THE KING'S ILLNESS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 27, 3 July 1902, Page 16

THE KING'S ILLNESS.

HE old adage, ' Man proposes, but God disposes,' received a very striking and unexpected illustration last week. Everywhere preparations for the Coronation celebrations were well advanced, the various programmes, civic, social, and religious, had all been arranged down to the minutest detail, the whole country was preparing to give itself up to whole-souled rejoicing, when the painful intelligence came that the King was seriously ill, that he had undergone an operation, and that his condition was such as to necessitate the abandonment for the present of all Coronation festivities. It then became apparent that the King had in reality been seriously ailing for some considerable time, though the fact had been suppressed, or at least disguised as mere temporary indisposition arising from occasional attacks of * lumbago.' Since the trouble reached its crisis the public have been made aware of the nature of the ailment and have been kept fully informed of the condition of the Royal sufferer from day to day. We have no need, therefore, to refer to the medical aspect of the trouble or to review the stages of the patient's progress towards recovery. It is only necessary to say that according to the latest intelligence the King's condition is now quite satisfactory, and that both King and Queen have borne themselves during this ordeal with the most praiseworthy courage and patience. * • The feeling of regret and sorrow which Bpread over the Colony when the news of the King's illness was received was deep, genuine, and universal. It was in the first place a tribute to the King's personal popularity. For ourselves, we have, we confess, no particular love for Royalties as such believing that as a nation progresses representative institutions should do ever more and more and monarchy ever less and less in the work of government ; but there is something so kindly, genial, and human in the personality of Edward VII. that even a thorough-going Radical can appreciate it. We can say nothing of the King's personal

relations to his friends, for practically all we get to know of him is in relation to the discharge of his official duties, but even in these he has not only displayed tact and dignity but has shown also that touch of personal sympathy which also wins the hearts of men and which, like mercy, * becomes the throned monarch better than his crown.' This quality of kindly human feeling on the part of the King crops out even in the discharge of duties that are irksome and disagreeable to him. Thus on the occasion of his accession when making the infamous Declaration which brands as idolaters so many millions of his Catholic subjects it was noted that when he came to the hateful words he hurried over them with the greatest possible haste and said them in so low a tone that they were practically inaudible — thus showing his personal sympathy with Catholic feeling in the matter and his personal distaste for the duty which Parliament had stupidly and perversely thrust upon him. Apart from his personal qualities, Edward Vll.'s career as a King — short though it has been — has been very promising. It is true that under the present regime of constitutional monarchy the King no longer possesses such powers of producing rapidly tremendous results for good or evil as attached to the sovereign in the old days, when the monarch was absolute and supreme. Still, there are a great variety of matters, none of which in themselves are perhaps of very great significance, on which it is very important that the King should steadily and consistently arrive at sound judgments, and in the multitude of these small but not unimportant routine duties of kingship Edwabd Ylf. has so far made no false step. So far as the larger sphere of kingly activity is concerned, there have been two occasions on which he has exhibited qualities of statesmanship which go far to show that his reign is at least opening out on right lines. The first was his decision, immediately after the late Queen's death, to adhere to the plan of sending his only surviving son— the Duke of Cornwall— to open the first Parliament of the Australasian Commonwealth, and to even extend the Duke's mission so as to make it embrace practically the whole of the British possessions. We do not make much of the sentimental side of the incident, for there is no reason to suppose that the King's feelings as a father are any stronger than anyone else's, and many thousands of good men have had to make precisely the same sacrifice without ever being considered as special heroes or martyrs on that account. But what we do think noteworthy is the sagacity shown by the King in seeing the desirableness of such an undertaking at such a critical period of the Empire's history, and in realising the appreciable effect it would be likely to have on the tide of colonial loyalty and Imperialism. The second occasion on which the King has displayed statesmanship of the right kind has been in connection with the termination of the late war. According to the cables in Tuesday Vpapers Home newspapers are agreed that the King used his personal influence to secure peace, and they predict that he will be known in history as ' The Peacemaker.' It is an honourable and glorious title, and the King that deserves it has deserved well of the world. * It would indeed be a calamity if anything should happen to cut short a career which promises so well, and we associate ourselves with the regret which has been universally expressed at even the passing prospect of such a possibility. As we have already mentioned, the latest intelligence as to the King's health is entirely reassuring and satisfactory, and it would appear that the important ceremony has been more or less definitely fixed to come off in a few months' time. We can only hope that his Majesty's recovery will be rapid and complete, and that King and people will celebrate the Coronation more gladly and gratefully than ever, because of the disappointment and trial they have been called upon to pass through.