THE LATE PRINCESS ALICE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5611, 18 February 1879, Page 6

THE LATE PRINCESS ALICE.

The following article is from the Timer “ The whole nation feels genuine sorrow for the death of the Princess Alice, the name by which the Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt will ever be best known to the English people. For some days before her end the worst fears had been spread by the bulletins from the Ducal Court. Before., her illness it was known she had been weakened by the devotion with which She had watched beside her husband and five of her children, who had all been stricken down by the mysterious and terrible disease which in recent years has extinguished the light of so many English homes. She was mourning for the of one of those children, the Princess Maty, who died only a month ago. All the o»her sufferers were on the way to health, when it was announced that the bereaved mother herself had been attacked by the malady from which they were recovering. Her watching over them had sown in her the seeds of a dangerous form of diphtheria. The sending of the Queen’s own physician to Darmstadt and the gloom of his messages were a preparation for the worst } and the general sorrow drew little sharpness from surprise when it was announced that on Deo. 14 the Princess had passed • away. The solemnity of the event found a deeper shadow in the day on which it happened; Deo, 14 must ever bring back the saddest of memories to the Royal Ihmfly, On that day, ago, the Prince Oonabrt died, after he had been nursed by the'Princess Alice with a tenderness which touched the deepest emotions of every English family. He had been devotedly attached to hexTand the strength and simplicity of her affection had made her the best of nurses in the hour of death as she hid been the been the beat of daughters in the brighter honn of life. It was understood that she had been the «hfaf comfort of her mother, the Queen, when that terrible calamity bast a life-long shadow bn a home which yielded to none in the fervour of affection and the virtues of domesticity. Ten years later the illness of the Prince of 'Woles threatened the Royal Family with another great sorrow, and the nation with a calamity which would have recalled thedeith of the Princess Charlotte. Again did the Princess Alice take her place by the side of the sufferer nuraing him with the same oare as she had bestowed on her 'father. Again did Deo. 14 come round, and with it came a ounous feeling of apprehension that the day would be signalised by another affliction. Rot it brought life, not death, it has'rome round once more, and , this time • it has taken away the illustrious lady who was the chief seW* of her English home in the £ke ß t ho^of

its sorrow, and whoso latest wewpawed in the relief of nflij? °fh heat, i t , “ The Princess has died a * warmth of her aifeclions and v° tlm to n, duty. Sad as it is that sho shoulf V ens e o e f I put off m the very flower of lif P ,S> bel Family will draw a consolation *oS that it was her very virtues whink* t!l « Q strength unto the feebleness of dL»l a ‘ te4 b«r memory will help, also, to l£ •f enduring place in the English people. We are an emfif £ loving race. The popularity 7 W springs from her store of SomesS K even more than from the union T «tu e , qualiUes which make her the modi stitutional Sovereign. ihe p.; 9lof &Con won the same kind of favour beca 9 , inherited the homely devotion whi/cement of life, and beside which !l u «ie showy rifts seem but as dust and all of existence. Th o y ls the wit? ft Princess whj nrtue as a daughter, a sister a wif famil ? mother. It is possible even for a of feeling to shut itself up within ths^!® lll d home j but the Princess Alice had narrowness of view. Her abun(W 0 (llc b thies" sought for objects of help i n unknown waste of human distress o? Peat that rich store of pity which, even „ 9 duty, is the root of philanthrmS* The war between Germany and p" 1, naturally, therefore, cast her * mcce social influence and the example personal aid into the service of t u° f trains of wounded who came back f. loc ? most terrible battle-fields of our testify to the price at which the nan 6 buying its unity. The German peonl? not forget the quiet devotion with il? attended to the wants of their stricken ! “ 9 trymen._ She was equally anxious to JT POOB and the suffering in her adopted m 7: But she has as much good sense as 2 J“ (e ; she knew that to give indiacrimicawr, u merely be to multiply and perpS? molt hopeless forms of pauperism n • her visits to London, therefore, she Studied the working of the oJaritr tion Committee. She also went to mfS! 9 ' of the poor people, after she had (JSf arranged that her rank should he cS& Only whensbe had left England dK 1 leam that the lady who gone am p 7 them and sympathetically asked themaW their necessities and ways of lif e “r | daughter of the Queen. : Nothing leaw. f ddtip amarkatfywrsonal sympathy. H e 9 ? .personal sympathy so vividly rememb-ted, -when what seem £ be the frosty solitudes of social rank. The Princess, therefore, was all that the Prime -Minister said of her. She was indeed’ one of the most noble-minded and gifted of Women.’ She was ‘ endeared to the people of this country by her rich intelligence and her life of perfect domestic bliss and duty.’ “No words can bring any consolation to the home which has been made desolate But in after years the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt and his children may remember the tribute which is now paid to the wife and mother by the people among whom she passed her early years. His grief and theirs excite the deepest sympathy. But the first thoughts Of Englishmen may naturally turn to the Queen. She had hitherto only one great bereavement, although that was the mightiest within the compass of sorrow. In other ways her household had been comparatively free from calamity. Her children had grown to manhood and womanhood; and there had been few losses even among her many grandchildren. All the sharper, however, must now be the sorrow for the death of a beloved daughter, and the blow is made heavier by the sad memories of the day on which it has come. One anniversary will henceforth be consecrated to Her Majesty by the double calamity with which it is charged. The nation is peculiarly able to sympathise with her grief at the present time, for there is distress in many households, and the area of want has been terribly widened by the premature rigours of winter. Death has been very busy or late among rich and poor. War has already cast sorrow over some English homes, and anxiety through many more. Sorrow begets sympathy with sorrow, and all Her Majesty’s subjects join in the grief which has been cast over her household by the death of a daughter*who had been the light of it in happier days.”