The Telegraph published on Tuesday a telegram from its Berlin
-correspondent intended apparently as a satire on the Duke of Edinburgh. It stated that the Prince had been consulted Ity the German Government as to the sale of his succession to the Duchies of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, and had agreed to dispose of his sovereign rights to Germany for £80,000 a year and the usu- fruct of the Coburg Crown domain. The Emperor of Russia had been consulted, and had approved of the transaction. The story is now denied officially from Gotha, and declared to be a " mis- chievous invention," and as the Prince has a son whose succes- sion would also be sold, as the people of the Duchies have not been consulted, as the reigning Duke is still alive, and as the Duke of Edinburgh is not heir-apparent, but only heir-presumptive, the story is sufficiently impertinent. It may indicate nevertheless, like the failure to arrange for the Brunswick succession, that Prince Bismarck would like some more votes in the German Upper House. Prussia might by a political miracle be outvoted -there.
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