THE ROYAL FAMILY—THE ARMY AND NAVY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 345, 12 March 1859, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE ROYAL FAMILY— THE ARMY AND NAVY.

[From the Times, November 12.] 1 It was not without reason that the Secretary for War and the First Lord of the Admiralty took occasion, at the Guildhall Banquet, to congratulate the professions which they respectively repiesented, on the accession of a Royal Prince to the rolls of each. Every fraternity or calling prides itielf in • sensibly on the distinction of its members, and it is a source too of involuntary satisfaction when the highest in rank; and station confess the bonds of common duty by accepting the services to which others are compelled. Royalty, moreovei, must needs have its occupations. We are told, indeed, that in Japan, besides one reigning Sovereign who never quits the precincts of his palace, theiris another who retains a still more passive and secluded existence in a remote retreat, and the catastrophes in Bengal brought us into contact with a brood of Princes who had vegetated for years in indolence and sensuality unredeemed. But this is not the universal rule, even in the East. The most powerful, and for a long period the most formidable of Oriental Monarchs — the Ottoman Sultans, were reared on principles so opposite that every Piincein his boyhood was apprenticed to some trade of handicraft, and when a new Commander of the Faithful ascended the tin one of his ancestors he could point to his particular guild as a new Lord Mayor can to his City Company. In truth, the example of ' Rois Faineants' was never a promising one either in Europe or Asia, and idle or isolated Sovereigns, whether Merovingian Cinqs or Saracen Caliphs, were apt to lose even the shadow of Royalty after neglecting its substance. The best Kings arc the busiest, and of England we may thankfully say that from William I, who caught his death in the saddle, to William IV, who passed many a year on shipboard, we have rarely been troubled with idle or apathetic Manarchs. The sons of Victoria are treading exactly in the footsteps of the sons of George 111. The Prince of Wales commanded a regiment ot Hussars, the Duke of York took the chief administration of the Army, and the Duke of Clarence became Lord High Admiral after actual service at sea. Her Majesty's own father was not only a soldier, but, as a General, commanded on foreign stations, and in an earliei generation a Duke of Cumbeiland was considered, with some reason, to be a meritorious General, though he was often an unsuccessful one. The reader will not be likely in any consideration of this subject to forget the remarkable celebrity acquired in a neighbouring State by the Prince de Joinville; indeed, King Louis Philippe engrafted his children not only upon tho two services, but their various arms, and selected the Cavalry for one son and the Artillery for another.

It is not strange that the profession adopted for British Princes should be exclusively that of arms. Of the other callings appropriated to gentle blood, the only one which could becomingly followed is that of the Church, and even here it has not been customaiy in modern, nor was it indeed in ancient times, for any Royal Prince to intercept the endowments of the Priesthood. A curious step in this direction was once contemplated, Had Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII, survived to reign, Prince Henry, afterwards our Hairy the Eighth, was to have been Archbishop of Canterbuiy, and persons prone to such speculations may indulge in reflection on this, one of the greatest of those occurrences amusingly described as " events which never happened." Apart, however, from considerations of this kind, it is plain that the profession of aims, long the peculiar avocation of the nobility, and once confined to that class, would present the most natural occupation for Princes of the Blood. The idea that the defence of the country should be undeitaken by the Princes of the country is so obvious as to need no comment, and in the very last war, indeed, on that sanguinary day when two sons of the Czar's family headed the battalions of Russia, a Royal Duke stood shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of England.

But the gratification of the people of England at these announcements will bo generally based on broader grounds than any to which we have referred. The Army will be pleased to find a Prince of Wales among its Colonels, and the Navy to learn that another Prince is serving afloat: but what the public at large will note with satisfaction is, that the children of the Royal Family are not to pass their days in listlessness or sloth, but to be chaiged with their share in the affairs of the country and the doings of the world. Among Englishmen there is always a prejudice against a man's " doing nothing," insomuch that the heirs of the largest estates and the possessors of the richest propel tics usually assume at least a nominal and often a real profession. "There goes ten thousand a year," was the lemark overheard in the Peninsula, as a young Ensign in one of the Duke's rapid marches appeared dragging himself painfully along by the side of his wearied battalion ; and on more than one public monument it may be read that the individual commemorated, though born to affluence and power, voluntarily cast in his lot with the soldiers of his country, and shared their sufferings and their dangers. It is never likely to be thought beseeming or expedient that Princes should even profess other than naval or military avocations, but in this country there is literally a demand for Royalty in its own appropiiate capacity. Though the British Empire can have but one Sovereign, it has many territories which would rejoice in the temporary presence of a Prince, and, in fact, the boldness of Transatlantic loyalty has already found expression to this effect. The Canadians begged hard for a Royal youth, if it were but for a month, Canada is no petty piovincc. Australia and India — Empires in themselves — are not like the satrapies to which Viceroys are commonly depatched. In such glorious dependencies there may well arise a field for princely cxeition, and the country would gladly see these, or any other fitting opportunities, improved. We are not jealous of our Princes. The old dread of Royal " interference " is past, and the people would be better pleased at seeing the children of their Sovereign enter into public affails as become their position, than at hearing that they wore condemned to seclusion or idleness. In reality, the duties of a Royal house are greater, instead of less, than common. Its sons are the foremost men of the land, and they naturally take the lead in that long gradation of example by which every rank sets a pattern to the rank below it.

War Office, December 7. 65th Foot, Lieut. H. S. Herries, to be Captain by purchase, vico Meyler, who .retires.