16 JUNE 1883, Page 3

The freedom of the Press means on the Continent something

-very different from what it means in England. The Queen of Spain wants a holiday, as everybody wants who is condemned to live the Court life, and proposes to pay a short visit to her relatives in Vienna, returning to Madrid at the end of a month. 'Thereupon, a number of Spanish newspapers affirm that she has left her husband in wrath at his infidelities, and will never -enter Spain again. There is not a particle of truth in the state- ment, the.King and his wife. being on such terms that she is to be appointed Regent daring the approaching tour ; but so wide- spread is the scandal, that the Times' Correspondent has -evidently been asked by the King and Queen, through a third party, to deny it by telegraph throughout Europe. The world, perhaps, does not get worse, for scandal always existed ; but it -certainly grows more vulgar, in that way in which vulgarity is -demoralising. It loses, too, the old fortitude, which once enabled Kings, at all events, to live down lies.