MOTHER-IN-LAW OF HALF EUROPE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1840, 28 January 1888, Page 2

MOTHER-IN-LAW OF HALF EUROPE.

The Politiken, of Copenhagen, in an article on tbe seventieth birthday of Queen Louisa of Denmark, describes her as the " mother-in-law of half Europe." History will hereafter say tbat our generation has seen no other such penect type of the proverbial " managing mamma." She has concentrated all her remarkable gifts of fascination and diplomacy upon securing tbe highest possible positions in the world for her children, and her success has been brilliant. Sue began when she was a princess, sending her son to Greece to ascend the 'throne of the Hellenic kingdom, and from tbat time to her old age she bas oeen constantly occupied in procuring lands and kingdoms for her children. In the person of the Danish Queen the two great rivals, Bussia and England, may be said to be united, and if her good-will could only prevail in politics the greatest of all possible disasters — a war between the two Asiatic powers of Europe — would be an impossibility. To be at once mother-in-law of the Bussian Czar and of the future King of England is certainly a marvellous position, and one of which Queen Louisa could scarcely have

dreamed when she was the wife ot a poor princely officer in the littlo Danish army. She has been the educator of her own daughters. But she is not merely the mother-in-law of half Europe, as the Danish paper says ; considering the relations of her sons-in-law to northern and southern Ash she may* fairly claim half that ancient continent as part of her family. It is only justice to this royal lady to say that all Europe owes her a debt which it will hereafter acknowledge, for Queen Louisa has been one of the most successful peace makers of our generation. She has steadily set herself to maintain a maternal influence over her august son-in-law, and has made her humble palaces ot Bernstorff and Castle Fredensborg into a sort of family home and holiday meeting place for the Emperor ot Eussia, the future King of England, and the King of Greece. The most brilliant regal society meets year after year in friendly and brotherly intercourse in these unpretending Danish homes, and the ruling will amongst these powerful magnates at their autumn gatherings is always that of the " Good Queen Louisa."