The Prince's Grandfather
Thisecond volume of the Life of King Edward suffers from the loss of a particularly firm biographical hand. Before he died Sir Sidney Lee had virtually finished five of the thirty- two chapters of this second and concluding volume of the Life ; he had also planned and collected all the material and made full memoranda for most of the other chapters. As the pub- lishers say, the whole volume is therefore substantially his ; where he did not write he " inspired." Nevertheless, it is hardly more than justice to that accomplished biographer, whose work for the Dictionary of National Biography lives in the grateful memory of his countrymen, to say that if Sir Sidney Lee had lived certain blemishes in this volume might not have been introduced or passed.
The few defects fortunately do not essentially spoil a picture which we believe to be as just as it is carefully drawn. Further researches evidently did much to heighten the estimate which Sir Sidney Lee had formed of King Edward's abilities when he wrote his original appreciation. King Edward falsified all those popular misgivings which attended his accession, just as the resolute Henry V. developed out of the madcap prince. Sir Sidney Lee uses a. penetrating phrase when he says that King Edward had the " vital elixir of zest." He was interested in everybody and everything ; but he acquired his information in his own way ; he frankly did not care for reading books. He was never tired of putting questions to everybody he met, and as he had a wonderful memory he continually had in his mind not only a various mass of information but a variety of personal opinions. There is an art in being a King, and King Edward showed that he understood this art from the moment he ascended the Throne. He had been much more deeply influenced by Queen Victoria's persistence in standing by her rights and in taking a considerable share in government than most people supposed. It had generally been thought that Queen Victoria did not trust him enough to " train him on " for sovereignty, but as a matter of fact the most important State documents and the Cabinet minutes had been shown to him for several years.
His first speech to that meeting of the Privy Council and citizens to whom a new Sovereign by tradition announces his accession—in this case the Privy Council were reinforced by the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London and a few private
secretaries—astonished those who heard it by its deep feeling, its dignity, and its firm hold on the situation. The King wanted as far as possible to govern as well as to reign. The difference between him and Queen Victoria was that whereas Queen Victoria used to stand her ground successfully, King Edward, when his Ministers decided against him, invariably gave way under protest.
It seems strange now that there should have been doubts about King Edward, for no Heir Apparent before him eve took upon himself regular functions of great social beneficence as a public duty. It may be said indeed that as Prince of Wales he invented a career for the British Heir Apparent. King Edward's Ministers, however, were less surprised by his conscientiousness than by his assertion of his right to say his word in many matters in which they had not expected hint, to be interested. It is an irony that the denial of Royal pre- rogatives (which the King believed to be real but were only nominal) came not from a Liberal Government but from a, Unionist. In the last years of the King's reign the question of the prerogatives had been settled and, oddly enough, there was no clash whatever, but rather an increasing trust and friendliness between the King and the Liberal Government.
Characteristic of King Edward's reluctance to disguise any, conviction which he held sincerely was the manner in which when reading the Declaration, still required from a new Sovereign by the Bill of Rights, he dropped his usually clear voice to a much lower tone when he came to the passage denouncing Roman Catholicism. He never ceased to ask that this crudely phrased passage should be amended. His first Ministers found pretexts for delay, but the King was right, and three months after his death the passage was amended. How freely and plainly he expressed his opinions to his Ministers is amply proved by this volume. He re- proached one Minister after another when he thought that he had been insufficiently consulted, particularly in the matter of foreign affairs, which was his hobby—unless indeed .it would be right to describe so light and personal a matter as dress as being his hobby. Some of his reproaches were scarcely reasonable, as for instance those directed to Mr. Balfour, Mr. Balfour said in 1903 that the consent of Parliament was4 necessary for the cession of territory, and in practice, if not by tradition, that was true. ' King Edward complained that Mr. Balfour had treated him with " scant courtesy." Again there was a clash when Mr. Balfour claimed for Parlia- ment the right to determine a dissolution. By the way, Mr. Balfour did not dissolve in 1905 but resigned. This is tone of several slips in the volume. Yet again, the King Complained that Mr. Balfour did not tell him in advance what he was going to say in a speech which merely com- mented on Lord Rosebery's proposal that a Middle Party should be formed. Similarly, the King spoke his mind freely about the tone of speeches by Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Churchill.
Where King Edward excelled was in what might be called his diplomatic bonhomie. The present writer, who was in Paris at the time, will never forget the impression made upon him in 1903 by King Edward's visit to France when the Entente was being prepared. A few months before this visit the Emperor of Russia, assured though he was of a warm welcome from his Allies, had driven hurriedly through the streets of Paris in a shut carriage. King Edward, all smiles and confidence, was driven slowly along in an open carriage. The whole British colony had been nursing for weeks before- hand fearful apprehensions about the bad temper that would probably be displayed by the crowd ! King Edward was a social conqueror, and physically he was without fear. He there and then turned the initial admission of the Parisians that he was bon garcon into the conviction that he was their friend and a statesman too. All the documents on foreign affairs in this volume prove how intent King Edward was upon European peace. The Kaiser's provocative messages make an unpleasant contrast with King Edward's urbanity. But even the Kaiser did not suggest that Britain was trying " to encircle " Germany. That accusation was made a good deal later.
One of the surprises of this volume is the information that not once but several times King Edward in fits of dejection— no doubt induced by acute bronchial catarrh—spoke of abdicating.
The blemishes of the book are in a few stray anecdotes which are not in key with the narrative and in the estimate of King Edward's humour. His humour had no fine shades. It was school-boyish in its conception and zest ; its virtue was that it was delightfully friendly. He was unique in his power of combining such primitive fun with the unassailable dignity of a King.
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