J. Castell Hopkins

“ After a brief special service of thanksgiving the Archbishop of Canterbury preached the sermon for the occasion in words of tact and eloquence from which one quotation may be made: "Just as in one of our own homes when death threatens, the whole history of the loved object we fear to lose comes back in the hours of waiting, so England was stirred by a hundred touching memories when danger threatened the Royal house. And God doubtless thus touched our hearts to deepen our loyalty and make us better prize the thousand good things secured in a well-ordered State by love to the head of the State." ”

“ Intimately connected with these characteristics of his was the unquestioned ability to judge human nature. This quality enabled the Prince to play his difficult part so well as he did, to keep him in touch with all classes and the masses, to cultivate all the varied elements of a changing national life, and to be as much at home amongst business men as at the Royal Academy—amongst the aristocracy of London as with the farmers of Norfolk. He was ever a good judge of the people around him and, perhaps, no man in modern life was so well and faithfully served. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus there passed away and was buried a great King, a man of whole-souled, genial and honourable type, a character rich in graces granted to few in this world, a ruler who combined intellect with heart and knowledge with discrimination, a Briton who could love and believe in the greatness of his own country and Empire without antagonizing the legitimate pride and aspirations of other nations, a diplomatist made by nature's own hand to soothe international acerbities and embody the ideal of peace in an age of preparation for war. ”

“ 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 ”

“ There lies before Your Royal Highness in prospect the occupation—I trust at a distant date—of a throne which, to me at least, appears the most illustrious in the world, from its history and associations, from its legal basis, from the weight of the cares it brings, from the loyal love of the people, and from the unparalleled opportunities it gives, in so many ways and so many regions, of doing good to the almost countless numbers whom the Almighty has placed beneath the sceptre of England. ”

“ The great Abbey had been transformed by tier above tier of seats, covered with blue and yellow velvet, and so arranged as to form one dazzling mass of brightness and colour when filled with the peers in their gorgeous robes and peeresses in their crimson velvet mantles, ermine capes and beautiful gowns. As the King and Queen entered the Abbey on this eventful day and moved toward their chairs the choir of trained voices sang with exquisite feeling and sound the anthem: "I was glad when they said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord." ”

“ It was the mighty greeting of a great fleet to the Sovereign of a wide-flung realm. It was the inspection of a naval force which a generation before could have dominated the seas of the world and put all civilized nations under tribute. Gathered together from the Home Station, the Channel squadron and the Cruising squadron; without the detachment of a ship from foreign waters or Colonial stations, it included 20 battleships, 24 cruisers and 47 torpedo crafts, with an outer fringe of foreign vessels contributed in complimentary fashion to honour the occasion. ”

“ HER RECEPTION IN ENGLAND
When the Prince's yacht approached and he was seen to rush across the gangway, catch his bride in his arms and kiss her, the delight of the onlookers was unconstrained. As the Royal couple landed, girls strewed flowers under their feet. Then followed the glittering procession from Gravesend to London and thence to Windsor through long lines of decorated houses, garlanded and festooned roadways, flashing sabres and gorgeous uniformed soldiers. In London the streets were packed with people; triumphal arches, banners and devices were everywhere. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Few Royal weddings of our time aroused such unusual enthusiasm as the union of the Duke of York with the bride of his choice—an English Princess, born and bred in an English home, endeared to all hearts by the now softened memory of a tragic sorrow and richly endowed with all the qualities which inspire the brightest hopes for the future. Fewer still have ever been celebrated with happier omens, or in more auspicious circumstances than that of yesterday. ”

“ The first effect of the King's illness was to create a new tie of sympathy between himself and his subjects. Human suffering borne so patiently during that week of concealed sickness and with such earnest determination to go through what must have come to appear the frightful ordeal of the Coronation appealed strongly to people everywhere in the Empire, while the externally dramatic passage from preparations for the greatest of national festivities down into the valley of the shadow of death came home to the hearts of every one with peculiar force. ”

“ Amidst the thunder of artillery from fleet and forts His Royal Highness then landed and was welcomed by a great multitude of people, luxuriously seated in tiers of seats ranged beside two pavilions draped in scarlet, the canopies of which were upheld by gold pillars wreathed with flowers. Beyond was a massive arch of triumph and the platform and landing stage was carpeted with red cloth. In the surrounding crowd was the whole central machinery of government amongst three hundred millions of people and Rajahs, Chiefs and authorities innumerable. ”

“ For thirty-three years I had the honour of serving in the Navy, and such intimate participation in its life and work enables me to know how thoroughly I can depend upon that spirit of loyalty and zealous devotion to duty of which the glorious history of our Navy is the outcome. That you will ever continue to be, as in the past, the foremost defenders of your country's honour I know full well, and your fortunes will always be followed by me with deep feelings of pride and affectionate interest. ”

“ Whatever the developments of the future, the new King may be depended upon to preserve the general principle of a second chamber; to conserve the legitimate interests and influence of the aristocracy and landed classes in the state—when, of course, they do not conflict with the well-being of the people as a whole; to stand for stability and gradual reform rather than change for the sake of change; to prefer and enforce evolution rather than revolution. ”

“ At the dinner in 1877 the Prince again presided and in the proposing his health the late Earl of Derby said: "His Royal Highness has not only now, but for many years past done all that is in the power of man to do, by genial courtesies towards men of every class and by his indefatigable assiduity in the performance of every social duty, to secure at once that public respect which is due to his exalted position and that social sympathy and personal popularity which no position, however exalted, can of itself be sufficient to secure." ”

“ In a time when calumny would attack an Archangel, and when its bitter barbs have been known to reach even the humanly perfect life of Queen Victoria, no shadow has ever crossed the curtain of her character. Of her tact—a quality which she possesses in common with the Prince of Wales—stories are innumerable, and of her quiet, unostentatious, continuous charity and natural kindliness of heart there are as many more. ”

“ No man has ever been more democratic, so far as mere class barriers are concerned, than was the Prince of Wales, but no one knew better than he where to draw the line in his entertainments. The Princess, for her part, was at all times a model hostess, and each knew too well what was due to the other to make the social life of the Palace anything more than a correct embodiment and representation of the social life of London. The liberality of the Prince was made evident in later years in making cultivated and representative Americans or Jews welcome at his functions. ”

“ During a number of years' study of British institutions in their modern development and of British public life in its adjustment to new and changing conditions I have felt an ever-growing appreciation of the active influence exercised by the late Sovereign of the British Empire upon the social life and public interests of the United Kingdom and an ever-increasing admiration for his natural abilities and rare tactfulness of character. ”

“ Thus the Sovereign's death must always thrill the Empire. But to-day's untimely tidings bring to the people of Canada the sense of a still deeper and more personal bereavement. They gloried in their King's title of Peacemaker, and they believed him to be the greatest living force for right within the Empire. In him died the greatest statesman and diplomat of Europe. ”

“ The death of King Edward was an event of more than British importance, of more than Imperial significance. His funeral was a stately, solemn and splendid ceremony preceded by two weeks of real mourning throughout his Empire, of obvious and sincere regret throughout the world. In London and Cape Town, in Melbourne and Toronto, in Wellington and Dawson City, in Ottawa and Khartoum, in Calcutta and in Cairo; wherever the British flag flies, efforts were made to mark the funeral as one of individual and local and national sorrow. ”

“ Encouraged by the confidence of that love and trust which the nation ever reposed in its late and fondly-mourned Sovereign, I shall earnestly strive to walk in her footsteps, devoting myself to the utmost of my powers to maintaining and promoting the highest interests of my people and to the diligent and zealous fulfilment of the great and sacred responsibilities which, through the will of God, I am now called to undertake. ”

“ The solemn ceremony in the ancient Abbey—which had not been used or opened to the public since that final practice of the choir—was brilliant in all the colours and shadings and dresses and gems and uniforms of a Royal function while it presented that other and more sacred side which all the traditions and forms of the Coronation ceremony so clearly illustrate. The enthusiasm of the people in the streets can hardly be described but the spirit and thought and feeling were well summed up in the words of a Canadian poet—Jean Blewett:
"Long live the King! ”

“ It is sometimes forgotten that the King not only embodies the authority of his vast realm in his position, but must concentrate in his own person a natural strength of pride in his Empire so great as to be far beyond the possibility of a reflection upon its patriotism. He would hardly be human in his qualities if the most intense patriotic pride in the unity and power of his realms was not the first and strongest instinct of his nature. ”

“ The scheme of decorations was splendid, the triumphal arches were authoritatively stated to be better and more numerous than anything yet seen in London itself, the gathering of Australian troops lining the streets was representative and effective, the spectators were almost everywhere dressed in black or dark clothing as a tribute to the late Queen, the evening illuminations were on a magnificent scale—buildings and arches and decorations being a flashing, gleaming mass of light and fire and varied brightness. ”

“ We all press, as it were, round one darkened chamber, we all feel that with the mourning family, mother, wife, brothers, sisters, who are there assembled, we are indeed one. The thrill of their fears or hopes passes through and through the differences of rank and station; we feel that, while they represent the whole people they also represent and are that which each family and each member of each family, is separately. ”

“ Almost everything in the British constitution is in the nature of a compromise. Constitutional monarchy in its essence is a half-way house between Autocracy and Republicanism and its great advantage to the minds of its supporters is that the system has the extremes of neither, the best qualities of each, and all the advantages of that strength and permanence which moderation and toleration always afford. In Britain the system certainly has the affection and devotion of the great mass of the people. ”

“ We leave with many regrets, mitigated, however, by the hope that while we have gained new friendships and good will, something may also have been achieved towards strengthening and welding together the Empire, through the sympathy and interest which have been displayed in our journey both at home and in the Colonies. The Commonwealth and its people will ever have a warm place in our hearts. We shall always take the keenest interest in its welfare, and our earnest prayer will be for its continued advancement not only in material progress, but in all that tends to make life noble and happy. ”

“ King Edward the Seventh, in a sixty years' tenure of the difficult position of Heir to the British Throne, built into the history of his country and Empire a record of which he and his people had every reason to be proud. He had for many years the responsibilities of a Royal position without the actual power; the public functions of a great ruler without the resources usually available; the knowledge, experience and statecraft of a wise Sovereign without Regal environment. ”

“ In his speech the Prince spoke of his intimate friendship with Dean Stanley over a period of twenty-two years, of their association in the East and of the great charm of his companionship. "As the Churchman, as the scholar, as the man of letters, as the philanthropist and, above all, as the true friend, his name must always go down to posterity as a great and good man and as one who will make his mark on a chapter of his country's history." ”

“ King Edward's life as a devotee of duty, as a sportsman in the best sense of the word, as an ardent and discriminating patron of the arts, as a good business man at the head of a great business community, possessed of intuitive shrewdness in the management of men and difficult situations, as a keen social reformer with "no self apart from his people," was then dwelt upon. It would be impossible in any limited space to analyze the views of the British press. The Times declared that "his people loved him for his honesty and kindly courtesy. ”