The marriage of the young Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, Queen
Prettyface as the French call her, which has been a preoccupation with many Courts, is at length settled, her Majesty having announced on Tuesday her betrothal to Duke Henry, youngest son of the late Grand Duke of Mecklenburg- Schwerin, and descendant of a house which was reigning when Charlemagne flogged the Wends into Christianity. Kings may be absurdities, but somehow they last. The betrothal is popular in Germany because the Prince Consort to be is a German, and every German regards Holland as the future naval arm of the Empire. It is also popular in Holland, for the Prince is a man of twenty-four, of good repute, a fitting father of Kings to be, and it is vital to Dutchmen that the house of Orange should not end. It should be popular, too, in this country, for we are free men by help of that house, and we bear no malice because of the Dutch love for Kruger. It is natural that a race with a great history and few farms should wish to expand some- where, and Kruger seemed to give them a fair chance. Had he won they would have swarmed over as we swarm to Canada. Spain has lost her colonies, but every Spaniard has a second career open in South America, and Spain would hear with terrible dismay that Germans or Americans had entered upon her former heritage.
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