The Radicals keep badgering Mr. Gladstone with questions about the
£10,000 a year which is still to be paid to the Duke of Coburg in his capacity as a Prince of the reigning House in Britain. We think, as we have said elsewhere, that the Prince should resign the money; but it is unfair to blame Mr. Gladstone, who cannot be expected to annoy the Guelphs, the Romanoffs, and the Hohenzollerns all at once, in order to save a single pension. We note, by the way, that the argu- ment used in the Gazette of Coburg, is that the Duke's marriage settlements are bound up with the pension ; but that argument was not employed by Mr. Gladstone, and is not a good one. The Duke is not asked to renounce his pension, but to return it to the Treasury, as King Leopold did, while lie reigns in Coburg. The further argument that the Duke must keep up Clarence House is only verbal. Why must he P it is, however, absurd to make such a trifle a Parliamentary .or electioneering topic. The " tax" is not a third of a farthing Per British household.
