ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7007, 24 January 1901, Page 1

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

"From Canada," wrote the Prince Consort to Stockmar in August, 1860, "we have the Ibest possible accounts. Bertie is generally pronounced the perfection of nature." But what had taken "Bertie" to Canada? In the character of a tourist h& ' had already seen a great part of the Old Wo-rid, but it was more than *£he mera curiosity of an intelligent travelier which prompted his departure for the New one. ThG fact is that now, in his 'nineteenth year, he had been entrusted with the first of those miss-ions which have enabled the Prince of Wales to be rightly. regarded as a very useful and important, part of the machinery of the British State — missions, that is to say, which, while ostensibly private and personal in their aim, were at the same time calculated to produce great political impressions and results. The offer of New South Wales, in 1885, to send a contingent of her loyal sons to help us in fighting our Egyptian battles was by no means the first instance of colonial devotion to old Mother England. During ihe Crimean war the Canadians had also, of their own free will and offer, fitted out a regiment for our service in the East, and in return for this favour they had begged that the Queen would visit their Dominion. It had been found as inexpedient to comply with it his request as with the alternative demand that her Majesty should appoint one of her sons-istill all in their teens—Gover-nor-General of Canada ; but in lieu thereoi the Queen had promised that, when the Prince of Wales was old enough, he should be started -off on a visit to the Dominion, and the time had mow come for the fulfilment of this mest gratifying pledge. IN CANADA. Under the charge of the Duke cf Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and with an appropriate suite, the Prince embarked on board the frigate Hero— which was escorted by 'the' Ariadne— and after a very boisterous voyage reached Newfoundland on July 25, 1860. He was received with a tremendous outburst of popular enthusiasm. The Prince's tour through Canada was one long triumphal procession, and popular enthusiasm reached its climax when, in the name of his Royal mother, he laid the last stone of the great Victoria Railway bridge over the St Lawrence at Montreal. At Kingston and Toronto the Orangemen had

tried to get him. to pass under the arches adorned with their political syinbbjs and mottoes, bub here again .the > Prince gave it to foe distinctly, .understood that hef could not allow has name to be associated with party p-imposes — a policy to which he has • ever adhered; wirth remarkable tenacity and tact. No serious incident seemed, to mar the complete success of the Prince's progress, aad the only thing in. the mature ot what might be called a pleasant little contretemps was when, at a "ball iii Quebec, H.RIH. tripped and fell with 'his partner--the article recording the accident being headed — "Honi soit gui mal y pense!" He visited Niagara under the most picturesque conditions, the Falls being illuminated- at nigh* by Bengal lights placed between them and the rock over which they tumble, ma'k- ' ing them look -alternately like a mass of inn candescent silver and a seething lurid river of blood. He has repeatedly declared that this was one of the finest sights he ever saw. Next day, in the presence of the Prince amd thousands of spectators, Blondin, the tight-rope artist,, walked across the Falls on stilts with a man on. his back ; but when the famous funambulist offered to do the same service for the Prince, the latter shook his head witih a smile. AMERICAN RECEPTION OF THE pfRJNCE. '■ Yet triumphal as had been the Prince's progress in Canada, it was nothing to the reception which awaited him in America, whence he now repaired ; «ur.di it was perhaps tflis, aspect tff his- Transatlantic tour which was the most significant. To be welcomed effusively by the subjects of his mother in the Dominion, was only natural ; but to l>e frantically acclaimed 'by the people of the United States who had emancipated themselves from the rule, or the misrule, of his great grandfather, George in.— was (that, not a convincing proof, if ever there 'was one, that blood is thicker than water, and that there is a federation and a solidarity between all the mem!bers of the British face stronger than could "be effected by treaties and conventions? On first hearing of the Prince's intended visit to Canada, President Buchanan had -written to the Queen offering him a cordial welcome at Washington should ho be pleased, to extend his visit to the United States, while a similar invitation came from the City of New York. In bofch cases the replies were affirmative, with the addition that, from the momenk-of Iris quitting British soil, the Prince would drop his Royal title and state, arcd simply travel as Baron Herufrow, so as to 'be able, as a private gentleman', to employ tfoo small amount of time at his disposal in studying the ordinary life of the American people, "in whose extraordinary progress," as the Prince himself said before leaving Canada, "every Englishman feels a common interest." But the Americans themselves would -have none of this. As one of their popular writers : remarked, a mere " Baron . Renfrew " would no.t do for them. They were not going " to be shabbe-d off 'by any other title than ' His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,' a real up-and-down and out-and-out Prince, of the right stuff, too. — For there is mot a living being more sincerely loved by our people than his Royal mother," etc. Though- tihe Prince's visit was a private one, ib presently assumed a public character of the hugest proportions. At Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit and . St Louis the -crowds which pressed to. catch a glimpse of h™ were so vast that he sometimes could not get to his hotel ; while one individual remarked that the curiosity to see him could not have been greater "if the distinguished visitor had fceen Gecrrge Washington come to life again." "He as decidisdly a popular , character with us," said the other writei aboive quoted, "and may consider Mmsel] a lucky lad if he escapes a nomination foi President before he reaches his 'homeward bound fleet." Half a million spectators acclaimed him on bis arrival in New York, where he was the guest of the Mayor, and 5000 of th< leading" pecpla were invited to meet him at a ball, where the crush wcis so great thai the floor gave way. But the significance oi his tour culminated at Washington where ■ the Prince was a guest of the President, who accompanied him on a visit to the ftomt of Washington at Mount Vernon. " There was something," wrote the " Times " correspondent, "grandly suggestive of historical retribution, in the reverential awe of the Prince of Wales, great grandson of George IH. , standing bareheaded at the foot of vhe coffin of Washington. For a few moments the party stood mute ao:d motionless, and the Prince then proceeded to plant a chestnut by the side of the tomb. It seemed when the Royal youth closed in the earth around the little germ, that he wss burying the last faint trace of discord between us and our brethren dn the West." And yet within little more than a year of this significant event, which was followed by a warm exchange of complimentary letters between President Buchanan and the Queen, Great Britain and the United States were on the very verge of war. Ar.d there is little doubt, moreover, that they would have gone to war but for the fact that our emphatic and. somewhat minatory despatch to the Government of Washington as to the federal bearding of the, British mail steamer Trent, and the seizure; of Messrs Slidsll and Mason, the Confederate Envoys to Europe, was toned down in such a judicious mamver by the Prince Consort as $0 respect the sensitiveness of the Washington Government, build it a golden bridge of retreat, and cause it to cheerfully liberate the captured Southern passengers. THE DEATH OF THE PRINOE CONSORT. This was the Prinoe Consort's last, as it was in a sense his greatest, service to the country of his adoption ; and within little more than a year after baring his head in historical reverence before the tomb of Washington, the Prince of Wales was standiing convulsed with grief at the open gnuve of his own father, whose illness had been aggravated by a visit to see how 'bis eldest son was getting on with his studies, which had now been resumed at Cambridge, varied by vacation exercise with the Ist Grenadier Guards at the CurragL