A SCANDAL ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 679, 2 July 1870, Page 3

A SCANDAL ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.

The London correspondent of the New York Herald gives the following scandal relative to the Prince of y ales. In all probability, the Prince is not so bad as he is said to be by this writer ; perhaps it was written with no other object than to create a sensation, or to fill his letter with matter sure to attract the attention of the reader: — "London, October 4, 1869.—As you are, no doubt, aware from report, the heir to the British throne is as alleged, neither given to observe the seventh commandment, nor does he attempt to hide his shortcomings in that respect. His companions and intimate friends are all young men—unmarried noblemen—who are notorious for the immoral life they lead, and who openly boast of the conquests they achieve, and the female companions they patronise The Prince although married to one of the most charming women in Europe, has, it is reported everywhere, almost broken ™ wife's heart by his infidelities, and

very much of her long-continued illness may be attributed to this source of annoyance. Curious to say, his Eoyal Highness, although by no means better than most young men of his years, never became openly immoral till after he married. Among the ladies first attached to the household of the Princess of Wales, when she came to England, was one of the handsomest women, on a very large scale, that was ever seen at this English Court. The lady had already been ' talked about,' and her name was more or less mixed up withthatof threeor four well-known personages ; but there was nothing positively known against her. However soon after she joined the Princess's houshold she was evidently on far better terms with the husband than with the wife, and flirtation—l give it the mildest possible name—between her and the newly married Prince was the talk of all London. The Queen of course has heard of the scandal and ascertaining that it was but too true, she had an interview with her son, which was not a pleasant one for either party. To make a long stoiy short, the Duchess had to leave the following of the Princess, but the intimacy with, the Prince continued, and it is generally believed as before, and was the cause of much unhappiness to the wife of the future king of England. But ' friendships * —again the mildest possible word—of this kind seldom remain long in the same groove. Her grace—for she is a Duchess —began to show a great liking for a Marquis, son of a mighty Duke, and himself one of the Ministers of England. The Prince of Wales did not like this. He remonstrated; the lady would not give in ; and so a regular quarrel took place between them, which has never yet been made up, the smiles of the Duchess being still lavished upon a Marquis. But the Prince was not a bit better child after he had severed from her Grace. On the contrary, he was very much worse, for he took to visiting actresses, and to spending money on them; and where he had formerly one, he had now three or four lady acquaintances. About the time I write of—some two years ago —a famous French "actress (the lady who puts, or ought to put, all modest women to the blush, by her acting and the lascivious gestures and looks she introduces), came to London, and was of course surrounded by half a dozen wealthy lovers, all of whom spent fortunes on her, and all of whom were on the same footing and intimacy. Lord C , the same person who had the row with Mr Granville Murray, used to drive her about openly in the Park, she sitting on the box of his four-in-hand drag, and he meeting in the crowd of fashionables that filled the ride, his mother, sisters, relatives, and other ladies. Would you tolerate such a state of things in New York ? I think not. Let a man sin if he likes, but let him not parade in the most public part of the fashionable drive of London, with a woman of that kind on the seat by his side. But what if I tell you that among the men that crowded after this foreign actress was his Eoyal Highness Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, eldest son of the Queen of England, and heir to the crown of these realms ? Of course the triumph of the lady was great. It is true she is nearly, if not quite, thirty years older than the Prince, but this seems to make his infatuation all the greater. In due time Mademoiselle left London, but this did not break off the intimacy, for whenever the Prince could visit Paris or the actress came to London, it was renewed. There was only one drawback to the whole affair. For a man in his position, the Prince of Wales is not only far from rich, but he is also very much in debt. To do him justice he is not parsimonious, and although the Queen has made him, as it were, do the honors of London for some years, she has never increased his allowance by a five pound note. Now Mademoiselle like all other women of her peculiar tastes is extravagant in the extreme, and would eat up the revenue of the United States in jewels alone, if anyone could be found fool enough to give her the same. As it is, she has diamonds to the value of £BO,OOO (400,000 dollars), that have been given her by various wealthy lovers, the Emperor of Eussia alone having given her, in one case, a necklace, earrings, and bracelets worth 100,000 dollars. But to return to my tale.

" The other day the Prince of Wales, by desire of the doctors, took his wife to the springs at Wildbad in Germany, for the sake of her health, which is still very indifferent. He remained a short time with her, and then returned to London, leaving her with her suite at Wildbad. Of course he passed through Paris; of course he remained several days in that very wicked but very pleasant city ; and of course he went to see Mademoiselle. Somehow or other it happened that this interesting actress was greatly in want of money —as actresses generally are, at least actresses of that stamp — and requested His Eoyal Highness to 'lend' her a trifle of 250,000 francs (£IB,OOO or 55,000 dollars). The Prince had not the money but was induced to sign a note or bill for the amount, payable a couple of weeks after date. In London his Eoyal Highness's ■ paper' would have been found very difficult indeed, if not impossible, to discount, but in Paris there are still financial agents who put faith in Princes. At any rate the bill was discounted, aud did find its way in due time to London, where it was presented for payment at

Coutts* Bank. The document not being signed by the Comptroller of the Prince's Household, had an aspect about it that the hankers did not like, and they hesitated before paying it. The Prince was abroad again and could not bo referred to, and the story somehow got to the ears of his royal mother. And then there was what is vulgarly called a row. The money was paid to avoid scandal ; but her Majesty, who, although in retirement, knows as well as anybody what is going on, gave her eldest son what old women call a ' bit of her mind' upon the whole transaction, and told him pretty plainly what she thought about married men with families of their own, and very much in debt, making presents of 50,000 dollars to women, of whom the less said the better."