BRITAIN'S RULERS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 396, 23 May 1910, Page 7

BRITAIN'S RULERS

SOME REMINISCENCES. (By B. Enrotih). i Part I. My first recollection of our late King Edward is of hearing the 'bells ringing i a merry peal of a sunny morning and of being told that tiiey thus rang because the Queen tad given birth to a son. As ■this event took .place on the 9th November, 1841, and as the news would take from two or three days to reach us, this must have'been about the 12th November; and as I have a distinct recollection of the leaves being on the beech trees under which I listened to tine merry music of the bells, I infer that it must have been a very mild autumn that yeair. My next association with his Royal Highness was of even i more distant nature 'than this. Alter many years' agitation in the Press and other- ' wise, the five Canadian .provinces on the eastern side of 'the continent had formed themselves into a federation which, subsequently with the addition of British ' Columbia, became known as the Domin- i ion of Canada. The knotty point of the selection of .the capital ci<ty having 'been referred to Queen Victoria, she wisely selected the little town of Bytown, or < Ottawa, as it mow is, on the river of .that name, which forms the boundary < between East and West Canada, which ; since that time lha.ve been known as Quebec land Ontario respectively. And ■to the great delight of all Canadians—always a most loyal people—the Prince ' of Wales was sent out to open the first ; Dominion Pajrliament and to lay the corner stone of the (projected Govern- ; men* Buildings. As I 'had been among : the first to moot the benefits of federation, and the first pressman who had ' visited the Atlantic colonies on this or- ' rand!—at that time a most .roundabout \ journey—it was a great griei to me that,' ill-health and other causes obliged me ' to take a trip Home .precisely when the < visit of the Prince of Wales took place. Hence (all my connection with his Royal Highness was that in both going and '■ retailing our steamers crossed each . other. This was in the early summer < and late autumn of 1860. REPUBLICANS AND ROYALTY. | It need hardly be said that everyone in Canada was singing the praises of 'the , young Prince, his wonderful personality having made its mark, although he was then under the .tutelage nominally of i the Duike of Newcastle, one of his Ma- i jesty's ministers, who accompanied him. ; But eairly in 1861 I travelled through • several of the United States and wa* much struck and rejoiced to find that , despite their republicanism, people ey*rywhere from 'New York to Chicago were saying -nothing but good of the young Prince. During the time of the Crimean , War it had .be en-so different. Then the i monotonous .reiteration in the headlines ; in the papers on the arrival of the one - weekly mail steamer, ''Sebastopol not taken yet," had been a regular source of jeers and annoyance in .private to all , us unfortunate Englishmen living- in New ( York, who still retained our fealty to ■• the Old Land', while all the newspapers, . almost without exception, openly took .; the Ruissiain side, led on by the -renegade , : James Gordon Bennett, of the New York -j •Herald-. Now the tone of feeling was so • changed -.as to quite surprise one. Al- s though the election of Abraham Lincoln - in November had caused that tremen- , dous commotion which culminated in the < Civil War, which began with the bombardment of Fort Sumpter by the Southerners the day I left the country—n clash of opinions that must have been s seen to be properly appreciated —one i found' everywhere, West and East, a 1 kindly tone of feeling both in .private < and in the Press, entirely due to the < Prince of Wales: a. feeling that promised < to ripen into a close alliance of the two < great Anglo-Saxon •nations. I remem- ' ber reading in one paper, for instance, ■ a suggestion that it would be well to ' elect a son of Queen Victoria as a fu- < tare (President, althonigh the Mason and ' Slidell affairs and other happenings dur- i ing that dreadful war caused bad blood between the two countries. AN IMPORTANT VISIT. ';

I have always been strongly of the belief tlhat this visit of the P.rmce of Wales to the States was not by any means the least important action of his lifft He 'showed himself to be there, what lie is now 'recognised throughout the world to be, a born peace-maker. But for this war it is quite on the cards that the outcome of that visit would have been an alliance between our Empire and the United States, than wihich nothing clan be conceived which would tend more to promote universal peace and! iihe happiness of mankind. My next reminiscence is of another kind. When, after a pleasant voyage of four months I landed in London on| the last day of 1871, one of the first pieces of news picked up .among the! many tremendous happenings of the last half of that eventful year, was that of the nearly fatal illness of his Koyal Highness, .from wihich. in answer doubtleas to the millions of prayers offered in that behalf, he was recovering. Here, as connected with a state of things that hais for ever passed away, it may be well to revert to the circulation of uews at that time. It is true there was then a, line of monthly steamers between Liverpool and Australia and the telegraph line had stretched across that continent «s far as King George's Sound, which was the first port of call, and from whence the most important items of news were flashed all over the eastern colonies. But even then it would be over six weeks old. Thus one leaving an Australian port for England would be without any knowledge of current events for nearly half a year unless some outwardbound .vessel were spoken, which in our case did 1 not once occur. Those, therefore, who remember or have read the hiisitoay of the Franco-Prussian War can conceive what a budget of events one bad to assimilate. One circumstance, however, took precedence. THE PRINCE RECOVERS.

The Queen and Royal Family were going to St. Paul's to return thanks to! God for the safe recovery of the Prince oi Wales; laud seats along the line of' route were 'going at (tremendous prices. By a fortunate ei,re,um.s,tance 1 met an aunt'from New York with her family, on a visit for the second time to London From, her I learnt that, a cousin of hers had placed a .former servant of his in th& National Gallery, who had ottered her seats on tJhe po.rtico of that :mird-' • 3W , A,« the Roval -procession was to pass immediately under there could bej no better place for a fine view. To n person who had passed several years i in sparselv populated parts .of Australia the view of the enormous crowd, which filled Trafalgar Square and all the converging streets was simply wonderful, and as we drove along from St. Paul's bv Lndtoflte Hill, Fleet street, and the Strand, similar crowds weire to be seen. Those who 'have seen great gatherings in more recent days cannot he surprised that a Maori chief, who had London, could find no other eom-

parison for its population than that of •the sand of the seashore. Our friend at I the National Gallery -pointed oui nhej various nobilities tid they passed in 10-igi procession. LOUIS NAPOLEON. Among these, looking very cadaverous, was the ex-Emperor of 'the French, Louis Napoleon, who had just commenced an exile that ended with his life and (whose carriage just preceded those of the Royal Family. It was the first sight I had of any of itheni—a sight which, with all its surroundings can never fade from memory. Nor was the spectacle the only tiling worthy of note. As one public character after another went by, cheers more or less loud- iwiere given. But who can describe the wave or roar of sound which accompanied the Queen and her son? Long before they came into view this wonderful accompaniment, hoarse and loud as tfhat of a tempest on a rockbound shore, might be heard drawing nearer aaul! nearer, until we were all enveloped and (participated in it. And as , .the cairriaiges slowly passed on did this wist body of sound go with it until it . was finally lost in the distance. One , will never Oiea.r and see the like until :the Day of Judgment. There were ; .great crowds and much cheering at King. Edward's coronation, but, perhaps because one saw the latter in Whitehall instead of Trafalgar Square, it did not strike me as being so -remarkable and impressive. It was more than a year after this that I was urought into direct .contact Miit'h' his late Majesty. OLD PLYMOUTH. The people of old Plymouth 'had cleared M'Way a number of old houses in -tuat ' part of their historic town which pressed around the venerable and majestic pile of St. Andrew's Church, so that both it and its beautiful tower were < tthrown open to the view—iwlhich they only partially were beforehand.. Space erxHifih had been cleared for the tion of a ante of commodious municipal buildings on one side of a square and , of a fine town toll on the other, and quito a new -aspect was thus given to the centre of tine town. To give due eclat to the opening of this new tawm . tell it was decided to invite the then Duke of Cornwall (a considerable part ; of whose property lies in Devon), who t was also Grand Master of the Masonic i fraternity, to open the hall, an invitation to which he graciously consented. ! As one of the marshals or masters of I ceremonies, it was my privileigie to be i personally introduced to his Royal Highness before tine opening of the Lodge, i wihich was part of the proceedings. 1 am not ashamed to say that it was with a certain amount of trepidation I entered the ante-room where this introduction took place. The Grand Muster shook hands with eacili of us, not in that perfunctory sort of way usual at a levee, , but heairtily and if he were very glad to see usi What with his geniality. ; smiling face and few kindly sentences, he put us. all at once on our ease. 1 : for one felt "quite at home," as we say, with him and by the time he had .put on his regalia and was ready to enter the hall, he made -us all feel as if he : were one of ourselves—which in truth he ■was. I tad to sit at his feet during the proceedings, and when in due course we had to bid him adieu it was. like parting from an old friend. I have since .then always been able to understand how .he has become so popular and able ' to sway such an imftmence. It is a Godgiven gift which it is said his Royal J mother also possessed and which one «e- ' voutly hopes has descended to his son, '< our present King. ' THE KING AT MALTA. !

It :has never been my good fortune to again stand in King Edward's immediate presence, but I seen him on three historic occasions since. J. Iliad been out of England for considerably over a| quarter of a century, when on'the 27th of June, 1902, our steamer dropped an-J chor off Valetta, the harbor of Malta, to pass pratique, direct from Port -Said. As the doctor climbed on board, 1 looked down into Ihia boat and said to the captain, "Well, was the King crowned all right yesterday ?" '"No, salh; the King 1 heemsiek; the King heem no crowned'!" Wlas the startling answer. And then we learnt the sad news, which is now historic When iwe had landed at Valetta, it was very painful to sec ho,w the sad news had paralysed proceedings connected with the 'coronation. On JSt. John's Church, on the newspaper office next door, and on various Government bull dings one saw the half-finished decorations, wihich the sad news of the' King's illness had caused to be left just as they were when the news arrived. It was only at dinner the previous day the captain had "stood'' wine for all at the table and we had 'drunk his Majesty's health with enthusiasm. Malta was" like a place under a cloud, the only break in wihich was that after an, operation King Edward mti.s doing, well. The same reassuring news greeted us also at Gibraltar. But it wis not until London was 'reached that the full extent of the cailamity broke on one. There preparations and decorations had been arranged on a grand scale with the result that enormous sums had been lost—it was said to the utter ruin of some. As the bulletin's from the Palace 'still continued -good, nothing much had been taken down, which gave the towm a queen- aspect eraougn. What struck me as a stranger meeting aaiother generation than the one I had previously known was the extraordinary universal solicitude and lafl'ection with which the people of all classes spoke of the King. THE 'BUS DRIVERS. There is nothing better for a stransrer to do who wishes to see and hear ae much of London and its people in a short time than to sit beside the various 'busdriver.-. with whom he •travels?. It has always been a. habit with me to fraternise with this class, who are ex•traordinary and superior in their way •as are the' London police in their's. The unanimity with wihich these men expressed their loyalty and anxiety was mmplv delightful to an old loyalist like nivsvif. But the *i:wne feeling displayed itself at. the club, and al theatres and public gatherings. At the same time, there mere many pessimists who did not think the King would live .to be crowned, however much the I .' might hone he would. There was a. curious vein of superstition in. this fear, as it appeared some, old witch or other had predicted that Edward would never become a crowned lying. But I found there were always ardent"sportismen who were anxious to lav a bet with these doubters, bets that were hardly ever taken. It was refreshing to hear views of some 'busdinvcr.s in this sort of thing; their money was always ready to back the King. Ofisigas of disloyalty and that slanderous spirit which' had been only too rife ■when I had last 'lived in England, there were absolutely none. At that former •time notihiini™. 'was more common than to hear and read diatribes against royalty and the Prince of AVales in particular, ami it was am article of belief with many that Victoria, would he the last-crowned head in England. THE COMING KING. In many papers it was usual to see advertisements of a publication called

''The Coming K- ," which wax understood to be a publication proving the Prince to be everything that is bad ami i contemptible. Of this .- >rt of thingthere was now no vestige: bit on the contrary everyone spoke of him as if he were one of their own family and with fervent wishes for bis recovery. It was in marvellous thinj- thus to see a whole nation waiting, w Al bated breath for the daily neiwis anil to note what a tone of < li;'i"\ f iilncßg gradually grew into universi".' 1: piness laa the King grew better and finally was announced to be quite recovered. Surely it was for some good purpose .that is not far to seek that God thus afflicted the nation and then turned the mourning into joy and thanksgiving. Then name the coronation. At that time the .new and extensive Colonial Offices, intended to vie in splendor 'with the recently finished war Offices, in Whitehall, 'had only been built to the first floor. Seats were erected here, gallery fashion, and the visitors from each colony had a space devoted to them. The lowest of these were just above the head's of the .people in the street, so that it would ilm-ve been impossible to have had a bettor position to see the Royal .procession than was fiere afforded.