The aged Queen has received another severe blow in the
death of her second son, Prince Alfred, reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, at the age of fifty-four. A sailor by profession, and, it is said, a competent Admiral, the Prince was much absent from England, and in 1893 he succeeded, by the death of his uncle, to the little but well-known principality of Coburg. Great annoyance was expressed in Germany at his accession because be was an Englishman, but he appears to have lived it down, and to have been at least as popular as any other German Prince. He had been for some time in bad health, when in last month the physicians discovered symptoms of cancer in the tongue and larynx, and advised him to remain in the Castle of Rosenau. He died there of paralysis of the heart, still in ignorance of his real complaint, on July 30th. The Duke of Connaught and his son having renounced the succession, the late Duke is succeeded by the Duke of Albany, son of the English Prince Leopold, a lad of fifteen, the Regency being entrusted for six years to the late Duke's son-in-law, Prince Hoben- ]obe-Langenberg. The Duke of Albany will be entirely a German, and is already a Lieutenant in the Prussian Service.
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