In England.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 2

In England.

In England the change from an absolute monarchy to limited personal rule and from that to present conditions was effected by slow and painful degrees. It is said that George I. — who 'hated all Boets and Bainters' — was greatly disillusioned when he found, after reaching England, that there were, for the times, pretty rigid limits to the exercise of the royal authority, He is alleged to have phrased his disappointment in the following way. ' This,' said he, 'is a strange country. The first morning after my arrival in St. James's I looked out of my window and saw a park with walks, a canal, etc., which they told me were mine. The next day Lord Chetwynd, the ranger of my park, sent me a fine brace of carp out of my canal, and I was told that I must give five guineas to Lord Chetwynd's servant for bringing my own carp out of my canal in my awn park.' The second George held a more liberal view of the position of a king in a constitutional government. cln this country,' said he, ' Ministers are king.' The statement was a bit overdrawn, but it served its immediate purpose of drawing an ' odorous ' comparison between the comparative freedom that existed in England under Parliamentary institutions and the condition to which Germany was reduced under the petty despotism thit prevailed there. The Third George was, on occasion, 'as stubborn as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.' His obstinacy resulted in the ioolish legislation that led to the War of American Independence. He set his face uiih the hardness of flint against Catholic emancipation. He said in reference to the subject : ' I can quit my palace and li\e in a cottage; I can lay my head on a block and lose my life; but I cannot break my oath.' We have already seen how the days of personal rule ended with William IV., and that a new era in the history of British royalty was ushered in with the accession of the late Queen Victoria. And her tactful icco^niuon of the limitations of her office, as well as her personal qualities, did much to consolidate the throne of England at a tune when those of other countries were tottering to their fall.