A KINGDOM FOR A PRETTY RACE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13122, 9 May 1903, Page 2

A KINGDOM FOR A PRETTY RACE.

(Pf arson’s Weekly.) One of the most extraordinary Englishwomen of modern times was undoubtedly Lady Hester Stanhope, niece of William Pitt and great aunt'to the Earl of Rosebery, who, when as yet barely thirty-tire years of age, established herself as an Oriental queen in the wilds of Lebanon. She ruled her subjects, too, justly and well on the whole, though with a certain barbaric strictness, which resulted more than once in mild international complications. . Much was, however, forgiven on.account of her charity, which was boundless; and, perhaps, also, on account of her pride, which was limitless. , - In the end, a too free indulgence in the former of these two predominant traits led to her downfall. , She got into debt to such, an extent that the British Government felt bound to intervene, and its intervention took the form of ordering the nearest Consul to pay oS some of the most pressing of her liabilities, and , charge the sums so DISBURSED TO HER ENGLISH ESTATE. Whereupon Queen Stanhope of Syria wrote sundry letters of indignant remonstrance to Queen Victoria. She died eventually at the age of sixtythrec, alone save for her native servants. The Consul, who had heard that she was ill, arrived at the “palace’’ a few hours after her. decease to find only her deserted body lying outstretched on the hare floor of her‘once sumptuously-furnished throne room,” everything save the clothing on her body having been carried off. , There is living at the present moment at Orenburg, in South-east Russia, a certain Maharanee Jar Mahommed Bao* who began life as plain Miss Alios Clifton. _ Bom in the city of Delhi during the old pre-mutiny days, her father was merely private soldier in the East India Company s army. Her mother., though uneducated, was noted for her sprightlmess,, good humour and good looks. . Alice took after her, and when barmy fourteen years old attracted the attention ' of the Maharajah Jar Mahommed Rao, ruler of a small Central Asiatic who happened to bs visiting friends IN THE OLD MOGUL CAPITAL. By him she was espoused, and, on her husband’s death some ten or,twelve years later, she became absolute and autocratic ruler of his “kingdom.” Nor did she make by any means a bad “queen,” if report is to be believed. : De Courcy, who visited her. “ capital ” in 1868, described her as dignified, shrewd and thoroughly capable. And on one occasion, at all events,’ she fought and defeated the chief of a neighbouring Khanate, showing she was not deficient in personal cour- . ago,.

She could not, however, of course, stand against the ever-encroaching power of Russia, and in 1875 she was compelled to .sur« fender “kingdom” and “ crown” info tho hands of General Tschandyr, the conqueror of, Khiva. ' By him she was treated with "every- courtesy and consideration; and later on tba Czar granted her a perpetual pension, together with the lease for life of the handsome house in Orenburg she now inhabits. Not quite so exciting, perhaps, but fully as romantic, is the life story of reigning Maharanee of Patiala. Going out from Eneland to fulfil an" engagement as governess to the late Maharajah’s children, she captivated-the heir ap-parent,-who PROPOSED MARRIAGE TO HER, AHD WAS ACCEPTED. . - In November, ISOO,, tho old Maharajah died, and her husband ascended the throne. He at one© caused his young wife to ba acclaimed queen, with all the honours and privileges rightfully and lawfully due to her exalted position. Patiala, it may be ■ mentioned, is a native Indian, state .within the Punjab. It has an area of nearly sis thousand square miles, and a population, according to the latest census, of something over a million and a half. Not at all a< had little “kingdom” for an ex-nursery governess. Nor does the case of the Maharanee, curiously enough, stand alone, for, after an almost precisely similar fashion, waa elevated to her present rank and dignity her Royal Highness the Shareefa of Wazzan, in Morocco, And this latter instance is all the mora remarkable because the inhabitants,of Wazzan are among the, most fanatical of Mohammedans, while their ruler’s little British wife steadfastly refused, even in order to buy a throne, to forego one single jot or tittle of the' ordinary duties and customs enjoined upon her by the faith of her forefathers. In the- early sixties, and even in soma instances up till the middle seventies, there existed along the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf numerous semi-independent .principalities. And one of these, at all events, was ruled over by a British. woman, ..... The lady in question had been the wife of a. British “trader” in tli-ei East India Company’s islands. “Trader” in the Gulf parlance of.thos* days usually meant a smuggler of axmi and ammunition. And this, and nothing else, her husband was. Among his customers was the Shereef o{ Taj-Mareb, a walled town and State oi about a dozen square miles in theßemHajar country. The Shereef ordered "a quan- ' lily of muskets, for which he was either unable or unwilling to pay, with lbs result that the incensed trader/ with the assistance of certain of his friends, seized ana deposed “ his Highness,” and had. himself PROCLAIMED SHEREEF EX HIS STEAD. Afterwards he ventured, with a quantity of rifles, on a trading expedition into the interior, only to meet his death at tho hands of the wild Shomer Bedouins. But his widow continued his rule and business, despatching consignments .of arms and powder so far even as Leynah on the north, and Ez Zelfeh on the south. Eventually, however, her doings attracted tho attention of some pro-consul or other, and a gunboat anchored off her capital, and gave her forty-eight hours to quid She had no resource, of course, but to obey, and, coming to England, started with her savings one of the biggest steam laundries in the West End of London. _ ■Finally, mention ought to be made of the notorious Leontine Cassillis, who, although French by name and adoption, was British by birth and up-bringing. Indeed, it “ was - not until she was nearly seventeen- years of age that she left her home in Wapping to embark upon the extraordinary and adven, turous career that was to lead, her eventually to • A THRONE AND AN IGNOMINIOUS DEATH,. Her husband, Jacques Cassiliis, - waa _ a typical adventurer, who, after assisting ■ Melgarejo to become Dictator of Bolivia, retired in disgust at his patron’s ingratitude into the then well-nigh unknown country lying between the headquarters of the Bio Madeira and the Alto Tapajos. He took with him Leontine, whose former protector, General, BelZu had been treacherously slain by Melgarejo at La Pas, and the two together started to found h* the wilderness a principality which should in time, so they fondly hoped, be strong enough to make war successfully against, their common enemy. . - And, mad as their project sounds, they came within an ace of succeeding. Following the time-honoured precedent, first set by Pizarro, in dealing with the natives, they used to their own ends the mutual jealousies of the various tribes, pitting one tribe against the other. In the end, Jacques forced, all parties, war-worn and weary of strife, to accept him as their king, and his wife Leontine as their queen. I For three brief years, he and she ruled jointly and absolutely. Then came the inevitable revolt, instigated and supported, so it was afterwards averred, by Melgarejo’s agents; and Jacques and Leontine, stripped of their authority and their finery, were hacked to pieces withmachetes, and their remains thrown to the coyotes.