The Life of King Edward VII Part 14

"It is but crossing with abated breath And with set face, a little strip of sea, To find the loved ones waiting on the sh.o.r.e More beautiful, more precious than before."

In preparing a national memorial to the eminent Liberal leader the Prince of Wales accepted the post of President of the General Committee with the Duke of Westminster as Chairman of the Executive. With Mr.

Cecil Rhodes, he was long upon terms of intimacy and never concealed his admiration for the great Imperialist's career and objects. There can be no doubt that he knew much of South African affairs and was instrumental in the Duke of Fife taking a place on the Directorate of the South African Chartered Company. The only occasion upon which the Prince ever withdrew from a prominent Club was his retirement from the Traveller's because they had black-balled Mr. Rhodes. Not the smallest evidence of statecraft which the Prince of Wales showed, in a semi-personal way, was his warm sympathy with the emanc.i.p.ation of the Jews and his belief in their absorption into the life and interests of England. His presence at the marriage of Mr. Leopold de Rothschild caused, long since, a sensation in Jewish circles but it was only the first of many compliments which the Heir Apparent bestowed upon the "chosen people" up to the days when one of them became Prime Minister and a daughter of the House of Rothschild married a future Premier--the Earl of Rosebery. The late Baron Hirsch, the present Lord Rothschild. Sir Reuben Sa.s.soon and Sir Moses Montefiore were amongst his personal friends and he made a thorough study of the position of the Russian Jews--showing them practical sympathy in various indirect ways. Of course, this partiality was open to misconstruction and the rumour of indebtedness to Jewish financial interests was so prevalent at one time that Sir Francis Knollys had to write a correspondent, who directly asked the question, an official statement as Private Secretary to the Prince, that the latter had no debts worth speaking of and could pay every farthing he owed at a moment's notice.

There is no question, however, that this friendship with a powerful financial cla.s.s, ruling great interests in every nation, gave the Prince of Wales a much enhanced influence abroad. In the same way his obvious liking for American men and women of standing and ability was marked and did undoubted service in promoting good feeling between the two countries--where it was not grossly and untruthfully misrepresented by sensational journals. Really distinguished visitors from the United States, whether rich or poor, always found a welcome at the hands of His Royal Highness and amongst those whom he appears to have especially liked were James Russell Lowell, Thomas F. Bayard, Whitelaw Reid and Chauncey M. Depew. American women who have been absorbed into English life and society like Lady Harcourt, Mrs. Chamberlain and the d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough were always treated with marked courtesy by both the Princess and himself. His visit to the United States in 1860 had also taught him something of conditions there which those around him were not always fully aware of. Hence the value of the message which was sent to the New York _World_ in the name of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York during the Venezuelan crisis. If it be true that a private letter, a word spoken in season, or a brief drawing-room conversation, is often more influential than a cloud of newspaper writing, then the Prince of Wales was for years a potent force in promoting good-will between the Empire and the Republic.

As a diplomatist there can be no doubt of the Heir Apparent's influence.

He succeeded, in fact, to much of the power held in that respect by the Prince Consort. It was the post of an unofficial and secret personal mediator between the Sovereign of Great Britain and those of other countries. Thoroughly acquainted with the personality of foreign rulers, related to the majority of those in Europe, knowing their degrees of national influence and personal power, familiar with the statesmen's position in Court and Legislature, a.s.sociated more and more closely as the years went on with Queen Victoria's personal view of foreign policy, the Prince's position was one of very great indirect power. Through his heirship to the British throne he was naturally upon terms of something like equality with those whom he met as rulers at Berlin or St.

Petersburg, at Paris or Vienna, and more in sympathy with their point of view than men of less than Royal rank. To quote Mr. George W. Smalley in _McClure's Magazine_ of March, 1901: "His is a strange nature. He has, very fully and strongly, the pride of Kings and what the pride of Kings is, a republican who has lived all his life in a republic can hardly conceive. He has behind him, moreover, the loyalty of an expectant nation." Upon the other hand he knew more about the people and was more of them than any other hereditary ruler or prospective ruler in the world. Hence the strength of his position when conferring with a German Emperor, or a Russian Czar, or talking quietly with some Foreign Minister at a time of crisis.

INCIDENTS OF DIPLOMATIC INFLUENCE

This personal influence of the Heir Apparent was a factor often ignored.

"Again and again," says Mr. Smalley, from the point of view of one who watched for years at the source of power in London, "the Prince has gone abroad as--in effect, though of course never in name--an Amba.s.sador from the Queen to some Sovereign on the Continent. He has laid her views at some critical moments before the German Emperor and carried home the Emperor's response." This sort of personal intercourse must, many a time, have solved vital and serious issues. When William II. visited Windsor in 1899 and the Queen, with the aid of the Prince of Wales, Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain, evolved the terms upon which the countries were to stand in regard to the coming South African war, can there be any doubt as to the place in these negotiations which the Heir Apparent held, or as to the advantage which his many earlier visits to Berlin in the days of Bismarck and the Kaiser's initiatory years of rule, must have been to him? The result of this intercourse was, in the end, the turning of a possible national enemy into a friend; the change of the Emperor who wrote the famous Transvaal cablegram into the ruler who took the first train and boat to Windsor and bowed his head at the death-bed of Queen Victoria.

Another interesting incident in this connection may be found in the friendship known to have existed between the Prince of Wales and the Czar of Russia. Nicholas II. bore the same relationship of nephew to him that was borne by William II. and, like the other Imperial ruler, came to bear a similar feeling of respect and regard for his uncle--sentiments not always felt between relations, royal or otherwise.

It was on August 31st, 1894, that the Princess of Wales received a despatch from her sister, the Czarina, that Alexander III. was nearing his end in the far-away Palace of Livadia. As rapidly as train and ship could carry them the Royal couple travelled to Russia, but only in time for the prolonged and splendid ceremonial of a state funeral. In this great and solemn pageant, lasting a week, and extending from Livadia to St. Petersburg, the Czar and the Prince were constantly together, in the most intimate relations, at a moment when the former was just emerging--as yet a young and inexperienced man--into the responsibilities of perhaps the most difficult position in the world. It was little wonder if the youthful autocrat of ninety millions took counsel of his experienced and genial relative, and found in his society comfort and knowledge and the basis of a lasting friendship. Let Mr. W.

T. Stead in the _Review of Reviews_, of January, 1895, describe the situation:

It was fortunate for every one that he stood where he did, as no one outside the Royal Castle could have been to the young Czar what the Prince was at Livadia, and afterwards. In the long and almost terrible pilgrimage to the tomb which followed, when the corpse of the dead Czar was carried in solemn state from the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea to the tomb in the Cathedral that stands on the frozen Neva, the Prince was always at the right hand of the Czar. Alike in public or in private, the uncle and the nephew stood side by side.

After the first gush of grief had pa.s.sed, it was impossible but that thoughts of the relations between the two Empires should not have crossed the minds of both. These two men share between them the over lordship of Asia. To the Czar, the north from the Oural to the far Sagahlien; to the other, the south from the Straits of Babel Mandeb to Hong Kong. No two men on this planet ever represented so vast a range of Imperial power as the first mourners at the bier of Alexander the Third.

At St. Petersburg, the Duke of York joined the mourning group of Royal personages, and there, on November 26th, the young Czar was married to his cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse, and a still closer tie of relationship formed with the Royal House of England. From this time forward the diplomatic relations of Russia and Great Britain steadily improved and there has never been any doubt amongst those in a position to judge that it was very largely due to the close friendship between the Prince of Wales and his Imperial nephew. In France, and especially amongst its leading men, His Royal Highness was for long an influential factor in keeping the wheels of international relations moving smoothly.

Personally popular, his tactful course at critical periods helped greatly in maintaining official amity. The root of this wide-spread influence and practical statecraft, in addition to elements already indicated and covering more directly the personal equation, was well described by Mr. Smalley in an article already quoted: "First of all, the impression of real force of character. Next, that combined shrewdness and good sense which together amount to sagacity. Third, tact. Add to these firmness and courage, and base all of these gifts on immense experience of life by one who has touched it on many sides and you will have drawn an outline of character which cannot be much altered. Add to it the Prince's constant solicitude about public matters and his intelligent estimate of forces--which last is the chief business of statesmanship. Add to this again the effect upon the hearer of conversation from a mind full, not indeed of literature, but of life; a conversation of wide range, of acuteness, of clear statement and strong opinion, of infinite good humour."

To these varied lines of useful statesmanship and personal labour in which the Heir Apparent was engaged for so many years, may be added the personal influence which he exercised over men of the Empire from time to time, and his constant inculcation of pride in country and of patriotic principle. There will then be seen a total record worthy of his later place as the hereditary ruler of vast dominions. In the former connection one incident may be mentioned as told by a correspondent during the Indian tour: "The Prince's tact is remarkable, and the news of his friendliness soon spread over India; one officer of great experience in Indian affairs declared that in asking the Maharajah Scindia to ride down the lines with him at Delhi, His Royal Highness performed an act which was worth a million sterling." Upon the latter point his speeches during forty years to innumerable military bodies--Militia, Volunteer, or Naval--may be mentioned. His earliest deliverance of this character was in presenting colours to the 100th, or Prince of Wales' Royal Canadian Regiment, at Thorncliffe, on January 10th, 1859. His first speech as an officer of the Army was, therefore, of an Imperialistic character: "The ceremonial, in which we are now engaged, possesses a peculiar significance and solemnity because in confiding to you for the first time this emblem of military fidelity and valour, I not only recognize emphatically your enrollment into our national force but celebrate an act which proclaims and strengthens the unity of the various parts of this vast Empire under the sway of our common Sovereign." The fact that this address of the youthful Prince--he was not eighteen--was probably revised and approved by the Prince Consort and the Queen, ill.u.s.trates how early his education in Imperialism began, and how far in advance of public opinion the Queen and her sagacious husband were.

Through the years that followed the Prince of Wales was never backward in urging efficient military and naval protection for British interests. Upon the question of the Navy two speeches, delivered in 1899, may be referred to as indicating the patriotic statesmanship of the Heir of the Throne Speaking at the Middles.e.x Hospital banquet on April 12th he said: "In this country it depends on our Navy and our Army to uphold the honour and _prestige_ of our nation and to protect the interests which have made it the vast empire it is. I rejoice to think that Her Majesty's Government have thought fit to increase our Navy. I realize by your applause how heartily you reciprocate what I have said, and I believe that this feeling exists not only in this room but throughout the length and breadth of Her Majesty's dominions. In strengthening our Navy, G.o.d forbid that it should imply in any way that we threatened other countries--just the reverse--for, in order to be at peace, we must be strong. Therefore, the best policy is to strengthen our first line of defence--the Navy. I hope the motto of which our Volunteers are so proud may ever be retained by the Navy; that of defence, not defiance." A little later, as President of the Royal National Lifeboat Inst.i.tution, he presided over a banquet in London on May 1st. In proposing the toast of the Army and Navy he declared that the country owed them much. "I am sure the desire of every Englishman is to see both in a high state of efficiency and that he does not grudge putting his hand in his pocket to maintain them, because he knows that if he has a good fleet and a good army he is safe and the honour of the Empire is safe."

An incident occurred on April 4th, 1900, which afforded abundant proof of the popularity of the Prince of Wales and indicated the importance his position had attained in the eyes of the world. He had been travelling to Denmark accompanied by the Princess, and his train had arrived at Brussels _en route_ from Calais to Copenhagen. The carriage was a special one and was leaving the station at a slow, preliminary rate when a youth named Sipido jumped on the foot-board of the car and fired two shots, in rapid succession, point-blank at the traveller who was just taking a cup of tea with his wife. He was about to fire a third time, but was seized by the stationmaster, arrested and sent to prison.

The man turned out to be a Belgian, expressed no regret for his attempted crime, said that he was willing to try again, and stated, under cross-examination, that his object was to avenge the thousands of men "whom the Prince had caused to be slaughtered in South Africa." He was afterwards tried under the laws of Belgium and acquitted. After sending dispatches to the Queen and the d.u.c.h.ess of York, containing a.s.surance of safety, the Prince and Princess proceeded on their way to Denmark.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EDWARD VII AND HIS QUEEN ALEXANDRA CROWNED

On August 9, 1902, amidst all possible pomp and solemnity the Sovereign of the British Empire and his beloved Consort received the joyful homage of their subjects]

[Ill.u.s.tration: KING EDWARD VII WITH QUEEN ALEXANDRA GOING IN STATE TO THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY PAYS HOMAGE TO HIS SOVEREIGN

When the Primate came to do homage to Edward VII and was about to exhort the King to "stand firm and hold fast" he was quite overcome, and his Majesty to prevent his falling, stretched forth his hand to a.s.sist him.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TOWER OF LONDON]

The event created a profound sensation in Great Britain and throughout Europe and the British Empire. The first feeling was of astonishment that one of the most popular members of the world's Royal circle should be the object of such an attempt; the second that more care had not been taken by those responsible for his safety in travelling; and the third was admiration for the perfect coolness and obvious bravery which he showed during and after the ordeal. Everywhere tributes of sympathy were tendered in language of unstinted appreciation of the Heir Apparent's public services and character. Speaking at Acton, on the same evening, Lord George Hamilton, M.P., said: "What could have induced any foreigner to raise his hand against the Prince of Wales pa.s.sed his comprehension.

If there was one individual who had utilized his position and abilities to promote the welfare of the poorer section of society it was the Prince of Wales. No kinder, no more philanthropic, no more humane man existed on the face of the earth." At other meetings which were going on, sympathetic allusions were made to the event, amidst loud cheers, by Lord Strathcona, Sir William Wedderburn, M.P., the Earl of Hopetoun, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson. Telegrams poured in at Windsor and Marlborough House from every point of the compa.s.s. Resolutions of congratulation were pa.s.sed in every portion of the Empire during the next few days, and "G.o.d bless the Prince of Wales" rang loudly through the United Kingdom and many a distant country.

King Leopold of Belgium was one of the first to express his deep regret at the occurrence; the Governments of Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, New Zealand, Tasmania, Cyprus, Mauritius and Barbados, the President of France, the Portuguese Parliament, the Town Councils of Ballarat and Bendigo in Australia and Durban in South Africa, the Agents-General of all the Colonies in London, the Australian Federal Delegates in London, the Masonic Grand Lodge of New Zealand, the Corporation of London, the Government of Servia, the High Commissioner for South Africa and the Hon. W. P. Schreiner, Premier of Cape Colony, the Governor-General of Canada, the Governor of Malta, and some eight hundred other Governments, public bodies, or prominent persons, telegraphed messages of congratulation or formal Resolutions. The references of the British and Colonial press were more than sympathetic.

The London _Standard_ thought that "the veneration felt for the Queen as well as the general regard for the Prince's personal qualities and his universal popularity might be supposed to give him absolute immunity, even in these days of frenzied political animosity and unscrupulous journalistic violence. The Prince is almost as well-known on the Continent as he is at home, and his invariable courtesy and unaffected kindness of heart have been appreciated and acknowledged in capitals where his country is not regarded with affection." The London _Daily News_ pointed out the utter absence of all excuse for such an attempt.

"The Prince had refrained with admirable tact and discretion from interference with public affairs. All sorts of charitable and philanthropic concerns have found in his Royal Highness a sympathetic friend."

Returning home, on April 20th, the Prince of Wales was given a pleasant surprise at Altona where, as his train stopped on German soil, he found the Emperor William and Prince Henry of Prussia waiting with their suites to welcome him to Germany and, at the same time, to offer personal congratulations upon his escape. This occurrence created wide comment in Europe generally, and was taken to mean a desire by the German Emperor to express friendly national as well as friendly personal feelings. When His Royal Highness arrived at Dover, the welcome was immense in numbers and enthusiastic in character. The same thing occurred at Charing-Cross Station, London, where he was met by the Duke of York and the King of Sweden and Norway and wildly cheered by thousands of people on his way to Marlborough House. As the _Standard_ put it next day: "No address of congratulation, presented by dignitaries in scarlet and gold, could have been nearly as eloquent as that sea of friendly faces and the ringing cheers of loyal men." In response to the innumerable congratulations received, as well as to this reception, the Prince of Wales issued a personal and public note of thanks in the following terms:

"I have been deeply touched by the numerous expressions of sympathy and goodwill addressed to me on the occasion of the providential escape of the Princess of Wales and myself from the danger we have lately pa.s.sed through. From every quarter of the globe, from the Queen's subjects throughout the world, as well as from the representatives and inhabitants of foreign countries, have these manifestations of sympathy proceeded, and on my return to this country I received a welcome so spontaneous and hearty that I felt I was the recipient of a most gratifying tribute of genuine good-will. Such proofs of kind and generous feeling are naturally most highly prized by me, and will forever be cherished in my memory."

CHAPTER XVII.

Accession to the Throne

The death of Queen Victoria and the accession of King Edward were the first and perhaps the greatest events in the opening year of the new century. Before the formal announcement on January 18th, 1901, which stated that the Queen was not in her usual health and that "the great strain upon her powers" during the past year had told upon Her Majesty's nervous system, the people in Great Britain, in Canada, in Australia, in all the Isles of the Sea and on the sh.o.r.es of a vast and scattered Empire, had become so accustomed to her presence at the head of the State and to her personality in their hearts and lives that the possibility of her death was regarded with a feeling of shocked surprise.

During the days which immediately followed and while the shadow of death lay over the towers of Windsor, its influence was everywhere perceptible throughout the press, the pulpit and amongst the peoples of the Empire--in Montreal as in Winnipeg, in busy Melbourne and in trouble-tossed Cape Town, in Calcutta and in Singapore. When the Prince of Wales, on Thursday evening, the 22nd of January, telegraphed the Lord Mayor of London that "My beloved mother, the Queen, has just pa.s.sed away," the announcement awakened a feeling of sorrow, of sympathy and of Imperial sentiment such as the world had never seen before in such wide-spread character and spontaneous expression.

Yet there was no expression of uneasiness as to the future; no question or doubt as to the new influence and power that must come into existence with the change of rulers; no fear that the Prince of Wales, as King and Emperor, would not be fully equal to the immense responsibilities of his new and great position. Perhaps no Prince, or statesman, or even world-conqueror, has ever received so marked a compliment; so universal a token of respect and regard as was exhibited in this expression of confidence throughout the British Empire.

THE EMPIRE'S CONFIDENCE IN THE NEW KING

Public bodies of every description in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and other British countries rivalled each other in their tributes of loyalty to the new Sovereign as well as of respect for the great one who had gone. The press of the Empire was practically a unit in its expression of confidence, while the pulpit, which had during past years, expressed itself occasionally in terms of criticism, was now almost unanimous in approval of the experienced, moderate and tried character of the King. The death which it was once thought by feeble-minded, or easily misled individuals, would shake the Empire to its foundations was now seen to simply prove the stability of its Throne, and the firmness of its inst.i.tutions in the heart of the people. The accession of the Prince of Wales actually strengthened that Monarchy which the life and reign of his mother had brought so near to the feelings and affections of her subjects everywhere.

On the day following the Queen's death the new Sovereign drove from Marlborough House to St. James's Palace; accompanied by Lord Suffield and an escort of the Horse Guards. He had previously arrived in London from Windsor at an early hour accompanied by the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of York, the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Balfour and others. The streets were densely crowded with silent throngs of people; c.r.a.pe and mourning being visible everywhere, and the raised hat the respectful recognition accorded to His Majesty. Later in the day the people found their voices and seemed to think that they could cheer again. At St. James's Palace the members of the Privy Council had gathered to the number of 150 and were representative of the greatest names and loftiest positions in British public life.

THE KING ADDRESSES THE PRIVY COUNCIL

Members of the Royal family, the members of the Government, prominent Peers, leading members of the House of Commons, the princ.i.p.al Judges and the Lord Mayor of London--by virtue of his office--were in attendance.

Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour; the Dukes of Norfolk, Devonshire, Portland, Northumberland, Fife and Argyll; the Earls of Clarendon, Pembroke, Chesterfield, Cork and Orrery and Kintore; Lord Halsbury, Lord Ashbourne, Lord Knutsford, Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Lord George Hamilton, Mr. St. John Brodrick, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Mr. W. H. Long, M.P., Lord Ridley, Sir. H.

Campbell-Bannerman, Sir J. E. Gorst, the Marquess of Ripon, Lord Goschen, Mr. H. H. Asquith, Lord Pirbright, Lord Selborne, Sir R.

Temple, Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, Sir Drummond Wolff, Sir Charles Dilke, Lord Stalbridge, Sir M. E. Grant-Duff, Mr. John Morley, Earl Spencer and Earl Carrington were amongst those present. After the Council had been officially informed by its President of the Queen's death and of the accession of the Prince of Wales, the new Sovereign entered, clad in a Field Marshal's uniform, and delivered, without ma.n.u.script or notes, a speech which was a model of dignity and simplicity. Its terms showed most clearly both tact and a profound perception of his position and its importance was everywhere recognized:

"Your Royal Highnesses, My Lords and Gentlemen: This is the most painful occasion on which I shall ever be called upon to address you. My first melancholy duty is to announce to you the death of my beloved mother, the Queen, and I know how deeply you and the whole nation, and, I think I may say, the whole world, sympathize with me in the irreparable loss we have all sustained. I need hardly say that my constant endeavour will be always to walk in her footsteps.

In undertaking the heavy load which now devolves upon me I am fully determined to be a const.i.tutional Sovereign in the strictest sense of the word, and, so long as there is breath in my body, to work for the good and amelioration of my people.

I have resolved to be known by the name of Edward, which has been borne by six of my ancestors. In doing so I do not undervalue the name of Albert, which I inherit from my ever to-be-lamented, great and wise father, who by universal consent is I think, and deservedly, known by the name of Albert the Good, and I desire that his name should stand alone. In conclusion, I trust to Parliament and the nation to support me in the arduous duties which now devolve upon me by inheritance, and to which I am determined to devote my whole strength during the remainder of my life."

After the oath of allegiance had been taken by those present, the proclamation announcing the accession of the new Monarch was signed by the Duke of York--now also Duke of Cornwall,--the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Christian, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Mayor of London, and the other Privy Councillors present. The Houses of Parliament met shortly afterwards and the members took the oath of allegiance, while all around the Empire the same ceremony was being gone through in varied tongues and many forms and strangely differing surroundings. There was wide-spread interest in His Majesty's choice of a name, and the designation of Edward VII. was almost universally approved--the exceptions being in certain Scotch contentions that the numeral could not properly apply to Scotland as a part of Great Britain. The name itself reads well in English history.

Edward the Confessor, though not included in the Norman chronology, was a Saxon ruler of high attainments, admirable character and wise laws.

Edward I, was not only a successful soldier and the conqueror of wild and warlike Wales, but a statesman who did much to establish unity and peace amongst his people. Edward II. was remarkable chiefly for the thrashing which the Scots gave him at Bannockburn while Edward III. was the hero of Crecy, the winner of half of France, and a brave and able ruler. Edward IV. was a masterful, hard and not over-scrupulous monarch, and Edward V. was one of the unfortunate boys who were murdered in the Tower of London. Edward VI. was a mild-natured and honest youth who did not live long enough to impress himself upon a strenuous period, or upon interests with which his character little fitted him to deal. The last of the name had reigned, therefore, before the Kingdom of England got out of its national and religious swaddling clothes; before the reign of Henry VIII. had freed it from connection with Rome, or that of Elizabeth had founded the maritime and commercial empire which, in time, was to create the mighty realm over which the new Edward now a.s.sumed sway.

INCIDENTS SURROUNDING THE ACCESSION

The Proclamation of the King in the cities of the United Kingdom and at the capitals of countries and provinces and islands all around the globe was a more or less stately and ceremonious function, and the Proclamation itself was couched in phraseology almost as old as the Monarchy. "We, therefore, do now with consent of tongue and heart, publish and proclaim that the high and mighty Prince, Albert Edward, is now, by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory, become our only lawful and rightful Liege Lord, Edward the Seventh." At the ceremony in London, Dublin, Liverpool, Derby and other cities, immense crowds a.s.sembled and "G.o.d save the King" was sung with unusual heartiness.

Meanwhile, following his address to the Privy Council, the King had returned to Osborne with the Duke of Cornwall and York, and there he found the German Emperor awaiting him. The latter had come post-haste from Berlin and been in time to see the Queen before she pa.s.sed away. He had now decided to stay until after the funeral and thus to tender every respect in his power to the memory of his august grandmother. Parliament had been called immediately upon the King's Proclamation, and it met hurriedly and briefly on January 24th to enable the members to take the oath of allegiance while, all around the Empire, similar proceedings were taking place in Courts and Legislatures and Government buildings.