I have remarked that the Prince of Wales, while in waiting to become King of England, has already acted as a kind of roi des quens: or King of the Beggars but he has otherwise anticipated his monarchical functions by figuring as Sovereign of Society. For it is not too much to say that though the Crown has! continued to be the fountain of civic honour, the Heir to the Crown has long been the main source of social distinction in this country. His social power has grown to be coniprehensive and immense—the more sons it has ever been welded so delicately and with such consummate tact. A despotism tempered with discrimination and tact—such may he said to be the position of the Prince of Wales (with the Princess ever at side) as the vicarious sovereign of English society. The Queen, of course, de jure the social, as well as the political, head of England; but, de facto, it is long since Her Majesty abdicated in the former respect in favour of her eldest son and heir and if this son had had nothing to do for the last thirty-seven years hut fulfil those society functions which the Queen practically ceased to perform after the death of her ever lamented Consort, he would have had more than enough to make him! one of the most active men in the Kingdom—apart altogether from those public claims on his attention which formed the subject of my last article.
Even before his marriage he had become harnessed, so to speak, to the ceremonial business of State, and his first Leréo (February, 1863) at which presentations were declared to be the same as if they had been made to the Queen, was one of the largest of the kind ever held at St. James's Palace. More than a thousand presentations were made, while the Levée was attended by double' that number of noblemen and gentlemen, and the queue of carriages extended far' into New Bond Street. To listen to a Scotch sermon of hour and half's Jength—is that not a terrible trial of human endurance? But what is it compared with the physical effort of returning a thousand obeisances and shaking perhaps as many hands with a special word or nod of recognition to each And since that time not " London sesson has passed without imposing on the Prince of Wales a series of similar coresnonion apart from all the other social engagements which this fatiguing season ever brings with it—dances at which the Prince, especially in his younger days, never sat down except to supper; banquets which imposed upon him the severest dietetic discipline if he were not to succumb to! their richness and rapid succession; weddings at which he was sometimes asked to give away the bride, and always expected to give away a present; fancy balls at which he would masquerade as Henry VIL, or Charles I, or the Grand Master of the Knights ITospitallers of Malta; and Masonic meetings at which he would have to appear in his character as Grand Master of England—an office into which he was inducted in the Albert Hallamid circum-atonees of great pon.p in the spring of 1875, og successor to the Marquis of Ripon, On this memorable occasion the Albert Hall was crammed with about 8,000 Masons from all parts of England; the greatest precautions were used to ensure secrecy, and by all present it was described asa splendid sight. The throne used was the j one on which George IV, when Prince of Wales, had been installed; and when his grand-nephew was invested with the collar and jewel, the vast hall literally shook with applause. 'The ceremonies of the day were supplemented by a rand banquet at Freenssons' Hull. The Prince's interest in Fremasonry has been deep and genuine, and he has smitten others with his own sympathy for the aims of the Order. Atone Masonic dinner attended by himself and the Kin of Sweden, the subseriptions amounted to the enormous sum of £51,000, the Jargest amount ever raised at any festival dinner known to history; while on the occasion of the Jubilee (1887) meeting inthe Albert Hall, the ti mission produced £6,000 for division among the-three great Masonic charities. After that who shall say that the name of the Prince of Wales is not name to conjure with when public subscriptions ate wanted for private charity? It has been truly said that the Masonic duties of the Prince are the only social functions which have not been shared by the Princess, who mall other occasions has proved inced his "hetter half." On all other occasions, perhaps, save the public dinners at which the Prince is asked to preside, and a h he presides with a grace that few can "qual and none excel. Tt has been tumorously suggested that the reading of the Prince's motto, "Ich Dien," should be not "1 serve," but 1 ding and certainly H.R.H. is the greatest diner-out in all London. If banquets were battles—and sometimes indeed, they are in the' nature of struggles for a good cause—the Prince of Wales would have a much bigger record of victory than Alexander, Cresar, or Napoleon. From the Royal Academy and the Mansion House to the Metropole with its Literary Fund, its Cubdrivers' Benevolent. Association, ' its Railway Servants' Friendly Society, its Licensed Victuallers Asylum dinners, and its hundreds of cther kindred banquets, the "first gentleman in England" has ever been in request as 2 chairman who can at once command influential attendance and generous subscriptions. Countless are the sums which have thus found their way into the unobtrusive ehannels of private charity through the public exercise of festive functions by the Prince of Wales.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.