The Life of King Edward VII
agitation developed, and then came the outburst of Nationalist sympathy
for the Boers, in the House of Commons, when Lord Methuen's defeat was
announced. The result was that his Ministers advised the King not to
undertake the trip at the time proposed, and its postponement was
announced on March 12th, greatly to the regret of many in Ireland and
out of it. Commencing on March 7th the King and Queen Alexandra paid a
brief visit to the West of England and were loyally welcomed at
Dartmouth, Plymouth, Stonehouse and Davenport, where certain official
functions were performed.
On March 14th, King Edward and Queen Alexandra held their first Court,
and it was expected that the occasion would be the most stately and
splendid in the modern social history of the nation. It fully equalled
these anticipations, and the scene in the ball-room of Buckingham Palace
eclipsed even the traditions of the French Imperial Court in the days of
Napoleon III. It was well managed, it was attended by the greatest and
best representatives of English public and social life, it was unusually
brilliant in jewelry, in dresses and in uniforms, it was stately in its
setting and more animated and brighter in character than any similar
function of the late Sovereign's reign--since its early years at least.
The same success attended succeeding and similar occasions, and it might
be distinctly appropriate to quote here views expressed by the _Daily
News_ of February 15th, 1901, when it spoke of the new reign as opening
with splendid promise for the highest interests of the country and with
component elements in its Court for a period of extraordinary social
brilliancy. "King Edward," observed this Radical organ, "is one of the
most popular of Sovereigns, and his beautiful Queen sheds a lustre upon
his Court for which it would be difficult to find a parallel. Amiable,
tender-hearted, actively philanthropic, and possessing exquisite taste,
the Queen Consort is eminently qualified to be the bright particular
star in the shining galaxy of our Court. The Royal Princesses are most
highly accomplished and amiable ladies, each one of whom has achieved
for herself a high place in the affections of the nation."
CHAPTER XIX.
The Empire Tour of the New Heir to the Throne
If Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, had been enabled at different times
in his career to visit various portions of his future realms and to
create influences and receive impulses which have told for good in the
upbuilding of the British Empire, his son and heir was destined to make
a tour in 1901 which was still more impressive in character and
influential in import. The single visits of the Prince of Wales to India
and Canada were made in days when they partook of an almost pioneer
character, and they were chiefly important in moulding crude opinions
into a more matured and organized form. The tour of the Duke and Duchess
of Cornwall and York was, on the other hand, a result of clearly
developed conditions of Colonial power; an embodiment of existing
aspirations toward Empire unity; an expression of the loyalty existing
between Mother Country and the Colonies and toward the Crown and British
institutions.
ORIGIN OF THE TOUR
It was on September 17th, 1900, that the Colonial Office first announced
the assent of Her Majesty the Queen to the request presented by the
combined Australian Colonies that H. R. H. the Duke of York should open
their newly-established Parliament in the spring of 1901. It was stated
in this announcement that "Her Majesty at the same time wishes to
signify her sense of the loyalty and devotion which have prompted the
spontaneous aid so liberally offered by all the Colonies in the South
African war and of the splendid gallantry of her Colonial troops." After
the death of the Queen it was feared that the time might not be
considered opportune for so distant a journey by the Heir to the Throne,
but on February 14th, 1901, the King announced in his speech to
Parliament that the proposed Australian trip would not be abandoned, and
that it would be extended to the Dominion of Canada. "I still desire to
give effect to her late Majesty's wishes * * * as an evidence of her
interest, as well as my own, in all that concerns the welfare of my
subjects beyond the seas."
FROM PORTSMOUTH TO MELBOURNE
As finally constituted the Royal suite consisted of H. S. H. Prince
Alexander of Teck, brother of the Duchess; Lord Wenlock, a former
Governor of Madras; Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, so well known
as the Private Secretary for many years of the late Queen Victoria; Sir
John Anderson, a prominent official of the Colonial Office; Sir Donald
Mackenzie Wallace, the eminent journalist and author; Captain, the
Viscount Crichton, and Lieutenant, the Duke of Roxburghe, who acted as
Military Aides; the Hon. Derek Keppel and Commander Sir Charles Cust,
R.N., who acted as Equerries; the Rev. Canon Dalton as Chaplain;
Commander Godfrey-Tansell, R.N., A.D.C., and Major J. H. Bor, A.D.C.;
Lady Mary Lygon, Lady Catharine Coke and Mrs. Derek Keppel as
Ladies-in-Waiting to the Duchess. Chevalier de Martino, a marine artist;
Mr. Sidney Hall and Dr. A. R. Manby were also attached to the staff. On
March 7th the Duke of York--who had now become also Duke of
Cornwall--left Portsmouth accompanied by his wife and his large suite to
make a nine-months' tour of the Empire; to cover a distance of 50,000
miles by sea and shore under the British flag; and to meet with varied
experiences and an enthusiasm of popular welcome which stamped the whole
journey as the most remarkable Royal progress on record.
Three days after leaving Portsmouth the _Ophir_, which was commanded by
Commander A. L. Winslow, most luxuriously fitted up and accompanied by
H. M. S. _Juno_ and the _St. George_, sighted the coast of Portugal,
sailed into sunny waters off the shores at Lisbon and reached Gibraltar
on March 13th, where the Royal visitors were welcomed by General Sir
George White, of Ladysmith fame, and who had been Governor for about a
year. From the Rock the _Ophir_ was escorted by two other ships of the
Royal Navy to Malta, where Admiral Sir John Fisher and the Mediterranean
fleet helped to render the welcome interesting and imposing, and from
thence to Port Said and through the Suez Canal to Aden. Here a
picturesque reception was given to the Duke and Duchess in a pavilion
festooned with lights and filled with Indian and Arab ladies in robes of
silks, officers in white uniforms, the Sultans of two tributary States
and their dusky retinues. Surrounded by a guard of honour from the West
Kent Regiment, with towering mountains of brown lava in the distance,
and with groups of Somalis, Arabs, Hindoos and Seedees gazing at "the
great lord of the seas," the Prince received an address of welcome. From
here, through sweltering days and heated nights, the Royal yacht
traversed the Indian Ocean until Ceylon--"the pearl set in sapphires and
crowned with emeralds"--was reached on April 12th.
At Colombo, amidst a revel of Oriental colour and a luxurious waste of
Eastern vegetation; with guards composed of planters in kharki, Bombay
Lancers in turbans, and Lascoreen troops in crimson and gold; surrounded
by dense crowds of dancing and shouting natives, His Royal Highness
received the official welcome of the Legislature and Municipal Councils
and the Chamber of Commerce. Thence the Royal party proceeded inland to
Kandy, winding their way upward through an exquisite mountain region
where the fantastic shapes and eternal green of the mountain sides and
the valleys and the gorges gleamed and radiated with colour from a
myriad tropical trees, gorgeous orchids, climbing lilies and enormous
ferns. The town itself was a bower of beauty, and here the visitors saw
the Temple of the Tooth, which is an object of adoration to hundreds of
millions in Burmah, China and India; the procession of the Elephants--a
weird portion of the Buddhist ritual; the devil dancers, who excel the
Dervishes of the Soudan in the fantastic nature of their antics. On the
succeeding day the Duke received an address from the planters of the
Island, enclosed in a beautiful coffer of ivory; presented colours to
the Ceylon Mounted Infantry, and medals to men who had returned from
South Africa; and in the evening held a Durbar, at which the native
Chiefs were presented.
A WILD SEA OF EASTERN COLOR
From Kandy back to Colombo went the Royal visitors, and at the capital
they found "the white streets and blood-red earth were rivers of light
and colour," as one picturesque correspondent described the scene. The
British flag was there, and British merchants and the British Governor
in the person of Sir J. West Ridgeway were there; but all else was a
wild sea of Eastern colour; a myriad-voiced tribute of the torrid and
brilliant tropics to the power of Western civilization. After a night on
board the _Ophir_, with the war-ships in the harbour a blaze of colour
and festooned with fire, the visitors left for Singapore on April 16th
and arrived there five days later. Through the Straits of Malacca an
experience was had of the most intense heat and keen tropical
discomfort. The Duke and Duchess were received at Singapore in a
pavilion hung with flags and flowers, by the Governor, Sir Frank
Swettenham, and by the Sultans of Pahang, Perak and Selangor. This
interesting trading centre, with its four hundred and fifty million
dollars' worth of commerce and its population of mingled Chinese, Dutch
and Germans, was ablaze with decorations and filled with holiday-makers.
A Royal reception was held in the Town-Hall on April 22nd attended by
Chinese, Arabs, Malays, Tamils and representatives of all the medley of
blood which makes up the East. There were a dozen deputations bringing
addresses and adding to the steadily accumulating caskets of gold and
silver and ivory and precious stones which the Duke was destined to
possess in a measure only excelled by his Royal father's collection in
the past.
The Malays contributed an elephant's tusk set in gold, the men of Penang
a great bamboo set in gold, and the Chinese of Malaya a fire-screen
worked with Oriental skill and beauty. After this ceremony, and
including dinner, the Duke and Duchess drove through the Chinese
quarters and in the evening witnessed the strange procession of figured
reptiles and demons, dragons and monsters of distorted fancy, which
marked Chinese pleasure and indicated the loyalty of the coolies as
their costly decorations and caskets and the presence at functions of
richly-dressed men and women had already illustrated the loyalty of the
merchant class. An incident of the afternoon was the singing by five
thousand school-children of mixed Eastern races and the presentation of
a bouquet to the Duchess. The effect of "God Save the King" in their
quaint, native accents was described as being strangely pathetic. On the
following morning the _Ophir_ steamed out of the harbour bound for
Australia and left eastern civilization behind for the forms and customs
of England transplanted upon Australian soil. The shores of Sumatra were
coasted, the Straits of Banka, the Sea of Java and the beautiful Straits
of Sunda were traversed; the Equator was crossed and His Royal Highness
willingly subjected to the quaint and immemorial usages of the occasion;
the Indian Ocean traversed and two thousand five hundred miles of this
part of the journey experienced before the shores of the
island-continent were sighted on May 1st.
The formal landing at Melbourne, for which all Australia was looking,
took place on May 6th and the splendour of the reception far exceeded
all expectations. For many weeks the people of the Commonwealth had been