THE TRAINING OF A CONSTITUTIONAL SOVEREIGN.
THE return of the Duke of Cornwall and. York from his prolonged journeyings has an interest of greater extent and importance than is likely to be realised by the crowds which are always ready to welcome an occasion for a pageant. That the streets are to be lined with troops, and the homeward route to be prolonged in order to give more people an opportunity of gazing at the procession, are in themselves ample reasons why Londoners should be enthusiastic. Englishmen have learnt of late to give visible shape to their feelings, and. the Duke of Cornwall naturally benefits by the active loyalty which has been evoked, partly by the war and partly by the death of Queen Victoria. This sentiment of devotion to the Crown alike in its actual and. its future possessors may not go very deep. It has nothing in common with that evoked and misused by the Stuarts or the Bourbons. It is the expression— the only expression possible in the case of a multitude— of an undefined affection for the country to which they belong. Institutions, however excellent, call forth but a. languid emotion, and if what is vaguely symbolised by the words " England. " and " Empire " were not embodied in any concrete form, they would probably convey little meaning except to political students. To supply this embodiment is the special function of a Monarchy. The affections of his subjects go out to the Sovereign and to his descendants in the direct line, and in doing so become more vivid and more permanent. The cheers that will welcome the Duke of 'Cornwall to-day as he drives from Victoria to Marl- borough House will be perfectly sincere so far as they go. Those who utter them would be puzzled; perhaps, to explain what it is that they feel and why they feel it, but for all that they will go home with a keener realisation of what being an Englishman means, and. of the' strength of the feelings, in themselves so hard to define, which knit together King and. people. - " Beyond all this, however, the return of the Duke of Cornwall has an intend special to the -character and cir- cumstances of his tour. He has been visiting 'every part —India excepted—of the Empire he will one day rule. He comes home with the knowledge that only travel under favourable conditions can give of the many, and. widely different communities which make up the dominions of the Crown of England beyond sea. There are two aspects in which the journey which has furnished him with this knowledge may be regarded,—as it affects the countries through which he has travelled, and as it affects the Royal traveller himself. The former is naturally the more obvious of the two. Australians and Canadians have seen their future Sovereign, and have thus been enabled to appropriate that sentiment of loyalty, which we have described as natural to crowds. Gazers by the hunched thousand have followed. the Duke's' progress through one city after another, and have come to realise more dis: tinctly than they have ever done before what it is to be 's. citizen and. subject of that crowned Republic which for want of a better word we call the Empire. The idea of kingship has taken shape in their - imaginationS. They will be able in the tiine to c,onie to recall all tbei circumstances which attended thalRoYal visit, and to recall also the emotions which properly belong to' it. In an Empire scattered, over so vast an area, and cOrapord of communities differing so widely in composition,' in history, and in race, every additional tie that 'binds:. the parts together is of incalculable value: Who shall say how far the attitude of the great Confederation which has just been created in Australia, or of the older Dominion of Canada, towards England and the English connection may be affected in years to come by feelings which have their root and origin in the recollection of the Duke of Cornwall's visit ? Such feelings may predispose those in whom they exist to a more generous interpretation of the acts of the Imperial Government, and to a readier accept- ance of their share in Imperial burdens. The wheels of Empire will run more smoothly because the Empire itself will be associated with the person of the heir to the throne. The cares and the duties of Royalty no longer allow a Xing of England to travel through his dominions in person, but when his place is taken by his eldest son the same end is attained, if not in the same degree.
Of still more importance, probably, will be the influence of his tour on the Duke of Cornwall himself. He has enjoyed extraordinary opportunities of making himself acquainted with the characters, the interests, the wishes of the great, free, and self-governing nations he has visited. He has not shut himself up in the Govern- ment Houses of the several Colonies, or seen their public men only amid the formalities of a State re- ception. On the contrary, he has talked freely with Colonial politicians, and no doubt gained from his conver- sations with them a wide practical knowledge of the opinions, the ambitions, and even the dreams of those who Will one day be his subjects beyond seas. No living Englishman in high position has had the same means of acquainting himself with what may be called the raw material of a Colonial policy. Colonial Secretaries cannot leave Downing Street in order to go round the world, and though less highly placed politicians can travel where they please, their "sphere of influence" when they return seldom goes beyond the covers of a monthly magazine. The Duke of Cornwall's "sphere of influence "will be very much wider.
How so ? it may be asked. Of what use can a Sovereign's knowledge be under a constitutional Monarchy where he is only the Great Personage charged with the duty, abso- lutely indispensable, and yet chiefly mechanical, of signing the documents and approving the policies which succes- sive Ministers present to him ? We know that this is the traditional theory of the principle on which the business of the United Kingdom is carried on, and in a sense, and an important sense, it corresponds to the actual facts. When a Minister knows his own mind and has the country- at his back no amount of Royal opposition can stop That is a constitutional commonplace. But, like other commonplaces, it is too sweeping to be of much value. It disregards all the limitations and qualifications with which general truths must be surrounded if they are to remain true.. Ministers do not always know their own minds, and there are many questions of great importance about which the country knows nothing and cares nothing. Colonial questions are conspicuous examples of this class of subject. The Cabinet have to advise the Sovereign whether to give or withhold his assent to a Colonial Bill. It may have very inconvenient consequences, and so the Colonial Secre- tary may be inclined to advise its rejection. But such rejection may create great, and possibly disastrous, discon- tent in the Colony. Is this prospect near enough and grave enough to make the acceptance of the Bill expedient, notwithstanding the weighty objections to which it is open ? A Colonial Secretary may honestly be at his wits' end to decide between these rival considerations. What he needs is a more intimate knowledge of the forces at work in the Colony. He has information enough poured in upon him, but he is wanting in the special experience which would help him to form a right estimate of the comparative value of the sources whence this informa- tion is derived. In a case like this conclusions formed by personal observation of Colonial politicians and colonial opinion would be of the utmost service, and these are , precisely, what a Sovereign with the ante- cedents of the Duke of Cornwall will be in a position to supply. It is for the Minister, no doubt, to determine whether, the inconveniences of the Bill which awaits the Royal assent do or-do not outweigh the discontent which, as he is assured, its rejection will excite in the Colony. But-there is an earlier stage which he has not yet traversed, the stage in which his business is to satisfy himself as to the nature and extent of this discontent and here it may be a very great advantage to have the King's view of what is likely to excite Colonial opinion. The example of Queen Victoria shows us what an English Sovereign may do in shaping the policy of his Ministers. The secret of the late Queen's power lay in the fact that on certain subjects she was better informed than her Cabinet, and could give sound and wise advice. She had an intimate and personal knowledge of the details of foreign policy and of the characters of foreign Sovereigns which no Foreign Secretary could rival. The knowledge that her grandson has gained of Colonial opinion and feeling cannot have the exceptional completeness which comes from the study of. a lifetime, but for all that it may hereafter be of very great service to a perplexed Colonial Secretary.
Remember, too, that the Duke of York's experience will not fade away as his visit becomes a distant episode. He will have formed ties with Colonial statesmen which will be constantly and diligently renewed. Politicians whom he knew in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada will be welcomed by him in London, and he will, we may be sure, never lose touch with the leading men of the Empire. He will be able to learn from them, and they from him, in a way which would not have beer possible had he never made his memorable visit to the self governing nations of the Empire.
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