The Duke of Saxe-Coburg—the elder brother of the Prince Consort—died
on Tuesday night, at a quarter to twelve, at the Castle of Rheinhardsbrunn, from the effects of a paralytic attack brought on by a chill caught while out shooting. The Duke was primarily one of those men who are best described as everybody's cousin. He was brother-in-law to the Queen, uncle of the Prince of Wales and the Empress Frederick, and great-uncle of the present German Emperor. The late King Ferdinand IL of Portugal was his cousin, and he was further connected with the Royal House of Denmark, With the Houses of Orleans and Bourbon, and with the Brazilian Royal Family. The question of succession seems as yet undecided. By in- heritance, the Duke of Edinburgh is now Duke of Saxe- Coburg, but it has always been said that he would abdicate in favour of his eldest son, a lad of nineteen, and therefore— for dynastic purposes—of age, and this was apparently con- firmed by a formal declaration of the young Prince's majority which took place last year. At present, however, it looks as if the Duke of Edinburgh intended, for the time at least, to rule in Saxe-Coburg. Duke Ernest had a very large private fortune, but it is not yet known how he has disposed of it.
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