The Life of King Edward VII
private houses of his greater subjects, State dinners to men and women
of every school of thought and life in its higher branches, frequent
trips to the Continent and continuous conferences with public men. In
this connection it is interesting to note that just before the General
Elections--towards the close of 1909--he did what no Sovereign had done
for many a long year and did it not only without criticism but with
public approval when he called Lord Lansdowne, Lord Rosebery and Mr.
Balfour into quiet conference regarding the political situation. How
many others of all parties he may have invited to similar discussions in
the privacy of Buckingham or Windsor only such a personage as his
faithful and old-time Secretary, Lord Knollys, really knows. Military
and Naval reviews were amongst the more important general functions of
these years coupled with gracious and conciliatory visits to Ireland in
1904 and 1907. In this latter year he reviewed a magnificent fleet of
warships at Portsmouth eleven miles long, headed by the first of the
Dreadnaughts, and manned by 35,000 officers and men. Upon another
occasion in 1909, the greatest fleet ever gathered together in any
waters in the history of the world was also reviewed by His Majesty as,
perhaps, a comment on the recently revealed crisis caused by German
Naval construction. As to this the King was intensely concerned and we
can safely assume that if one cause of his latter ill-health was
political worry another cause may well have been the Naval rivalry of a
Power which boasted 4,000,000 of a trained Army to Britain's 250,000
men.
With all these varied home duties and his many diplomatic efforts King
Edward never forgot his own external Empire, never overlooked his vast
interests overseas. To India in 1908 had gone a vivid and statesmanlike
Royal Message, on November 2d, which recalled to the minds of its
Princes and peoples their fifty years of progress under the Crown, the
obligations which they were under to the liberty-loving rule of Britain,
and the pride of their Emperor in governing so vast a congeries of races
and interests. To them also in 1906 he had sent the Prince and Princess
of Wales in a tour which repeated his own triumphs of 1876. To South
Africa, upon frequent and appropriate occasions, came expressions of the
King's interest in the people's welfare, in their strivings for unity,
in their efforts to retrieve the misfortunes of war. It was King
Edward's Imperial policy that dictated the sending of the Prince of
Wales to open the first Parliament of the Union of South Africa--a
policy which his own death rendered impossible--as curiously enough, it
had been Queen Victoria's last public duty to send the Duke of
Cornwall--as he then was--to open the first Parliament of the Australian
Commonwealth. It was the King who sent the Duke of Connaught to visit
East Africa in 1906 and Prince Arthur of Connaught to return from Japan
_via_ Canada in the same year. To the people of Australia Lord
Northcote, the new Governor-General, on January 28, 1904, conveyed a
Royal Message of greeting and then proceeded to say that: "Every
constitutional process having for its object the linking together of the
different component parts of this great Empire is sure to be
sympathetically regarded by our Sovereign and I know his hope is that
his people who live outside the narrow seas of Great Britain may believe
that His Majesty regards them primarily, not as inhabitants of colonies
or dependencies of the Mother-country, but as equally valued component
parts of one mighty nation."
As to Canada and King Edward much might be said. On July 22, 1905,
His Majesty was at Bisley and presented the Kolapore Cup to the
proud Canadian team which had won it and to whose Commander,
Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Hesslein, a few kind and tactful words were
addressed. About the same time it was announced that the London Hospital
Fund in which the King had for many years taken a deep personal
interest, and in the maintenance of which he was really the chief power,
had received a gift of $1,000,000 from Lord Mount Stephen of Canadian
Pacific Railway fame. In 1906 His Majesty showed special interest in
Canadian affairs. A cablegram through Lord Elgin, on January 2d,
expressed the King's regret at the sudden death of the Honorable R.
Prefontaine; he received Canadian delegates to the Empire Commercial
Congress at Windsor on July 13th, when Sir D. H. McMillan, Sir Sandford
Fleming, Messrs. R. Wilson-Smith, G. E. Drummond, F. H. Mathewson, J. F.
Ellis and W. F. Cockshutt were presented; a deputation of Indian chiefs
from British Columbia was received by him on August 13th and submitted
an address and a petition; a number of shire-horses were lent by His
Majesty in the autumn for exhibition at Toronto and as a proof of his
interest in that branch of Canadian development. But the chief event of
the year in this respect was Canada's invitation to the King, and Queen
Alexandra, to pay the country and its people a visit. In the House of
Commons on April 18th, the Hon. N. A. Belcourt, seconded by Mr. W. B.
Northrup, moved a Resolution expressive of Canadian loyalty and devotion
to the King's person and of the hope that His Majesty and the Queen
would be pleased to visit Canada at such time as might be found possible
and convenient.
In his short speech the Prime Minister laid stress upon the King's
personal qualities and his work in the cause of peace. Sir Wilfrid
Laurier then made a reference which was probably of more consequence in
the final decision than was supposed at the time, "I believe it is the
opinion of all who sit in this House that if the King were to visit
Canada--and he could not visit Canada without visiting the United States
also--the effect would be to bring more closely together than they are
at the present time--and they are more so than ever before--the two
great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race on both sides of the Atlantic."
This additional suggestion involved tremendous considerations of travel,
functions, ceremonial, time, and responsibility. After being spoken to
by men of such opposite opinions as Colonel S. Hughes and Mr. H.
Bourassa, as well as warmly endorsed by the Opposition Leader, the
Resolution was passed unanimously, as it was later in the Senate. All
the Provincial Legislatures, then in session, joined in this invitation,
while centres such as Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Quebec, Three
Rivers, St. Hyacinthe, Valleyfield, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Woodstock,
Halifax, Sydney, St. John, Fredericton, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver,
Victoria and about forty others warmly endorsed the request; as did
every newspaper of standing in Canada. In reply Lord Elgin, Colonial
Secretary, under date of July 7th wrote a long despatch to the
Governor-General in which he expressed the King's appreciation of the
invitation, his pleasant memories of the Royal visit to Canada in 1860,
and his comprehension of the wonderful growth of the country since that
time, and continued:
"I need scarcely remind Your Lordship of two circumstances which
must not be overlooked in the consideration of these proposals. In
the first place the current business of the Empire, which is
continuous and incessant, imposes a heavy tax on the time and
strength of its Sovereign and it is well known that the absence of
His Majesty from this country for any length of time is difficult,
if not impossible except under very definite limitations and
restrictions; even when considerations of health and the need for
comparative rest can render it expedient. In the second place it
must be remembered that there can be practically no limits within
the habitable globe of the distance which must be traveled to reach
all parts of the British Empire and that it would be very difficult
to visit one important part and decline to visit the other. In
spite of the many and strong inducements which prompt him to
gratify the loyal wishes of his Canadian subjects, I am to say that
the King feels unable at present to entertain the idea of a journey
to Canada."
It would be quite impossible to indicate here the great regret expressed
by the Canadian press, and the people generally, at this result of the
invitation. Many reasons were adduced, other than those given in the
despatch, and including diplomatic requirements in Europe, Royal visits
and delicate negotiations then pending, Eastern troubles and
complications, Australian jealousy if omitted from such a tour, as well
as the difficulties involved in any possible visit to the United States.
During the year a full-length portrait of the King was received at
Government House, Ottawa, painted by Luke Fildes, R.A., and the
portraits of the King and Queen, specially painted by J. Colin Forbes,
the Canadian artist, were also received and hung in the Parliament
Houses. In 1907 King Edward visited the Canadian pavilion at the Dublin
Exhibition of that year and inspected its exhibits while Queen Alexandra
accepted from one of the Departments the gift of a rug made by
French-Canadian women. In the next year much practical appreciation was
shown in Canada of His Majesty's special arrangement under which the
"Life and Letters of Queen Victoria" was offered for sale at a low
popular price; a Royal cablegram of sympathy was sent to the sufferers
by the Fernie (B. C.) fire; the Edward Medal, established by the King
for the recognition of courage in saving or trying to save life in
quarries or mines, was extended to Canada and all parts of the Empire.
In the last year of his reign the King's third Derby victory was a
popular one in Canada and throughout the Empire and his establishment of
a Police Medal for the recognition of "exceptional service, heroism or
devotion to duty" was also applied to Canada and all the British
Dominions. During the year His Majesty presented a gift of money to T.
L. Wood, a blacksmith at Port Elgin, N. S., and accepted a horse-shoe of
exquisite workmanship which had been wrought by him while lying on a
sick-bed; visited and praised the exhibition of British Columbia fruit
at Islington on December 6th.
On October 21, 1909, a Tuberculosis Institute, established at Montreal
by Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Burland, was opened by the King through
special electric communication between the Library of West Dean Park,
Colchester, where he was staying, and the Institute at Montreal, with a
cablegram which read as follows: "I have much pleasure in declaring the
Royal Edward Institute at Montreal now open. The means by which I make
this declaration testifies to the power of modern science and I am
confident that the future history of the Institute will afford equally
striking testimony to the beneficent results of that power when applied
to the conquest of disease and the relief of human suffering. I shall
always take a lively interest in the Institute and I pray that the
blessing of the Almighty may rest upon all those who work in and for it
and also upon those for whom it works. Edward R. & I." On November 20th
His Majesty sent a personal despatch to Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the
following terms: "Let me express my hearty congratulations to you on the
anniversary of your birthday. I hope you will be spared for many years
to come to serve the Crown and Empire, Edward." The Premier replied with
an expression of "humble duty and deep gratitude."
CHAPTER XXV.
The King as a Diplomatist and Peace-Maker.
In the olden days Kings used to very often be their own Generals; in
these modern times King Edward has set an example by means of which they
may well be their own Ambassadors. He had every qualification of
capacity, intellect and trained experience to serve him in such