THE LATE EMPRESS AUGUSTA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 46, 7 March 1890, Page 11

THE LATE EMPRESS AUGUSTA.

(From the Nation, January 11.)

The aged widow of William I. of Germany has passed away. la her the Vaterland baa lost one of the most edifying of its sovereigns, a highly cultured lady, who was equally remarkable for her assiduity in doing good, and for her utter aversion to newspaper praise «nd publicity. Crowned heads, reared as they usually are, in a very atmosphere of flattery, expect the journals devoted to their regime to trumpet their virtues or talents to the world on eveiy possible occasion. The late ex-Empress had, on the contrary, too much modesty to permit the journalistic parasites of Berlin to Bhower any laudations upon her. She was. in this respect, almost the solitary exception among the occupants of European thrones. The ex- Empress's maiden name was Augusta de Saxe WeimarEisenach. She was the eldest daughter of the Grand Duka of Weimar, and was born in her father's duchy some seventy-eight years ago. She never waa what could be precisely considered a handsome woman, but she had a very sympathetic face and manner. From early childhood she received a very sound education, and developed talents of highly literary character, for, as our readers are probably aware, the duchy of Weimar was in those days a veritable sanctuary of learning, where peer and peasant competed for the prize of knowledge — a state of affairs which was due to the fact that the celebrated Goethe was for years one of its Ministers of State, and inspired all classes with a taste for literature. Her marriage with William, which was a purely conventional one, took place under the following circumstances. At the Court of Frederick William 111., a young lady, Eliza Radziwill, happened to fascinate the son of that monarch, the late Emperor, then known as Prince William. The beautiful siren bad nobility of rank, but as she was not of royal descent, the jurisconsults of the Crown gave it as their opinion that she was disqualified from entering the House of tie Hohenzollerns. The lover, howev2r, seemed determined on having ter as his wife, until his younger brother threatened to contest his priority to the crown if he became the husband of a lady of inferior rank. William, having more ambition than romance in his soul, abandoned Eliza Ridziwill, and led to the altar in her stead the Princess Augusta of Saxe- Weimar.

She was not received with very much favour in the Berlin Court, where her literary tastes were tabooed and ridiculed, and where she had but an indifferent friend and adviser in the person of her husband la 1831 she gave birth to a son, who afterwards became Frederick I. of Germany, and whose sad death from cancer occurred only a short time ago. She devoted herself heart and soul to the education of her child, and selected for him the best and most competent of tutors, looking after not only his elementary, but also his technical education, with such good results that the future Emperor t ecama as experienced a carpenter an I bookbinder as he subsequently became a profound scholar and erudite thinker. Whan later on the young man entered on his university career, she wrote him many lettpra of an edifying nature, in one of which tha says :—: — ' The superficial aspect of life prevents us very often from occupying ourstlves with the serious side of things. We should remember that we have something to learn every day, and that we are likely to lose that which we have learned If we fail in completing our education. What we ought earnestly wish to attain is the complete union of mind with heart." In 1861, on the occasion of the elevation of her husband to the throne in succession to his biother, Augusta was crowned Queen of the Kingdom of Prussia. She was subsequently, in 1871, proclaimed Empress of Germany. Throughout the Franco-German war she took good care of the unfortunate French piisoners who were incarcerated in Berlin, and her solicitude for the wounded knew no bounds. Since her husband's death she has been living in almost complete seclusion in the chateau of Coblentz. Rumours were recently afloat that her Maj. sty had become a member of the Catholic Church, but there is every reason to believe that such has not been the case, although it is only just to add that her declining years were comforted by the presence at her bedside of a religieuse of the Convent of Bon Secours, and that her lady-of-honour was the Countess of Nesselrode, who is also a member of the Catholic communion. The ex- Empress was the last link that bouad the Germany of to-day to the Germany of two generations ago. The Germans of the present are as far removed from those of the p»st as Bisrmrck is from Goethe. In other words, the late Augusta was the last representative of an age which Lad more admiration for mind than for muscle. On the whole, if there were more Augustas on European thrones it would be no exaggeration to say that there would certainly be less Republicans who detest monarchy and all its works and pomps. Unhappily, however, for monarchy, crowned heads that have the advantage of being cultured are becoming fewer and fewer towards the close of this nineteenth century of ours.

Of over 30 000000 people inhabiting the immen6e territory of South America— nearly double that of the United 818168—28,000,000 are bapti«e.d Catholics.