Parliament has voted an annuity of £15,000 a year to
Prince Leopold, the youngest son of the Queen, and Mr. Disraeli, in moving the grant, took occasion to describe him as as invalid student of " no common order "—which was the regular course--and to pay an extravagant compliment to the Prince Consort, as one who had given " a new impulse to our civilisation,"—which was out of theregular course. These votes are perfectlyproper, but they should be passed in silence, like business votes, not made occasions of remarks, which some day or other will justify criticisms on those remarks by independent Members. Whether Prince Leopold "is an exalted personage of fine culture," or another Duke of Gloucester, we shall have to pay the money all the same, and it is not because of his qualities that it is necessary to pay it. Official .compliments, even when uttered in words less fulsome than Mr. Disraeli's, always strike the public an insincere. Mr. P. Taylor made a short protest against the grant, mainly on the ground that
air, the representatives of certain great cities dislike it, but there was, ' we are glad to perceive, no division or opposition, even Radicals -perceiving at Let that, in a " veiled Republic," it is decent to pay for the veil.
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