The Life of King Edward VII
events, rich in national and Imperial developments, conspicuous in the
importance of its discussions and international controversies. The first
brief months, which have been already reviewed, saw the completion of
the memorable Empire tour of the new Prince of Wales and the settling
down of Australia to a life of national unity and progress; the
conclusion of the South African War and the beginning of an
extraordinary process of unification which was in a few years to evolve
the Union of South Africa; the almost spectacular incidents of the
Coronation and the important proceedings of the Colonial Conference of
1902. In July of this latter year the Marquess of Salisbury retired and
was succeeded in the Premiership by his nephew, Arthur J. Balfour. To
the King this meant the removal of a strong arm and powerful intellect
and respected personality from his side and increased the importance of
his own experience and _prestige_ as a statesman.
Something has already been said of the qualities with which King Edward
entered upon his task and with which it was conducted to the moment when
in passing to his rest he said: "It is all over, but I think I have done
my duty." The unique feature of his career in a personal sense was his
amazing popularity, the real affection with which every class in the
great community of the British Isles regarded him. In the days of his
unofficial labours as Prince of Wales, Lord Beaconsfield greatly
esteemed him and Mr. Gladstone was "devotedly attached" to him. At the
latter's funeral the Prince went up to Mrs. Gladstone and in a spirit of
spontaneous courtesy bent over her hand and kissed it with an air of
sympathy so great as to be beyond the expression of words. It was little
acts such as this that won unstinted liking for the man as well as
loyalty to the King. It was this magnetism of the kindly heart, this
instinctive courtesy of character, coupled with a remarkable dignity of
bearing at the right moment and in the right place, and a rare memory
for faces and incidents and peoples and places, that made King Edward so
truly the Sovereign of his people. In this connection a religious orator
of the Radical type in London--Rev. R. J. Campbell--told an audience in
Toronto, Canada, on July 22, 1903, that "Queen Victoria is gone but her
son remains and I would not exchange King Edward, with all the criticism
that has been directed against him, for any Sovereign ruler on the face
of the earth or any President of any Republic on either side of the
water."
Following the visit to Paris of this year, which paved the way for
better relations in the future between Britain and France, the King made
a successful tour of a part of Ireland--July 21st to August 1st--and
impressed himself upon the mercurial temperament of the sons of Erin. In
September came the memorable retirement of Mr. Chamberlain from the
Balfour Government; his declaration of devotion to the new-old ideal of
limited protective tariffs for the United Kingdom _plus_ preferential
duties in favour of the external Empire; the split in the Conservative
party and the presentation of a great issue to the people which,
however, was clouded over by other policies in either party and had not,
up to the time of the King's death, won a clear presentation to the
people as a whole. Mr. Chamberlain's letter to Mr. Balfour dated
September 8th expressed regret that the all-important question of fiscal
reform had been made a party issue by its opponents; recognised the
present political force of the cry against taxing food and the
impossibility of immediately carrying his Preferential policy; suggested
that the Government should limit their immediate advocacy to the
assertion of greater fiscal freedom in foreign negotiations with a power
of tariff retaliation, when necessary, as a weapon; and declared his own
intention to stand aside, with absolute loyalty to the Government in
their general policy but in an independent position, and with the
intention of "devoting myself to the work of explaining and popularizing
those principles of Imperial union which my experience has convinced me
are essential to our future welfare and prosperity." In his reply the
Premier paid high tribute to Mr. Chamberlain's services to the Empire,
sympathized personally with his Imperial ideals and agreed with him that
the time was not ripe for the Government or the country to go to the
extreme length of his Preferential policy.
Mr. Chamberlain's action and policy gave a thrill of pleasant
hopefulness to Imperialists everywhere; it stirred up innumerable
comments in the British, Colonial and Foreign press; it made Germany
pause in a system of fiscal retaliation and tariff war into which she
had intended to enter with Canada--and with Australia and South Africa
if they presumed to grant a tariff preference to Britain. Meanwhile, the
King had suffered the loss, a personal as well as national one, of Lord
Salisbury's retirement from office and his death not long afterwards;
the Balfour-Chamberlain Government had struggled along until the Tariff
Reform movement, as above described, broke in upon and dissipated the
party's unanimity of opinion and uniformity of action; a long series of
Liberal victories at bye-elections reduced the Conservative majority
from 134 as it was in 1900 to 69 in November, 1905; Mr. Balfour, in his
Newcastle speech of November 14th, defined his fiscal policy as (1)
Retaliation with a view to compelling the removal of some of the
restrictions in Foreign markets and (2) the calling of a Conference of
Empire leaders to arrange, if possible, a closer commercial union of the
Empire. As to himself he had never been and was not now "a
protectionist." In December he resigned and the King called on Sir H.
Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal Leader in the Commons, to form a
Government.
A general election followed in which the Liberals swept the great towns
of the country--excluding London and Birmingham--and came back with the
largest majority in modern English history; the total of the Labour,
Home Rule, Liberal and Radical majority being 376 over the supporters of
Tariff Reform. The result, however, evoked on February 14, 1906, a
declaration from Mr. Balfour in favour of "a moderate general tariff on
manufactured goods and the imposition of a small duty on Foreign corn,"
and this united the Conservative or Unionist party with the exception of
about sixteen Free-trade members who still followed the Duke of
Devonshire. The rise of the Labour Party began at this election; the
serious illness of Mr. Chamberlain followed and hampered Conservative
work and progress; the retirement of the Premier took place early in
1908 and, on April of that year, the King called on Mr. Asquith to form
the Ministry which carried its election in 1910 by so small a Liberal
majority. The reconstruction of 1908 was notable for the rise or
promotion of the fighting, aggressive, youthful elements in the new
Liberalism--men like David Lloyd-George, Winston Churchill and Reginald
McKenna. There followed the establishment of Old-Age Pensions at an
initial expenditure of $40,000,000 a year; the prolonged and ultimately
successful struggle to increase the taxation upon landed interests,
property, and invested income by means of the much-discussed Budget of
1909; the natural resentment of the Lords, the Conservatives, and many
who were neither--as illustrated in the subsequent wiping out of the
Liberal majority in England itself; the constitutional issue which the
Liberals so cleverly forced to the front with the House of Lords as
their chief antagonists and which relegated Tariff Reform temporarily to
the background; the prolonged period in which King Edward took minute
and anxious and personal interest in the question.
There can be no doubt as to this interest or as to the natural and valid
reasons for it. A House of Lords, either abolished or existing without
power in the constitution, would leave no check upon the Commons except
the King and this might be bad for both the Commons and the Sovereign.
Over and over again in English history the people have reversed the
action or vote of the Commons but if this was ever to be done in future
it could only be through the interjection of the King's veto, and the
bringing of the Crown into the hurly-burly of party struggle. This would
be the very thing which all parties had hitherto endeavoured to prevent
and for at least seventy years had been successful in preventing. Then
came the general elections of 1909-10, with their continual query as to
what the King would do if the Liberals did win. Would he accept the
Government's policy and the proposed Commons legislation as to the Lords
and thus take an active part in the destruction of one portion of the
constitution which he was pledged to guard--through and by means of the
creation of hundreds of peers to swamp the Conservative vote in that
House? Or would he take the situation boldly in hand and insist on
another election with this question of practical abolition of the Lords
as the distinct issue before the people? It was little wonder that His
Majesty's physicians should declare after his death that the political
situation had been one of its causes! It must be remembered that in all
countries the Upper House and the aristocracy are natural and
inevitable, if not necessary, adjuncts to and supporters of a Throne.
Where, as in Britain, that House and that aristocracy have upon the
whole much to be proud of in personal achievement, much to be credited
with in social legislation and still more to be approved of in the
individual public work of its Salisburys, Roseberys, Devonshires, and a
multitude of other historic personalities with, also, a close and vital
interest in the country through large landed responsibilities, the
situation can readily be appreciated. Not that the Monarchy was an issue
in itself; but there can be no doubt, despite such speeches as the
following quotation from Mr. Winston Churchill's address at Southport on
December 8, 1909, that King Edward felt the danger of weakening his
immediate, natural and fitting environment of (with certain exceptions)
an energetic and patriotic aristocracy surrounding a popular Throne:
"There is no difficulty in vindicating the principle of a
hereditary monarchy. The experience of every country and of all the
ages show the profound wisdom which places the supreme leadership
of the state beyond the reach of private ambition and above the
shocks and changes of party strife. And, further, let it not be
forgotten that we live under a limited and constitutional monarch.
The Sovereign reigns but does not govern; that is a maxim we were
all taught out of our school-books. The British monarchy has no
interests divergent from those of the British people. It enshrines
only those ideas and causes upon which the whole British people are
united. It is based upon the abiding and prevailing interests of
the nation and thus, through all the swift changes of the last
hundred years, through all the wide developments of a democratic
state, the English monarchy has become the most secure, as it is
the most ancient and the most glorious monarchy in the whole of
Christendom."
While all this political change and controversy was going on the King
was performing a multitude of personal and social and State duties.
There was always the vast amount of detailed study of current
documents--all of which he looked into before signing as had Queen
Victoria before him; there was the strenuous and incessant round of
State functions including the reception of visiting Sovereigns and
ambassadors, and special deputations, visits to cities and towns and the