Afflictions in high places.
The subjoined account of the distresses of the
Royal Family of
England affords another of the affecting proofs with which history abounds, that no condition of human existence is exempt from the sorrows and sufferings to which poor humanity is exposed.
If ever there was a position that seemed to afford every security of happiness, it was that of
Victoria,
Queen of
England.
Called in her youth to the throne of the most powerful empire under the sun, she was yet more felicitous in her domestic relations, her union with
Albers, unlike that of most royal persons, being distasted by mutual love and affection.
It was even more than this, for Prince Albert was a man who deserved the respect as well as the love of any woman.
There was no finer specimen in all
Europe, in mind, deportment, and physique, of the gentleman then Prince Albert.
He was a man of singular good sense and moderation of character.
No one better understood and more faithfully performed the difficult art of managing and governing children.
The glorious reign of
Victoria could not have been a source of as much happiness to her as her own domestic circle under such auspices.
But how uncertain and transitory is the brightest happiness that earth can be stow!
What a contrast does the subjoined present to the bright history of the
Past! --What a sad and sombre closing of a day of sunshine and peace!
Death, madness, family discord, and disgrace, are the ghastly skeleton that appear at the royal feast, and proclaim to the most powerful of kings that they, too, are mortal.
From
England, since the death of the Prince Consort, are heard rumors which may be taken as possible shadows of coming events.
The
Queen is subject to fits of depression, which at times fencers it impossible to approach her. It is well known that the
Prince of
Wales gives little promise of filling up the void created by the decease of his father.
His tastes are of a low order, and whenever left to his own devices he is land of herding with parties utterly unworthy of him. He is morbidly susceptible of flattery of a gross kind and his amours are all, more or less, of a vulgar character.
Shortly before the death of the Prince Consort, it is well known that he visited
Cambridge, but it is not generally known that the conversations with the
Prince of
Wales at Medianly were of so unsatisfactory a nature as to give him the most various anxiety.
On his return to
Windsor, he brood.
Over what had passed to that degree that his physician remonstrated!
and only a short time before his death he said to the Princess Alice that the answers he received from her brother were of a character so low, so depraved and initiated that he feared all the pained he had bestowed on his education would be found worse than useless.
It appears there is some women in town who exercises great influence over him, and once or twice the
Prince stole away from Medianly unknown to
Gen. Bruce, his tutor, to see her. Upon one occasion he was found out, but not until the train had departed, when a telegram was dispatched to
Windsor, and the
Prince was somewhat surprised to find at the station, waiting for him, one of the royal carriages, with
Sir George Gray in attendance, to escort him to the
pater families.
The
Princes Royal, too, who married the
Crown Prince of
Prussia, has, it appears, been united to a man of dissolute character Some time ago her Royal Highness was said to have sprained her ankle, when the truth was that her husband, in one of his drunken fire, had kicked her down some steps.
The Princess Alice, after her marriage, will live at
Frogmore, and as she is supposed to-have inherited the talents and disposition of her father, in a great degree, she will be a real comfort to the
Queen.
But it is in the order of human events that a turn should occur in the tide of life.
The
Queen has been so remarkably blessed, her happiness so continuous, her feelings so untried, that a change seemed inevitable.
Tortuous times are looming in the distance for her and the country she reigns over.
Lord Palmerston is not to be disturbed, I hear, so long as his health permits him to wield the power he holds, so conservatives are pledged to support him in any party struggle but death or disease may incapacitate him to-morrow, and then, with the occupant of the throne in such tribulation, trials of no ordinary nature may begin.
