DYING HEIRS TO THRONES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10037, 25 January 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

DYING HEIRS TO THRONES.

REMARKABLE STATE OP AFFAIRS. Europe's heir? -t,b soepi to be in a very bad way. In at least three of tho great Powers the men who stand_ next by right of succession to tho throne itself are enfeebled from disease, and one is on the brink of the grave. }n soyeral othor nations tho princes next in line to the crown are sickly, and it is only by a careful suppression of the real tpith that distressing rumours are not circulated about them. It is truly a remarkable state of affairs. In Russia, George, Grand Duke and Czarevitch, is ijpw dying in ft villa in ft remote corner of the Caucasus of consumption, breathing painfully with but a single lung. In Austria tho Archduke Ferdinand Francis, heir-presumptive, is in a most precarious state of health, |iq too being a victim of consumption, For years past, over since tho death of Rudolph, Crown Prince, in 1889, the hope of Austria has centred in this young nephew of Emperor Francis Joseph. His father is the heirapparent, it is true, bub Archduko Charles Louis, next in line to the throne, is now an old man, having boon born in 1833, older and with far less liopo of Jiving, so feeble is ho, than is the Etnperor hjmsolf, In Italy the young Prince of Naples, a slight, delicato boy, yet in the early twenties, has so delivered himself over to the obsequious flattery and tl\o cajolonionts of tho foreigners in Naples and Rome that ho has weakened his frame by dissipation, and bids fair to have a very short lease of life, indeed. His condition is oven more serious than is hinted at in the Italian news of the

day. If the remaining royal families are carefully investigated, a strange fact may be noted—that therp is, with one oxception, no heir to a throne in Europe who is strong and lusty, and gives promise of a vigorous reign after the present ruler passes away, The possible exception is l'rinco Royal Gustavus of Sweden, a yOung man of thirty-aoven years of ago, who has developed no vices and acquired no maladies. This Prince is an energetic, athletic young man, has literary tastes, and will in all likelihood enjoy a long life. For years the King of tho Hellenes, George 1., has been ti)ri victim of a disease of the kidneys, a hereditary complaint, and lie has unsuccessfully visited Aix lea Bains for treatment. There is little question that Prince Constantino, Ills eldest son, is in the incipient stages of this disease, though there is nothing very market! or serious as yet. The little Crown Prince William of Germany, despite tho military regime his enthusiastic father, William 11., has made him undergo, is wonderfully delicate. Though the oldest) of that big family of boys that makes up the first household of Germany, this thirteen-year-old has not nearly the vital force, the dash and the audacity that his brother next jn ago, Eitol. possesses. Ho is a splendid spocimen of young Germany, tall, vigorous, and strong of arm and leg, while young William is almost weak and puny bolide him, thin and narrow-chested and easily tired. So far as Great Britain is concerned, the Duke of York has never entirely recovered from tho attack of typhoid fever lie had some years ago, though ho has always been in belter physical pondltiou that his brother, the Duke of Clarence, ever was. Nor is the new baby, Queen Victoria's great-grandson, as healthful a child us could wo wished. At Nice a villa has been prepared for the young Czarevitch, but he will probably not be able to undertake tho journey. Ho is at his country place at Abbas Tollman, in the Southern Caucasus. The Czarevitch had a terrible fall from tho maintop of a ship to the deck during the trip around the world of the three Princes (himself, the present Czar, and Prince Georgo of Greece) in tho summer of 1891. This fall seriously injured tleorgo's spine, and lie had to discontinue his trip and return home. Then consumption, a malady now hereditary in tho family of tho Romanoffs, set in. In pain he sojourned in Athens and Algiers. Finally he settled down In the Caucasus, where he lias lived since the olose of 1892. There was a pretty telegraph girl of Tifluc, Mile. Isch, whom Geori/e ardently desired to marry, and probably did morganatically. It was only upon the stem command of his father, the Czar, that ho finally gave her up. After the late Czar's death his condition grew rapidly woise. i Late this spring ho ox pressed a strong desire to see once more the Palace of l'eterhof, where ho had been brought up, The change of climate proved serious for him, especially as the reterhof Palace at that timo had fallen into an unsanitary condition. He then was taken to Denmark to visit his grandfather, King Christian. Tho climate of Denmark proved quite as dangerous for him as tho cold of Northern Russia, and matoiially hastened his coming death. That consump tion should have seized Francis Ferdinand, who, since the death of Rudolph, has been the idol of the Austrian people, is remarkable, for his life has been a vigorous one. For years ho has been an untiring officer in the Austrian Army, and noted for his skill and endurance. He spends the days sitting silently in a tent pitched in a little garden on the Bay of Cigala. It seems to be general debility that is gradually sapping away the life of young Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples. Of late lie has been cruising about the Levant in hopes of getting strength. Though very young -ho was born in 18G9—this Prince had made himself a distinguished person in Italy. His greatest popularity has been not among his own people, but in the foreign colonies of Naples and Rome, where lie has out a wide swath among the pleasure-loving higher class of those merry Italian cities.