Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1902. The Coronation.

Manawatu Herald, 7 August 1902, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1902. The Coronation.

Befobe we again publish, the 9th August will have come and gone, the fateful day upon which our Gracious King is to be crowned in Westminster Abbey. Every one of our readers, in conjunction with the remainder of the Sons of the Empire will humbly pray that nothing may occur to mar or prevent the celebration of the Coronation. The past postponement enabled the clergy to read us all a homily on humility; a virtue not

always with them in conducting even the ordinary services of the church. Preachers get thejbest.of laymen, as when in the pulpit they deem themselves empowered to say anything, and that without fear of contradiction. It has been remarked that they were hard put to it to show in what manner the colonists had sinned to make it necessary for their reproof that thousands should be put to loss and disappointment, and that our King should be called upon to suffer. At the time of reading us this homily the clergy were not aware that the King’s illness was of long growth, thus reducing the moral they tried to draw to a very fine point. All the ceremonials have however one particular spot in which interest must centre—the throne upon which the King is crowned. It has been baldly stated that this stone was was brought to London by Edward I in 1296 from Scotland. The history of this precious stone is only partially known, though there are fictions

about its having, been the identical stone upon which Jacob laid his head wheu he had his wondeiful dream. The facts are these, that some hundred years before Christ, the stone appears ,in Irish history. It was called lia Fail, or “ The Stone of Destiny,” and gave to Ireland the name of Innisfail. The Irish kings were crowned upon it and it was highly venerated, and it got to Scotland through the Irish. The story of the stone getting to Ireland takes us into the. origin cf the early Irish. The son of Cecropa was banished from Athens and fled to Egypt, where he eventually married Pharaoh’s daughter Scota. In time he sailed away with his wife and .children and a force and landed in Portugal, and having been victorious over his enemies was made king, and commanded that his followers should be called Scottishmen, after his wife Scota. His sons Himecus and Hiberus swarmed off and landed at Dundalk, and being successful in battle against the aborigines was crowned king and the country was called Hibernia. The land known as Scotland in time was visited and absorbed, so that the first real occupants .of Ireland were the Scottish.

The interest in the Stone is also centred from an ancient prophecy attached to it. It runs thus

“ U nless the Fates have faithless grown, And prophet’s voice be vain, Where’er is found this sacred stone

The'Scottish race shall reign.” Bearing in mind, that the “Scots” before the eleventh century were residents of Ireland, “ the country of Scots ” was then, Ireland, it is evident that the prophecy speaks of Irish kings. It is not generally known that ths prophecy has been fulfilled, for Edward VII is the representative of the ancient line of Irish kings. The steps are traced in Keatings’ and O’Connor’s histories of Ireland. King Edward is descended from James VI of Scotland, and the first James of England. James was descended from Kenneth Mac Alpine, the first King of Scotland. Thus the Irish lino of kings came to the Scottish throne in the ninth century in the person of Kenneth Mac Alpine, and ascended the English throne and were crowned upon the Irish stone in the person of James I. If King Edward is King of England, not less, but rather more, is he the King of Ireland by a more ancient title and a longer established right.