A WAR-LORD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 90

A WAR-LORD.

• :, By a Baitkxb.

]. 'Midst the 'acclamations, and plaudits of m cheering multitude assembled on the finest thoroughfare of the metropolis of the world ;" to do him honour, the chief of « mightier host than even a Darius, or a \H«amb»]. or I a Napoleon ever led to victory- slowly" drives I along/ with fcis gracious consort, on his rfeturn front the historic banquet in that timehonoured . old hall, beneath whose.* roof, . for many centuries past, more crowned heads, ; guests of the nation, have been entertained! • than probably in any other building through1 out the world; long lines of «carlet-coated) soldiery — that thin red line which has bo often hurled back foe and won for the British Empire renown and victory — guarding -the road. And well may the surging crowd so vociferously acclaim the great warlord. For although with a word ha oouldl 6*t in motion that vast army of warriors, although At his word of command that serried phalanx would march forth in all its resistless might, yet his one desire, hla osa ! great solicitude, is that the beneficent angel of peace shall hold unbroken sw^ny; aid) that, whether in his own realms, or in the territory of jealous neighbours, the crashing roar and thunder of cannon, the rattle and swelling blastß of musketry and machineguns and the cries and groans of the wounded' and dying men shall not rend tha air, and the corroding, gnawing grief of the widow and the orphan shall not cause the angels to weep. And well m*y his race be proud of him 1 ; well may they mingle their . welcoming " Hoch ! hoch I" with the resounding British) "Hurrah,!" For his one object- in life ia to promote the welfare and to Advance the well-being and the prosperity of his great empire, which under his able rule/ has by leaps and bound* continued to march on to wealth and affluence and to ever-increasing vigour. B(ut although 'on- the European Continent > the*-great "Kaiser mis' remain prime arbiter, . : yet ' tha empire, of • the seas imi&t b* ever 1 under the sway of Britannia., For of the i 31 millioa' tons of steam shipping in the . .-world, 16 millions — or more than the entire aggregate- of every .other, ma tion — are und«r the British flag, while the overwhelming pro* ponderance of her fighting ships is the envy ,' of th« world. But that which «nde*rrf the great ruler to ! the hearts of. so many of us is that, like our. own great Queen Elizabeth, he is noi ashamed to avow bis dependence upon the Omnipotent Ruler of the universes and to , i impress upon his subjects the supreme importance of accepting the atonement made by the Redeemer of the world as the basis of all their hopes and of all their aspira- - tions for the great hereafter. May he derive pleasure and added health an 4. vigou* , from hia welcome visit to our ehoier^V . 3