WE PRINCE OF WALES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4288, 22 February 1901, Page 7

WE P RINCE OF WALES.

Tho announcement that the Duke of Cornwall and York will bo 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 groat duty when—nearly sixty years ago now—he was created Prince of Wales and Pari of Chester. , Plo was then a month old. and at-that ago heirs to crowns are no more efficient than other babies! Yet it was then that Queen Victoria issued a patent creating “our' most dear eon” Prince of Wales and Earl, of Chester. ‘‘As haa been accustomed,” runs the patent, ‘‘we do ennoble and invest him with the .said principality and earldom, by girting him with a sword, by putting a coronet on his head and a. gold ring on ids 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 sou of the British Sovereign is, ipso facto, Prince of Wales. Again, some who do not fa'l 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 Prince of Wales just cited. Albert Edward was borii Duke of Cornwall and a number of other titles, but he did not become,Prince of Wales until ha was created so by Royal letters patent. And the former contention is shown to be unfounded by the position of the prince whom we knew a mouth ago as “Duke of York.” He is now the oldest, indeed the only surviving, sen of the reigning Sovereign, and he is hairapparent to the throne. For all that, ho is not Prince of Wales, and it ontii ely depends upon the King’s mood whether he will over become Prince of Wales. Just as the King can postpone the creation for months, so he can postpone it for years, if ho wishes. Tie 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 becoming 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 Ins 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 the sympathies of conquered Welshmen by presenting them with a prince born in Wales, and it is now exactly 1 six hundred years since the; first Prince of Wales was created. But it was Edward ITT, 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.