The Life of King Edward VII
cost for the visitor's accommodation. The usual reception followed
together with a great banquet. Sport was the occupation of the next day
and in the evening a procession took place through the illuminated city
to dine at the Palace with the Maharajah. A feature of the latter's
entertainment was an extraordinary sacred dancing drama by Lamas from
Thibet. The departure on the following morning occurred amid all the
state that Cashmere could present--and that was not little. At
Wazirabad, on the way back to Lahore, a brief visit was paid, a great
bridge inaugurated and a banquet accepted. Government House was reached
in the evening and, with Lieutenant-Governor Sir H. Davies, His Royal
Highness then attended a Native entertainment at the College and
witnessed fireworks lighting up all the forts and battlements and a sea
of heads in the distant darkness.
After a quiet Sunday at Lahore, the departure was made for Agra. On the
way Umritzur was visited and the route to the Fort was lined and arched
with artificial cypress-trees, gilded branches and garlands. An address
was presented from the Municipality in which Sikh, Mohammedan and Hindoo
united in expressions of fervent loyalty. Here the Golden Temple was
visited. At Rajpoorah a stop was made to accept a banquet from the
Maharajah of Puttiala in a beautiful palace of canvas. Early on January
25th Agra was reached and the usual Oriental reception and procession
followed. At the camp on the following day a Levee was held and a large
number of Native Chiefs presented. In the afternoon the troops of the
latter passed in review before the Prince--a mixture of thousands of men
and elephants, camels, horses and bullocks, and knights in armour.
The principal event of the ensuing day was a visit to the famous and
exquisite Taj Mahul--"too pure, too holy, to be the work of human
hands." During the next few days some time was spent in shooting with
the Maharajah of Bhurtpore; a grand ball was given at the Fort; a long
interview granted Sir Dinkur Rao, the Native statesman; local convents
and schools visited; the tomb of Akbar the Great--described as the
grandest in the world--seen at Sekundra; a visit paid to the loyal
Maharajah of Gwalior at Dholepoor. The next point visited was the famous
old fortress of Bhurtpore and then the beautiful city of Jeypoor. Here
the Prince went tiger shooting with the Rajpoot Chiefs and shot his
tiger and, in the evening of February 5th, saw illuminations in which
every Indian device appeared to have been exhausted. From the
hospitalities of the Maharajah the Prince, however, soon turned away
with his face towards the Himalayas and his heart in the prospective
period of sport and liberty. The land of Kumaoun was the scene and with
him was a camp which included twenty-five hundred persons without
counting a perambulating army of provision carriers. Bears, elephants,
tigers, wild boars and varied birds and game were amongst the trophies
of his gun during a period of splendid sport which lasted until March
6th.
On that day the Prince resumed his tour and his Royal state and
proceeded to Allahabad where he was met by Lord Northbrood and held a
reception and an investiture of the Star of India at which Major-General
Sir Samuel Browne, V.C., Major-General Sir D. M. Probyn and
Surgeon-General Sir J. Fayrer received the ensignias of knighthood. The
route was then continued to Indore and, on the way, the Prince stopped
long enough at Jubalpoor to see seven Thugs who had been in jail for
thirty-five years for having committed an immense number of murders--one
of them boasted sixty-five. At Indore, His Royal Highness was received
by the Maharajah Holkar with due state and went through the usual
programme of reception, visits and banquets--important in this case as
being the last. Bombay was reached on March 11th and two days later all
farewells were made and the future Emperor of India had left the shores
of that mysterious, tragic and historical land, after having travelled
in seventeen weeks seven thousand six hundred miles by land and two
thousand three hundred miles by sea; met more Chiefs and notabilities
than all the Indian Viceroys of the past put together; and seen more of
the country and its surface life and varied customs than any living man.
HE MEETS LORD LYTTON AT SUEZ
Before leaving the Prince addressed a letter to the Viceroy expressing
appreciation of the reception given to him and of the loyalty shown by
the people. On the way home news came that Lord Lytton, the first
representative of the Queen as Empress of India, was on the way out. As
a personal friend of the Prince of Wales it was fitting that they should
meet at Suez, where the new Viceroy came on board. At Cairo, the Prince
was welcomed by the Khedive and his suite and a new round of gaiety
commenced, including visits to the Pyramids and a little quiet shooting.
At Alexandria, on April 2nd the Prince entertained the Grand Duke Alexis
of Russia at dinner on the _Serapis_. The next point touched was Malta,
where the thunder of the saluting fleet and fortress made the heavens
ring. Here, seven addresses were presented and much enthusiasm shown by
the populace. A great banquet was given by Sir W. and Lady Straubenzee
and on April 7th new colours were presented by His Royal Highness to
the 98th Regiment. Other functions followed. On April 15th the Prince
was joined by his brother, the Duke of Connaught. The Island was _en
fete_, and one of the events of the visit was the reception of a
deputation from the Sultan of Morrocco. The festive proceedings of the
time were wound up with a great ball.
WELCOMED IN SPAIN
The Prince of Wales landed _incognito_ at Cadiz on April 20th and then
proceeded, with the Duke of Connaught quietly to visit Seville and
Cordova. At Madrid, which was reached on April 25th, the Royal party
were formally welcomed by King Alfonso XII. and attended a state
reception at the Palace. A military review was held by the King, and
then a train was taken for the Palace of the Escurial, where King
Alfonso acted as guide for his Royal guests amidst the bewildering
artistic and other treasures of that immense and historic pile. Various
functions of stately dignity followed the return of the Prince to
Madrid, and the departure of the Duke for London, and the incidents of
the period included attendance at a sitting of the Spanish Cortes, and
the spectacle of a bull-fight. On April 30th His Royal Highness departed
for Lisbon, where, on the following day, he was formally welcomed by
King Louis of Portugal, his Court, the Foreign Ministers and the British
Admirals of the fleet in the Tagus. There were no flags, or arches, or
decorations, or tokens of welcome in the streets of Lisbon, but there
was a vast mass of silent and respectful people. Many functions followed
during the next few days and on May 7th the _Serapis_ started once more
for England. Four days later the ship was met by a yacht bearing the
Princess of Wales and the Royal children and, in a few hours, the Heir
Apparent was again at home from his famous journey and receiving a
welcome at Portsmouth which was a fitting prelude to similar greetings
in London and elsewhere.
Such a tremendous experience as this tour had proved could not but have
a pronounced and important effect. The burden of a continuous succession
of events in which he was the central figure; the strain of a steady
succession of brilliant spectacles presenting a kaleidoscopic variety of
sight and sound and splendour and incident; the weight of a constant
burden of ceremonial and state observances in a land where the slightest
carelessness, or indifference, or cordiality--at the wrong moment--meant
mortal offense to some important dignitary, caste, or interest; the
physical trial of innumerable functions to a man clad in European
costumes in a tropical climate; the infinite variety of his duties, the
peculiar character of the hours maintained, the lack of sleep and the
continuous round of banquets; must have tried the mind and heart and
body about equally. In the end the experience must have broadened the
conceptions and ideas of the Prince; educated him in a better perception
of his immense responsibilities; trained him in an iron school of
etiquette and helped to teach him that inflexible routine of duty which
must ever face a British Sovereign.
To the people of India the tour brought home a clearer perception of the
personal power presiding over their destinies and a vivid picture of the
greatness of the authority before which all their greatest dignitaries
with the traditions of many thousand years, bowed in loyal obeisance. To
the imaginative Indian mind nothing more effective could have been
presented than the scenes of that brilliant and triumphal passage
through the stamping ground of ancient conquerors. To the people of
Great Britain it brought home a more realizable sense of the vastness of
their dominions and the equivalent greatness of their national duty and
responsibility. It helped to lay the foundation of that Imperial future
of which Disraeli then dreamed and for which others have since laboured
with a measure of success shown in the events preceding and following
the accession of Edward VII., King and Emperor.
CHAPTER IX.
Thirty Years of Public Work
During the years between 1872 and the end of the century the Prince of
Wales filled a place in public affairs not unlike that of the Prince
Consort in the later and ripest period of his useful life. He grew
steadily in the faculties which make for wisdom in council and action
while retaining and developing the qualities which make for popularity
and, in a Prince, may embody the characteristics and feelings of his
nation. In those thirty years he saw much and travelled far; met many
men of varied qualities and attainments and character; learned much by
personal experience and observation and much from other people's
experience; tested almost the pinnacle of earthly splendour in his
Indian tour and learned in private something of the suffering which
comes to all individuals whether great or little. He created the
position of Heir Apparent as now understood; gave it a significance and
value never before attained to; and filled it with a tact and ability
which no detraction or misrepresentation could practically affect, and
which in time made him the admittedly most all-round popular man in the
United Kingdom.
Before his illness the Prince had carried out a good many public
engagements and helped a great number of useful objects. After that
event and the outpouring of popular sentiment which found vent in the
National Thanksgiving he became still more devoted to his round of
public duties. On July 5th 1872, His Royal Highness visited the new
Grammar School at Norwich and inspected the Norfolk Artillery Militia
of which he was Honorary Colonel. At a banquet given by the Mayor he
referred to his late illness, in expressing thanks for local sympathy,
and added: "It is difficult now for me to speak upon that subject but as
it has pleased Almighty God to preserve me to my country I hope I may
not be ungrateful for the feeling which has been shown towards me and
that I may do all that I can to be of use to my countrymen." On July
25th, he reviewed four thousand boys of the Training ships and Pauper
Schools of the Metropolitan Unions at South Kensington, and distributed
prizes. The Prince was accompanied by the Princess of Wales and his
sons. A little later, on August 11th, the Breakwater at Portland was
inaugurated, the Royal yacht being accompanied from Osborne by a
splendid fleet of fifteen ironclads. At the conclusion of the ceremony
the Prince visited Weymouth, which was gaily decorated, and where he
accepted a public banquet.