THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, AUGUST | 22, "1957.
Would the Queen be better off
AFTER
without her
the pompous scuffling that has gone on round the Throne in the last ten days, after all the brick- bats have been flung, and one solemn pink face has been duly, clouted, what is it that remaing gleaming among the debris?
Queen Victoria.
it. A small solid nugget of endorsed
firt lait, truth,
A piece of truth about Britain's hereditary aristo- crats about the dukes, the earls, the barons..
For ages on end there bas been a theory about these men of inherited title.
Peers?
Edward VII
Grow Yet
Now it has been put to the test. With the strange out- burst by young Lord Altrincham the truth about the aristocrats has come out at last,
For who, when you think of it, is Lord Altrincham?
What has he ever achieved? What hins he done?
ETON, GUARDS
at
The whole world fas ELL he was educated Icarned that So far from Elch. He served two years in buitressing the Throne, our the Guards. Then he went lo aristocrate
its shakiest. Oxford, where, after being led to a police station in handcuffs, he was fined £5 for assaulting a policeman.
pillar.
So for
are
"There'll be some holloring when wo get in-l lockad Grandma in the bathroom before, we went away."
hours Mr Macmillan was "Called 1o the Palace and handed the was job.
"They may not always be very elever"the theory goes
from shielding the heir titles may not be Queen, they have exposed her to the kind of criticism which
And after Oxford he very democratic, but at least
President of [1 South defeated in two parilamentary they help to buttress the the
would not elections, Throne, Without the art American republic tnerdey, the Monarchy wild be made to suffer. be exposed, underminded-the enle fiereditary Institution ta fund nf ramkul democracy."
SHAKY
QUCH was the theory.
Sput
experts.
How has this truth emerged? Not, neel hardly say, by the force of Lord Altrincham's own arguments.
n
No, the ruth emerged in far wre ironic fashion. From opinionatea that the
wrote. thi
the fact
I wa young man who
Yet the
Lort Salisbury, was one of the. most prominent and That is the broad scope of the authoritative members of the Altitucham success story. previous Government. Although it would clearly have been flat. unpolished botter for the Tory MPs to phrases of this young man's have voted for their own leader, arilcle on the Queen have Lord Salisbury-whatever s echoed raucously round the title ond family-was ats world.
obvious person in the circum-
for the Queen WHY?
The answer is that. Lord
into words by the attack on the Queen and on the nineteenth-century constitutional peers who serve her happens to Altrincham's claim fo worldt.
belleved by be an hereditary peer himself attention resis
I was
ROYAL DUKES
20
*DUKES
27 133 109
MARQUISES
EARLS
012
One
1534
109 J
VISCOUNTS BARONSAZ The chart shows the numbers of hereditary peers of all ranks today. Of these, seven marquises, 29 Jearis, 85 viscounts, and 306 barons were created since 1900,
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achievement alone. On his achievement in being born son and heir to the first Lord Altrincham.
1 Otherwise we can be certain that his article would barely have got into print.
stances consult.
to
GREAT IN THE PUWER OF TRUTH
Yet can it be said thal, as an hereditary aristocrat, his Intervention really helped the prestige of the Crown in the eyes of ordinary people? Or course it did not, I added an almost Cousal touch to the Queen's part in a werk of crisis
THE PRESTIGE
HEN turn those peers THEN
who. by virtue of title father than business experience, allow their names to decorate the letter-heads of all kinds of businees companies,
No one can blame them for No picking up an easy penny. one.can blame the business mea for using their titles, as company assets.
no
one
equally But forget what lies behind the Every company arrangement. which fill out its boardroom with men of title is indirectly, and unconsciously, exploiting the prestige of the Crown. Sometime!, Indeed, such exploitation of the Crown is something more than Indirect
This month, for instance, we extraordinary
What an ironie effect for an inherited title to have. Fur what, after all, is the point of have had the being a peer? It has no point spectacle of Vicc-Admira Sír fat all unless it means That Conolly. Abi Smalih adver- six-ton his these men.
private are the peers the 'tising equais and partners of the sloop for sale (al £2.300) In Queen herself. That is, the the Personal Column of The historical justification of-the-Time,
Be.
The "address to which would-be buyers are directed
to apply? The Royal Yacht
In the past this partnership Dritannia, worker both ways. The peers
Who is this Sir Conolly who received their honours and they repaid the Clown with definite now uses the royal yachi as a services with men and money rales mari? He himself is n In times of war; with hard ecurtier et distinguished lineage. work as counsellors in peace- And his wife, Lady Mary, is the time.
sister af the Ear! Southesk, Yol what benefit does, the Queen get from the partner--
It would harply b ship today? In the case of surprising. if
car
WYS.
of
more Michael
Fale and "Apply
the Altrincham prorage she has Adeone were to advertise, a obviously got nothing but mor
for the direction, Buckingham Palace."
harm.
But what at the other in herited peers? What beneft have they brought to the Throne recent months?
Precious Bitle.
give
It is thi kir:d of Abuso which may explain the ex- traordinary support which Lord Altrincham has been receiving
Take the example of the from those who write letters to premier duke himself, the Duke newspapers.
of Norfolk,
...
The Daily Express say that
If he were plain, Bernard 33 per cent of those who write Marmaduke Fitzalan Howard, are in favour of Altrincham,
his recent attempt to secure The Daily Mail gure is even- laxation privileges for himself higher." and Nik fömilly mightă hriye`dono
no parteufar harm.
BLAME? NO
ORDINARY people have
against the duke
What, then, has
happened
to the old theory that tha aristocracy acta as a buttress to the Throne?.
'It has been. completely
reversed in practice.
In practice the aristocracy
is a man. Their reaction on actually reduces the dignty of
the whole has been: "Can't the whole royal edifee.
really blame him for trying it
on."
So what can be done? Per- haps the best solution lias been But, of course, the duke is put forward by no lesa a. not plain Mr Howard. He is traditionalist than Mr L G. the Queery Earl Marshal, And Pinc, editor of Burke's Peerage, the effect of "this hereditary · He wants all future peerages 190-utterly unfairly so for to be awarded for He only. as the Queen was corceme
was to associato the whole What an excellent thing that, Court in people's minets with would be I would mean that, his farcical attempt at tax apart from the lingering scions avoidance.
of the older familles every lo would belong to someone wha Or consider the moment to had really earned it, |January when the Queen hat. ******
PRICE: $12.00 Mile
' ',
to choose between Bir Butler, As for Brilialı, tradition, who and Mr Macmillan as Prime can now honestly say that the Brlitsh trador would have "THE QUEEN' SEES" "LORD Cuffores. If the late --Land SALISBURY": rend The Altrinchain, had not been able placacia. And will four to hand his title ont
S
0 it's Cheam. Well, now, that's the oldest prep. school -of them all. Oficiri ad- dress: Headley, New- bury, Berks. And dat- ing back three whole centuries.
Why is it called Cheam? Because the school was in (what was then)
TO
CHEAM
IF YOUR BOY WERE GOING
THE BROCHURE WOULD TELL YOU
that delectable village
in Surrey up to 20-odd years ago, Now it is in
55 acres of horsey
country.
What,
you may well ask.. does Cheam School sped- ally offer? The diswer is authoritative,. It is in the school brochure. It offers, for a stort, TWO hend masters,
There's Mr Mark Wheeler.
formerly of Cambridge. And then there is Mr Peter Beck, formerly of Cambridge.
It offers tradition. Since 1855 Cheam has been, the first of the few reilly ex- clusive prep, schools,
Healthy
IT stands on
the Basing stolic road, 325ft, above scu level. And for £44 10s. a term, and with the right background, your boy could go there too.
These
selves
places make them- comfortable, so to speak. They provide for themselves behind closed walls. A kitchen garden, orchard, shrubberies, flower garden, and play- ing-fields.
And three spinneys. And separate erleitet and foot- bill felds. With space for four games of each to be going on at the same time,
And a hard tennis-couet and
a gross court and an open- ·-
THIS IS WHAT'
by JOHN S. MATHER
• air awimming-pool 90ft. by G0ft.
The school is centrally hested. There modern comforts, with an ancient thought behind them, are. provided for '02 boys.
Warmth
Tolght and a half years
boys arrive usually t
and stay until 13. No day boys.
What,
apart from money " મન and background, manded from are entrant? Well, he must be able to read and write and know
his multiplication tables.. - And that's about all.
Boys who show real talent
are
coached for scholar- ships, but cramming is quite definitely infra-dig,
There is the usual relic of the pre-Victorian cur- riculum Greek, taught to a few bays at the top. The art of drawing is recognis- cl-but only in the two lowest forms.
Selence?
Ah!
which features modern dis- cipline.
If I were a little younger and therefore ripe for entry to school I would a prep. select Cheam on the basis of one sentence in the. school's prospectus..
►
It says this: "There is no
work before breakfast."
Work before breakfast? · Does
that mean that, uninvesti- gated so far by this news- paper, there are schools in this country which demand work before breakfast?
Does the Ministry of Educa- tion know of this? Rather, does the Ministry of Health. know of it?
There will be relief, anyway, that Prince Charies's school makes no such barbaric de- mand,
Women
NOW there are seven forms In the school, and as for ts I can see there are only two mistresses, One takes the lowest form, the other drawing and music.
Se Charles will come under a woman teacher at the start. Prince Charles's father, after Religious. Instruction: C..of addressed the nation's E, On Sundays the school. selenlists. He has alwaysses the perish church in shown a more than a run-
all,
..
holds the morning and services in the school Tri the evening. A. surpliced choir.
the
hus distinguished Mountbatten element; here Is the very breath of out- of-doors Gordonstoun,
Attention! Here's unother sentence in the brochure to altract every, boy in the land: "Great attention is paid to feeding the boys,"
fruit from the Veg, and
milk gardens: T.T. cows' every day; geese, ducks, and hens kept on the premises. And no food from outside, please, except on birthdays. In other words, you may get sick once a year.
Health, naturally, is a No. 1 consideration. There is Mrs Beck, wife of
head ก master, and a mation and three assistant, matrons.
There are two slckrooms and with central heating,
a school doctor in Newbury who attends the boys as private patients.
The boys may read news- papers and magazines and organise their own gardens and sell model yachts. And when bored with all this they can look forward to. visitors.
Parents may go along three times a term-and presum- ably the Queen and Prince Philip will do so-on Saturdays
Sundays except for the first threo- and Just two week-ends.
Pattern
or.
TWEEDOM? Well, the boys
of-the-mill knowledge of what
I once called Wis natural philosophy.
And boys read the
But there is not a single re- ference to selence in the brochure issued by the school.
Yet Charles is following in father's footsteps in gulng to the school.
It looks to me, therefore — and this is right off the top of my head and may differ from more expert opinion tant Charles will also fol- low father to Gordonstoun
lessons.
There is cricket, Soccer,, and for the last spring term -Rugby. Games are organ- 19ed four times a week. In addition the boys have two periods of physical jerks each week,
day.
In summer there is balhing
overy not-too-cold And Charles can learn to Lox.
Here are all the beginnings of a nigged, outlook which
are allowed up to £1 pocket money a term and can go into hotels but not shops. They cannot get a night away. They don't get long week-ends,-
If lite becomes too much for them they can take up tho piano or violin at £3 138. 6d. a term or carpentry at £2 21,
And that is the paltern" of Hie for the Prjata for the
next five years.