KING EDWARD VII

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 19

KING EDWARD VII

IN CORRECT PERSPECTIVE

The Eoyal • Personage presented by Mr. E. F. Benson in "King Edward VII: an Appreciation," is not the Edward VII of popular imagination at the time of his accession. Mr. Benson reminds us that most of. the King's subjects then took an utterly unreal view of him. "They figured him chiefly as a sedulous attendant of race meetings, as the leader of a highly hedonistic set. . . ..' Tho body of average respectable opinion felt the 'gloomiest anticipations of the probable effects of his accession, and wondered whether the days of George IV would return." This was the legend of him, but it was not true, remarks a reviewer of the book in the "Times Literary Supplement," which, with other leading journals, praises Mr. Benson's study, adding that this clear, outspoken, brilliant study will help to correct the misunderstandings of an earlier age and to fix the reputation of King" Edward as a statesman-King. His. parents began, in his earliest years, to moifld him according to an ideal pattern of royalty. He was to "resemble in every respect his dearest beloved Papa," said his mother. With this end in view every detail of his education was planned and watched with meticulous care. He was to bo bookish, artistic, grave, prudent, and dutiful; and was surrounded with books and elderly tutors, and was guarded from the distractions of youthful companionship. In consequence he developed a hatred for literature, a passion for distracting society, and tastes in every respect the opposite of Prince Albert's; and in tho detestation of his monotonous life he cherished _ the memory of a brief respite he enjoyed at tho age of thirteen when he visited the Empress Eugenic and irrecover-" ably lost his heart to Paris. Even at Oxford he was "under precisely the same restricting tutelage as before" and "had no choice in the matter of his studies, his companions, or his relaxations"; but Mr. Benson appears to overlook the influence of the friendships he made at that time in the hunting-field. Emerging from Oxford to undertake a tour in Canada and the United States, he showed that ho was already fully equipped to play his part excitingly in society, and to astonish his parents, who thought him "backward and idle," by being "generally pronounced the most perfect product of nature." "Ho will bo lucky," said one American commentator, "if he gets through tho tour without being nominated for President." . Throughout the greater part of Queen Victoria's reign the majority of tho nation regarded the Prince as a splendid and lovable ne'er-do-well. His constant appearances in public, his genial manners, the dignified yet cheerful way in which he behaved at charitable functions, his love of sport, and the many stories about him which went the round made him generally popular; though more than one indiscretion, as in the "baccarat scandal" or the circumstance which made him a witness in a divorce Court, caused a reaction. But already, as statesmen and diplomatists knew, he was playing a far more important part in public life than the general public, or the Queen herself, realised. He was contributing, for.betetr or worse, to the great-game of international politics. Mr. Benson has shown in this book how great a work the Prince had already done before, he ascended tho Throne: —"For many years there had been no one who had more sedulously and effectively devoted himself to the service of his country nor any whose advice and counsel were ni< it weighty with the Ministers of the Crown." He had done much to guide foreign policy. 'He had helped to make the policy adopted practicable. He had improved British relations with the Dominions, with India, and the United States. Mr. Benson might liavo shown how, at home, he not merely made friends with Radicals like Difke and Stead, but showed his appreciation of the new Labour movement, and as early as 1871 realised that trade unionism might be a force for good in industry. But he has sufficiently described the manner in which, as King, in spite of a growing petulance and impatience, he was the "indefatigible servant" of Ministers of the Crown from the first day of his reign to the last.