DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE.

Colonist, Volume XXXV, Issue 7227, 25 January 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE.

It is with deep sorrow that the sad news will be received throughout the British Empire of the death of Frinoa Albert Victor, Dake of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and who waß consequently the second in saooession to the throne. From the cable messages which we received during the night, and whioh will be found hereafter, sufficient information will be gathered a3 to the dire sickness which led to the young Prince being stricken down while in the vigor of early man-hood-he attained his twenty-eighth year on the eighth of the present month. From the advancing years of her Most -Gracious Majesty, and the age of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, whose fiftieth birthday was celebrated a few short months ago, the Duke was almost looked upon as the heir, and it was on this account that the recent declaration of his betrothal was received with such widespread gratification. It is true that he had been lacking somewhat in robustness of health, but it was hoped that any constitutional weakness had been overcome. When therefore, he announced that he had wooed and won the Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, daughter of Princess Mary of Cambridge, it was with satisfaction it became known that his bride eieot was afßritish Princess. The marriage was to have taken place during the English spring, and everything wa3 bright and hopeful, when the Duke experienced a chill, and a sickness supervened that has from the first been looked upon as critical. At this distance from the Mother Country it may be somewhat difficult to enter into all the feelings experienced by those more immediately affected by the blow 'vhich has fallen, but the ties of race kindred and humanity are such that at the Antipodes the throb of sorrow will be scarcely lea violent than where first the pulsation of .grief was experienced. It is at all times rno'.st sorrowful to hear of young live 3 being cut off before their prime, and in the present case, apart from the high rank of the one removed, his death has at least caused, a double blank. To his mother the los Si.will indeed be great, and the utmost syi&patfry" will be felt for the Princess of Wales, who enjoys the universal affection of the people, while with the young Princess, who was already being hailed as a bride, everyone will commiserate.