THE PRINCE OF WALES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 24

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

The announcement that the Dube of Cornwall and York will be created Prince of Wales only after his visit to Australia presents several points of interest (says an exchange). This consideration for the discharge of public and Imperial duties before the title is bestowed hardly consorts with the history of the creation of Princes of Wales. For instance, it could hardly be said that our King had discharged any great duty when —nearly sixty years ago now—he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. He was then a month old, and at that age heirs to crowns are no more efficient than other babies. Yet it was then that Queen Victoria issued a patent creating “our most dear son” Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. “As has been accustomed,” runs the patent, “av© do ennoble and invest him with the said principality and earldom, by girting him Avith a sword, by putting a coronet on his head and a gold ring on his finger, and also by delivering a gold rod into his hand that he may preside there and may direct and defend those parts.” It is commonly but erroneously supposed that the eldest son of the British Sovereign is, ip3o facto, Prince of Wales. Again, some who do not fall into this error are persuaded that the title belongs as of right to the Sovereign’s eldest son born when his father or mother, as the case may be, is actually reigning. The latter contention is disproved by the case of the latest creation of the Prmee of Wales just cited. Albert EdAvard was born Duke of Cornv'all and a number of other titles, but he did not become Prince of Wales until he waes created e® by Royal letters patent. And the former contention is shown to be unfounded by the -position of the prince AA r hom we knew a month ago as “Duke of York.” He is noAv tho eldest, indeed the only surviving, son of the reigning Sovereign, and he is heirapparent to the throne. For all that, he is not Prince of Wales, and it entirely depends upon the King’s mood whether he will ever become Prince of Wales. Just sub the Bang can postpone the creation for months, so he can postpone it for years, if he wishes. He is the Fountain of Honour, and there is

no power to compel him to confer honour. Hereditary titles it is not in his power to curtail or postpone. Hence, even if the King had so desired it, he could not have prevented the Duke of York beooming Duke of Cornwall. The duchy by law belongs to the oldest son of the Sovereign, and, indeed, from it he derives a large part of his income. Both titles—-Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall —go back for hundreds of years. We are all familiar with the story of how Edward I. appealed to tho sympathies of conquered Welshmen by •presenting them with a prince born in Wales, and it is now’ exactly six hundred years since the first Prince of Wales was created. But it was Edward 111. who first conferred dignity on both titles when he created the Black Prince first Duke of Cornwall, and a few years later Prince of Wales.