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The New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian, Wednesday, April 16, 1862

The continental press on the death of the Prince Consort

The continental press on the death of the Prince Consort.

The Moniteur, after announcing the sad event, adds:—“This sad event, this most sudden and premature death, plunges into sorrow the august Queen of England, the Royal Family of England, and the English nation. The Emperor, the Imperial family, and the whole of France associate themselves with all their sympathies to these regrets and sorrows.”

The Debates says:—“The mournful and premature event with has befallen the Queen and the Royal Family, in the midst of the gravest political difficulties, will be keenly felt, not only in England, but throughout Europe. In France, especially, where Prince Albert has left personal recollections, public opinion will, we are confident, unite in the private but severe grief into which this great misfortune has plunged Queen Victoria, the constant and faithful ally of France.”

The Siècle observes:—“In a difficult position, Prince Albert won the esteem of the English nation and the sympathy of all those who, artists, literary men, inventors, scientific men, form the party in England of intellectual progress, in which the deceased Prince was specially interested. Frankly accepting the subordinate part of the Sovereign’s husband, he sought, in learning and the protection of the arts and of industry, an employment, useful to his new country, of that intellectual activity which he was prevented by the traditional susceptibilities of the nation from applying to political affairs.”

“His elevated tastes, the dignity of his character,” says La Presse, “obtained for the deceased Prince a well deserved popularity.”

The Indépendance Belge has the following comments:—“Although placed in a position more subordinate, but not less difficult than that of a reigning Sovereign, especially towards a people who are proud, reserved, and impatient of all foreign influence, Prince Albert, without ev r [sic: ever] exciting the leat [sic: least] censure, succeeded in exercising in the counsels of Great Britain, with as much dignity as prudence, a legitimate authority, the good effects of which are denied by none. All the useful institutions which originated in England by the initiative of the people—in this country so vigorous—were honoured with his advocacy, one which was never sterile or merely nominal. Wherever there was progress to hasten, serious work to found or develop, the sympathetic, active and energetic concurrence of the Queen’s husband was ever to be reckoned upon. This intelligent and comprehensive participation of the Prince in the social life of the English at first gained him their esteem and then their affection. They regarded him as one of themselves, and certain prejudices, or rather instinctive prepossessions against him at the time of his marriage with the Queen on account of his nationality and tendencies towards absolutism which were more or less attributed to him, were soon completely dispersed, to be replaced by feelings of the utmost cordiality. Thus his loss will be deeply felt, and all England will participate in the grief of the Royal Family.”