The Life of King Edward VII
completion and, on May 9th, 1893, was opened by the Queen amidst stately
ceremonial and all the trappings of regal magnificence. Nearly all the
Royal family were present and, in the progress through the streets, a
particularly enthusiastic reception was given to the Duke of York and
Princess May of Teck whose engagement had been very recently announced.
Around Her Majesty and the Prince of Wales, as the latter presented the
address of the Committee, were ranged the most representative men of
England, many Ambassadors, and Indian Princes and Colonial statesmen.
Lord Salisbury, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Mr. H. H. Asquith, Sir William
Harcourt, Lord Rosebery and Lord Randolph Churchill were there, but not
Mr. Gladstone. After a brief description, in the address, of the objects
and history of the Institute, the Prince continued as follows: "We
venture to express a confident anticipation that the Imperial Institute
will not only be a record of the growth of the Empire and of the
marvellous advance of its people in industrial and commercial
prosperity during Your Majesty's reign but will, also, tend to increase
that prosperity by stimulating enterprise and promoting the technical
and scientific knowledge which is now so essential to industrial
development." After some brief words from Her Majesty the great building
was declared open and another important project initiated by the Prince
of Wales had reached completion. The London _Times_ of the succeeding
day referred with accuracy, in this connection, to his "clear-sighted
initiative and untiring energy" and a member of the Executive Committee,
which had the enterprise in hand, wrote to the same paper that during
the past six years "every important step in connection with the
Institute has been taken under the immediate direction of the Prince of
Wales. By his energy men have been moved to action and difficulties
apparently insuperable have been overcome. The result of years of
devoted labour was accomplished to-day."
EARLY ADVOCACY OF IMPERIALISM
These were the two chief products of what may be called the Empire
statesmanship of the Prince of Wales. Long before either of them were
undertaken, however, he had shown a deep and sincere interest in the
unity of the Empire--a natural outcome of his training, his travels, his
individual abilities. For many years he acted as President of the Royal
Colonial Institute, accepting the position at a time when people were
only beginning to awake to the fact that Great Britain was more than an
Island and sea-power and when the Institute was the rallying ground and
centre for a small group of men like the late Duke of Manchester, Lord
Bury, Mr. W. E. Forster and Sir Frederick Young, who devoted much energy
and enthusiasm to the promotion of what long afterwards became known as
Imperialism. The patronage and support of His Royal Highness did very
much to give the movement, in its earlier days, a place and an influence
and to establish the Institute as the factor which history has since
recognized it to have been. It was in this connection, on July 16th,
1881, that the Lord Mayor of London--Sir William McArthur
M.P.--entertained the Prince of Wales at a banquet attended by many
representatives of the Colonies and distinguished guests. In his speech
the Prince referred with extreme regret to his not having been able to
visit all the Colonies, and especially, Australia. He had greatly
desired to accept the invitation extended to him two years before to
visit the Exhibitions at Sydney and Melbourne. "Though, my Lords and
gentlemen I have not had the opportunity of seeing those great
Australian Colonies, which every day and every year are making such
immense development, still, at the International Exhibitions of London,
Paris and Vienna, I had not only an opportunity of seeing their various
products then exhibited, but I had the pleasure of making the personal
acquaintance of many Colonists--a fact which has been a matter of great
importance and great benefit to myself."
A further reference was made to the sending of his sons to visit
Australia and memories of his own tour of British America were revived,
with an expression of special gratification at seeing his "old friend,"
Sir John Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada, present on this occasion.
In August, 1887, the Prince of Wales showed further and practical
interest in Australia by accepting the post of President of the Royal
Commission appointed by the Queen, in England, to promote and help the
Melbourne Exhibition of 1888. The Earl of Rosebery acted as
Vice-President and much was done in making the British exhibit a good
one. Years before this, speaking at the laying of the foundation stone
of the first Melbourne Exhibition--February 19th, 1879--the Governor of
Victoria, Sir George F. Bowen, declared it to be well-known that the
Heir Apparent was animated by "a desire to visit the Australian Colonies
in person should high reasons of state permit." As illustrating the
opinions formed of him by colonial statesmen, the following may be
quoted from the autobiography of that uncouth, clever, patriotic
personality, Sir Henry Parkes: "I met His Royal Highness on several
occasions in London, and he struck me as possessing in a remarkable
degree the princely faculty of doing the right thing and saying the
right word."
Another matter to which the Prince of Wales gave an Imperial character
was the Royal College of Music which he initiated, organized and finally
inaugurated on May 7th, 1883. Upon the latter occasion he explained in
his speech that the institution was open to the whole Empire, that
scholarships had already been provided by Victoria and South Australia,
and that he hoped it might become an Imperial centre of musical
education as well as a British centre. "The object I have in view is
essentially Imperial as well as national, and I trust that ere long
there will be no Colony of any importance which is not represented by a
scholar at the Royal College." During the years which followed, up to
the time of his accession to the Throne, the interest of the Prince of
Wales in everything that helped Imperial unity was continuous and most
earnest. At the Jubilee periods of 1887 and 1897, he entertained many
Colonial statesmen, as he had done at other times when opportunity
served, and he was always delighted to meet them and to discuss the
affairs of their countries with men who naturally knew them best. It was
a process of mental equipment for the government of a vast empire which,
in addition to his early travels, must have made the experience and
knowledge of Queen Victoria's successor as unique as were the conditions
and greatness of his Empire.
During the last Jubilee the Prince presided, on June 18th, as President
of the Imperial Institute, at a banquet given to the Colonial Premiers
and other representatives in London. Upon his right sat Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, Premier of Canada, and upon his left Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the
special Envoy of the United States. Amongst others present were Lord
Salisbury, Sir Hugh Nelson, Premier of Queensland, the Marquess of
Lansdowne, Lord Rosebery and Mr. Chamberlain--all of whom spoke; while
Lord Ripon, Lord Dufferin, Lord Kimberley, the Marquess of Lorne, Sir W.
V. Whiteway, Premier of Newfoundland, Lord Rothschild, Sir Donald Smith
(Lord Strathcona) the Archbishop of Canterbury and a splendid array of
other representative men in Church and State, army and navy, art and
science and literature, were also present. In one of his tactful
speeches on this occasion, His Royal Highness referred to the enormous
growth of the Colonies during the Queen's record reign and expressed the
hope that present peaceful conditions might long continue. "God grant
it," he added, "but if the national flag is threatened I am convinced
that all the Colonies will unite to maintain what exists and to preserve
the unity of the Empire." In little more than a year these words were
fully borne out by events.
But the Prince of Wales was never content to make mere speeches in
advocacy of a principle. His aid to the Royal Colonial Institute and
organization of the Imperial Institute were cases in point. When the
Imperial Federation League was formed he could only help its aims
indirectly because there were political possibilities in its platform,
but when, in 1896, the British Empire League succeeded to its place and
mission, with a broader and more general platform, the Queen and the
Prince extended their patronage to the organization. On April 30, 1900,
a great banquet was given under its auspices to welcome the Australian
Delegates who had gone "home" to discuss the Commonwealth Act, and to
recognize the services rendered by Colonial troops in the South African
war. The Duke of Devonshire occupied the chair, with the Prince of Wales
and the Duke of York on either hand, and next to them again the Dukes of
Cambridge and Fife. The Marquess of Salisbury, Lieutenant Colonel
George T. Denison, President of the League in Canada, Mr. Chamberlain,
Mr. Edmund Barton of Australia and Mr. J. Israel Tarte of Canada were
amongst the speakers, and others present included the Right Hon. C. C.
Kingston, the Hon. Alfred Deakin, the Hon. J. R. Dickson, Sir John
Cockburn and Sir James Blyth of Australia, the Earl of Hopetoun, Lord
Lansdowne, Lord Wolseley, Lord Knutsford, Lord Strathcona, the Earl of
Onslow, the Earl of Jersey, the Earl of Crewe, Lord Kelvin and Earl
Grey. The Prince of Wales was enthusiastically received and
congratulated upon his recent escape from assassination at Brussels.
After some eloquently appropriate remarks upon this point, he welcomed
the Australians in kindly words and then referred to the war. "We little
doubt," he went on, "that in a great war like the one we are now waging
we should have at any rate the sympathy of our Colonies; but it has
exceeded even our expectations. We know now the feeling that existed in
our Colonies and that they have sent their best material, their best
blood and manhood, to fight with us, side by side, for the honour of the
flag and for the maintenance of our Empire." Such words may fittingly
conclude a brief record of the Prince of Wales' interest in Empire
affairs up to the time of his accession to the Throne.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Prince as Heir Apparent
The Heir to a Throne such as that of Great Britain has an exceptionally
difficult place to fill. He has to have the broad sympathies and
knowledge and training of a statesman without the right to express
himself upon any of the political problems and issues of his time; he
has to live in a never-ending blaze of publicity and be liable to
unscrupulous, or too scrupulous, criticism without the power of direct
reply; he has, perhaps, to suffer in private life and character from the
caustic shafts of men at home or abroad who do not like the institution
which he represents; he has to officiate in a ceaseless round of
functions and public ceremonial; he has to travel constantly from Court
to Court in Europe and, in the case of the Prince of Wales, he had to
act for several decades the part of the Sovereign in public life without
the resources or responsibilities which the actual ruler would naturally
possess.
There are, of course, important compensations. He has the foremost place
in every leading national event, the privilege of knowing as intimately
as he pleases the great men of his own and other countries, in every
line of statecraft and human attainment, the pleasure of travel in many
lands and amongst varied scenes and people, the opportunity of taking up
any matter of a non-political character which he deems useful to the
state, the people, or the Empire, with a reasonable certainty of
substantial backing. To succeed, however, in the position as did Albert