sheffield and Boston. In 1665-j 666 it was visited by the plague, wh'cb. swept away 259 of its 350 inhabitants. The disease appears to have been bought to the village by fomiles. A tailor received from London on September 2 or 3, 1665. a parcel of cloth patterns, together with some old clotbes. The man. who opened the , parcel was soon seized with sickness and died on the third day, with the wellkLown symptoms of bubonic plague. Up to tbe end of 1665 44 inhabitants of the village died of the disease, and during tbe first five months of 1666 tbere wero 30 more deaths from the same cause. In Juno the epidemic began to rage more severely. The "Vicar of Eyain, William Mompessen, bravely stock to his post, visiting the sick and burying tbe dead. When the plague became worse hie wife besought him to leave tbe place, bat he refused to do so. Moreover, he induced a number of the villagers who wished to leave to follow his eximple by pointing out to them that they would carry the disease with them, and be a danger wherever tbey went. At the time he wrote to the Earl of Devonshire, stating that the people would stay in Eyaru if they were supplied with the necessaries of life Arrangements were made accordingly that supplies should be left at regular intervals at a certain spot, a signal being given when they wero placed there. The vicar, perceiving tbe danger of people collecting In church in warm weather, condncted tbe services outside, and preached from a limoßtone platform, which has ever since been known bb Cucklett Chnrch. Tbe disease cantinned to rage through July and August, and in the latter month the Vicar's devoted wife fell & victim to the scourge. Mompoaeen had tried all tho cordials and ontidoteH recommended for the plague, but with no avail. He therefore told tho pcoplo to bum all clothing, furniture, and everything; olae that might harbour the disease, and he Bet them tho example by destroying his own effects. In October the disease began to subside, rrm last victim dying on October 11, 1666. The survivors, however, wero in aach terror that tbey continued for Bomo time 10 burn their things, leaving themselves scarcely enough to shelter them from iho wintor. Though but 91 of tho inhabitants of Evum escaped with thoir lives, tbe vicar's manful fight against tho plague was successful, as be prevented it from spreading beyond tho village.