ENGLISH QUEEN FOR SPAIN.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1600, 6 February 1906, Page 1

ENGLISH QUEEN FOR SPAIN.

BOYAL LOVE lUlDfl.

The engagement of the King of to Princess Victoria Eugene of Battenburg, better known in England uh PriocfflH Una, ik ti luvtj ttSur, pure and simple. Question* of |>olicy have nothing to <lo with it. Alfonso XIIJ., during hi« iwnt visit to England, i* said to liuve fallen in love with Princess Ena. After that diplomacy lw iiuni' merely the uicanu by which a voung King, hedged about by countless traditioim and many barriers, Nought to achieve his heart'* desire. The Cortes will shortly be asked to sanction the w<«dding. The King'* alliance with (rival Britain will not only obtain the approval of the Corten, but will be hailed with ««thusiHHin by Conservative*, Liberals, and • very other political lection. Am i very one known, it is not any matter of policy that will stand in the way ; it iff a matter of religioo. Hpain in "richest jewel in the Pope's crown." The Queen ol Spain must b« ii Human Catholic. England it the head of the Protectant nation*, th* country where the breath of "a Spani»h match" has in timea gone by roused the fiercest passions. But have not the difficulties been over-rated t That they have Heetned insuperable to the highest religious authorities in the land we may state for a fact ; but have not the highest looked perhaps a little too high ; might they not cast their eye* a little lower to where a fioyal couple kneel with cltt«|x<l hands, saying, "We love each other" ? Ihe ltoyal family of tireat Britain must be Protestant, but if Princess Knu were to embrace the religion of her future husband because she loved him, who would say her nay t King Alfonso Xlll. of Spain is now nineteen years old, having been born at Madrid on May 1", ISS6, and the excellent impression be made in England has not yet faded awav. He in a general in th« British Army, and at the Boyal review at Aldershot on .June s rode past the saluting flag ut the head of the 10th Lancers, of which corps bo had been appointed colonel the day before. At the mate banquet, on June 6, King Edward, in proposing the health of his Koyal visitor, uukd by e xprcssing a hope that Spain and England, which hud often been allies, would always remain so, and, above all, "march together for the benefit of |>euce, progress, and the civilisation of mankind." In his reply, King Alfonso spoke of England as "a noble country, which is united to my own by such strong bonds of common interest, and to which ri-colluctions pious and ineffacr üble attach mc personally." Princess Victoria Eugene Julia, the youngest child and only daughter of IrincHs Beatrice and the late Prince Henry of Battenberg, was bom on October 21, I(SRT. She was nine years old when her father died at sea on board her Majesty's ship Blonde, from fever contracted in the Ashanti E*pe (lit ion. Her parents were married on July -■<. 11-"4I 1 -" 4 .at the parish church of Whippinirhum, in the Isle of Wight, with which tin- name of Princess Beatrice, who since If<96 ha* bom Governor and < aptarn of the island, will always be associate!.— 4 Dispatch.'