The Dominion. MONDAY, MAY 9, 1910. THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 812, 9 May 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, MAY 9, 1910. THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD.

The death of King Edward is more than a grievous blow to the unnumbered millions of devoted subjects in his vast Empire: it is a grievous loss to the world. In millions of homes in every quarter of. tho globe the disastrous event has caused an acute sorrow, which may be very un-modern and unsophisticated, in so practical an age as ours, but which is yet a revelation of the British nation's attachment to the Monarchy and an unexampled tribute fo tho fineness with which his duty of Kingship was performed by the greatest of all the Kings of Britain. AVhen the late Queen Victoria died, the mourning was less the mourning of an Empire for a ruler as good as she was wise and great' than the grief of generations of men and women who had known no other Sovereign, and. to whom the woman Victoria was a permanent and beneficent object of affectionate regard. They were few who did not feel that his late Majesty's task of worthily filling her great place was beyond his power. That he would bo a wise and careful King, cherishing the interests of his' people as dearly as they wore cherished by his mother, nobody doubted; but that,ho could add a still greater lustre to the, British Crown was the last expectation even of those who were confident that he would discharge his high functions with tho greatest possible honour and sue-, cess. Yet that he has done so has for years been allowed, not only by his own people, but by the governors of : the other nations of the earth. Every tradition handed down to' him by the , late Queen has, been preserved and strengthened. Tho Crown is more 'popular than ever, tho Court as honourable and pure as tho Court of Victoria.,

And while he carried on the Victorian tradition in its entirety, his Majesty discovered 'in tho fioyal office certain possibilities of development which were left unexploitcd by his great predecessor. ~ Tho breadth of outlook, the sincerity, the profound knowledge of men and things, that enabled him to do all that his mother had done enabled him to add to the Royal function the exercise of a wise and weighty diplomacy of ■a practical kind. Readers of. the Letters -of Queen Victoria,, which cannot be too much studied by the people of tho Empire, are aware of the enormous influence that the Sovereign can exert in shaping tho foreign. policy of Britain, and although all tho world knows that , King Edward has been mainly responsible for the drift of worldpolicy towards anetwork of treaties and peaceful understandings, wo shall probably not know, until the Letters of King Edward are published, bow extensive his influence has been, how often, without the' knowledge •■ of his subjects, he has availed to turn aside dangerous international developments and possibly actual war. In the pleasure and pride with which they have witnessed his movements as a practical statesman, his subjects have been inclined to forget tho boldness of his new reading of the' Royal. function., His personal qualities, and his close relationship to the rulers of Europe made easy for him the business of becoming something like a universal monarch, the powerful chief of the association of Royalties; but it required strength and daring to put these enormous potentialities to practical use. For although thoy are deeply attached to the Throne, the British people are very jealous of their democratic rights and of the constitutional rules of procedure; and they would not look with approval upon any Royal usurpation of the functions of Parliament and Parliament's Executive. His Majesty was not, indeed, quite immune from attack from Jacobin quarters, but these attacks upon his diplomatic activities served only to show up in deeper colour the Empire's enthusiastic approval of tho acts by which he built up the title of Peacemaker. At the samo time as he made free use of his influence, npon the rulers of Europe for the advantage of his' own' people, he yet worked with so marvellous a tact that he was esteemed a friend by the nations of Europe. This great and original use of his position it is that makes it impossible to deny him the right to be romembored as the greatest of Britain's rulers.

It is not fitting at this time to speak of the political crisis with which his Majesty would have been rc([uircd to deal had ho heen spared to us, nor is it likely that many people will allow tho political future to occupy their thoughts, which will be devot/cd only to sad and affectionate remembrance of their dead King and of the value of monarchical government. His conversion of tho Royal office.into an instrument

of as great practical utility as Parliament itself will always be remembered as the greatest of King Edward's achievements. Even if the position of the Sovereign had become really a sinecure, no wise person would have faltered in his belief that hereditary Kingship is the best possible basis for the best sort of national progress. But the Crown is no longer the inert linchpin of the British Commonwealth; it lias been made a living instrument of good. So far from the Monarchy being played out, the monarchical system has been established far more firmly in tho people's regard by the wisdom of our last two Sovereigns, and it now appeals with as much success to our reason as to our instinct. There cannot bo in Britain, whose people were almost more deeply attached to his Majesty, if such a tiling were possible, than to his mother, a more real sorrow for his loss than is felt in this, the least and most distant of his dominions. No Sovereign that ever sat upon any throno was so wholly trusted by his subjects. They were only . a tiny and bitter minority, hopelessly blind and strangers to all healthy ideals, who, in the recent fierce ■ controversy in Great Britain, would not have accepted with perfect loyalty and faith any decision that tho King might haye made. In losing him, the Empire fenls that it has lost its most powerful guardian and its strongest defence against' the troubles contained in the restlessness of the nations, while in every land the friends of peace and liberty must mourn the taking away of thpir greatest leader and ally. y