The Life of King Edward VII
saw him cheating. He was privately accused of the offence, denied it
vehemently, and brought the matter before the Prince, who practically
acted as judge and regretfully told him that there could be no doubt of
his guilt.
It was, perhaps the most difficult position the Prince of Wales had ever
been placed in. To hand a friend and fellow-guest and well-known soldier
over to justice meant in this case ruin to the man himself, disgrace to
their host and his family and a considerable amount of discredit to the
Prince. Of the latter point it is probable that the Prince thought
least, as his fidelity to friends was always well-known. Yet to let the
apparently guilty man go without punishment or restriction was
impossible from every standpoint. The Prince, therefore, tried to square
his duty all round by a compromise and made Sir W. Gordon-Cumming sign a
pledge to never play at cards again. The natural result followed where
at least seven people hold a secret of much importance. It became known,
or rather rumored, the resignation of the baronet from the Army was not
accepted pending inquiry and, finally, he precipitated the issue by
sueing the committee of five--Mrs. Arthur Wilson, Mr. Stanley Wilson,
Mr. and Mrs. Lycett Green and Mr. Berkeley Levett--for scandal. Sir
Charles Russell acted for the defence and Sir Edward Clarke for the
plaintiff and, after a sensational trial, the action was dismissed.
The case created the most intense interest and for a time His Royal
Highness was the most criticised man in the United Kingdom. Press and
pulpit thundered forth denunciations of gambling and card-playing, and
lectured the Prince upon his duty to the nation and his responsibility
for public morality. Every extreme religious speaker or writer, every
Radical paper, or pamphleteer, or lecturer found the Heir to the Throne
an excellent subject for abuse, while the best papers abroad teemed with
reflections which could hardly be termed generous. Speaking of the
counters which had been used in these games and which were brought by
the Prince personally to Tranby Croft the New York _Tribune_ declared
that in them he had "fingered the fragments of the Crown of England."
Upon one point all the home papers were united and that was that in
trying to arrange and settle the matter the Prince had contravened the
Army regulations.
The better class of papers were very serious upon the subject. The
London _Times_ declared that the Heir Apparent could not put off his
responsibilities as he did his official dress and, while admitting the
assiduity and tact and good-humour with which he performed his dull
round of routine duties, it yet bitterly regretted the example he had
now set. The _Daily News_ thought that the Prince had only been guilty
of an indiscretion, so far as his action toward Gordon-Cumming was
concerned, but went on to say that what was blameless as an example in
meaner men, was very different in one of his exalted position. The
_Standard_ denounced the whole affair from beginning to end. "The Prince
of Wales is not as other men. His position demands a sobriety, a
self-restraint, and a dignity from which people of less exalted
position and lighter responsibilities are absolved." The religious press
put no bounds to its denunciation. The _Christian World_ spoke of the
matter as an "outrage to the public conscience" and the _British Weekly_
thought it "enough to sober the strongest supporters of the Monarchy."
Resolutions were passed at some Church meetings of a similar character.
AFTERMATH OF THE INCIDENT
Then the re-action came. His Royal Highness expressed to the Military
authorities and the House of Commons his apologies for an unintentional
infraction of Army regulations; it was pointed out that playing a game
of cards in a private house was not setting a public example and that
the situation was so unique that any man in the Prince's place would
have been pardoned in not knowing what to do; the cause of the trouble
was dismissed from the Army and expelled from his clubs. The _Daily
Telegraph_ pointed out that the carrying of the Baccarat counters, which
was apparently deemed the most serious part of the matter by many
commentators, was a very common habit with players of this game as the
symbols for money tended to moderation in playing, and were better in
every way than slips of paper. Years afterwards, Mr. Arnold White stated
it as a fact that these famous bits of pasteboard were actually a
present from the Princess of Wales. The public came to feel after the
first hasty judgment was given that, after all, the Prince had risked a
good deal for a friend and the _Observer_ went so far as to say that
"under the most difficult and trying circumstances His Royal Highness
has acted as ninety-nine Englishmen out of a hundred would have done."
The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Berry, the eminent Non-conformist divine,
declared that the people were not going to be unduly severe in their
judgment. "They recognize the fact that he does a great deal of public
work and is compelled to live almost continually a life of unnatural
pressure. It is, therefore, to say the least, understandable that he
should seek pleasure and relaxation in some form of excitement."
Then the issue cooled down as suddenly as the tempest had arisen, and
before long it would have been hard to recognize that so stormy a stage
of criticism had swept over the popular Prince's head. In the _Life_ of
Archbishop Benson, published many years afterwards, there appeared a
long letter from the Heir Apparent in answer to a note of sympathy
received at this time from His Grace. The Prince spoke of the "deep pain
and annoyance" which the Baccarat incident had caused him; of the recent
trial which had given the press occasion "to make most bitter and unjust
attacks upon me, knowing I was defenceless--and I am not sure that
politics were not mixed up in it." Speaking of the papers and the
Nonconformists, who had been especially strong in their remarks, he
added some interesting expressions as to his general view of gambling.
"They have a perfect right, I am well aware, in a free country like our
own, to express their opinions, but I do not consider that they have a
just right to jump at conclusions regarding myself, without knowing the
facts. I have a horror of gambling, and should always do my utmost to
discourage others who have an inclination for it, as I consider
gambling, like intemperance, is one of the greatest curses which a
country could be afflicted with. Horse-racing may produce gambling, or
it may not, but I have always looked upon it as a manly sport which is
popular with Englishmen of all classes, and there is no reason why it
should be looked upon as a gambling transaction. Alas, those who gamble
will gamble at anything."
Such were some of the characteristics and habits and social incidents in
the career of King Edward while he was Prince of Wales. They show how
entirely he shared in the life of the majority of the people--a fact all
the more illustrated in the occasions when he departed from his natural
and usual course and seemed to participate in matters outside of the
accepted and popular pursuits of the people. It is the picture of a man
who loved his England, liked life and its pleasures, hated humbug,
enjoyed sport, did his duty as it came to him and liked the play, the
race-course and all the sports of a healthy, hearty Englishman. They
prove the accuracy of that interesting description penned in his _Diary_
by the King of Sweden and which, somehow, became public: "The Heir
Apparent to the British Throne is Prince of Wales by name, Prince of
Society by inclination, Prince of Good Fellows by nature."
CHAPTER XV.
The Prince as an Empire Statesman
The breadth of view shown by the late Prince Consort was one of his
greatest and most marked qualities. He seemed to have the faculty of
seeing further into the future than most men and of preparing his own
mind for developments which were yet hidden from the view of
contemporary statesmen. Hence his famous Exhibition of 1851 and the
realization of the fact that to encourage trade and commerce some
knowledge of the world's products and resources was not only desirable
but necessary. Hence the early perception, which he shared with the
Queen, of the coming importance of the Colonies and of the necessity of
bringing the Crown into touch with those over-sea democracies which were
growing up to nationhood in such neglected fashion and with such little
practical concern in the Motherland. Hence the dislike of the Queen and
himself--because she had the statesman's understanding as well as her
husband--to the Manchester school, and their opposition to the line of
thought which said that Colonies were useless except for commerce and
not much good for that. Hence the Queen's long-after regard for Lord
Beaconsfield and her appreciation of his stirring and romantic
Imperialism.
The Prince of Wales unquestionably inherited this capacity for
statecraft from his parents. Natural and hereditary pride in his future
Crown and in the greatness of the United Kingdom was developed by
teaching and study and visits into an intense pride in the vast Empire
which grew so rapidly from year to year around his country and under
its Crown. Having a broader and saner outlook than many of those about
him, without the spur of ordinary ambitions, or the hampering influence
of partisan considerations, he was enabled to view this development more
carefully, wisely, and clearly than the busy diplomatist or the
much-occupied statesman. Hence the pleasure with which he saw the
Imperial Federation League formed in 1884 and watched the efforts of Mr.
W. E. Forster and Lord Rosebery to build upon the preliminary principles
already evolved by Lord Beaconsfield. It was not long before he saw an
opportunity to promote this sentiment of unity and encourage the
extension of Imperial trade. He had visited different parts of the
Queen's dominions and understood something of the immense possibilities
which were still lying dormant. His sons had since travelled over an
even larger portion of the Empire and had, no doubt, in private as well
as in their published journals, told him much of the more recent
progress of those great outlying communities. Contemporaneously,
therefore, with the founding of the League just mentioned, His Royal
Highness proposed the holding of a great Exhibition which should meet
the new needs of the time as his father's had done in 1851. Then, the
interests of British trade were cosmopolitan and Colonial development
slight and unimportant to the immediate concerns of England. Now,
British commerce was contracting with foreign countries and steadily
growing with British countries. Hence the new Exhibition should, he
thought, be confined to British resources and products and be Imperial
instead of international.
On November 10th, 1884, the Queen issued a Royal Commission to arrange
for the holding of an Exhibition of the products, manufactures and arts
of Her Majesty's Colonial and Indian dominions in the year 1886. The
Prince of Wales was to be President and Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen,
Secretary, of the Commission. The first meeting took place at
Marlborough House on March 30th, 1885, with His Royal Highness in the
chair. Amongst the members present were F. M. the Duke of Cambridge, the
Marquess of Salisbury, the Marquess of Lorne, the Earl of Derby, the
Earl of Dalhousie, Earl Cadogan, the Earl of Kimberley, the Earl of
Lytton, F. M. Lord Strathnairn, Mr. Edward Stanhope, Sir Stafford
Northcote, Mr. W. E. Forster, Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach, Sir H. T. Holland,
Sir John Rose, Sir R. G. W. Herbert, Sir Charles Tupper of Canada, Sir
Arthur Blyth of South Australia, Sir F. D. Bell of New Zealand, Sir Saul