14 MAY 1881, Page 3

The papers have been full of accounts of the marriage,

solemnised on the 10th inst., of the-Archduke Rudolph, the heir of the Austrian monarchy, with the Princess Stephanie of Belgium, heiress of a large share of her grandfather's millions. The details of the ceremonials, of the receptions, and of the uphol- stery, all flashed by telegraph as if they were important, are a little sickening ; but the total account has in it this much of genuine interest. The endless kingdoms and provinces of the Hapsburgs are in obvious good-humour with the imperial House, and think favourably of the future Emperor. He used to be de- scribed as a thoughtful but indolent lad, who had been over edu- cated for his brains ; but the present account of him is that ho has considerable faculties, with an inclination towards literature and science, rare, though not unknown, in his family. Ho may turn out a second, and perhaps luckier, Emperor Joseph, the man who was so much ahead of his people that everything he did failed. The bride is, of course, a child, but her portraits all give a quite remarkable impression of humorous intelligence. Painters invent intelligence, but they do not foist humour into royal faces.