THE MONUMENT TO THE PRINCE IMPERIAL IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3588, 10 October 1879, Page 3

THE MONUMENT TO THE PRINCE IMPERIAL IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Tbo Dean of Westminster haa issued an explanation of the circumstances which have led him to consent to the erection of a memorial to the late Prince Imperial in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, subject to the approval of the Queen. Dean Stanley maintains that Henry the Seventh's Chapel ia a royal mauaoleum, and not the Abbey Church, and that members of royal families have a right to bo buried in that part of the building, entirely dissimilar to the grounds which regulate the claims of distinguished peers or commonera. The close of tho Dean's letter i 8 somewhat remarkable. Ho says : — " I have not the honour of acquaintance with any member of the Imperial family, in Franco or in England. No one rejoiced more than I did in the fall of tho Empire at Sedan. Even should the preaent Government of France fail to establish itself in that country, it is to the hopo of a constitutional monarchy that I ahould look, under tho guidance of those Orleans princea whom, if I may be permitted to say so, I regard with so sincere and grateful a respect. Bufc I should have been ashamed of myself if I had allowed these predilections to interfere with the natural response to what I believed, and still believe, to have been the genuino expression of national concern in an event of singularly tragic interest, in which the spontaneous sentiments, not of England oulr, but of Europe, arc combined."