The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1910. THE DIVINE RiGHT OF KINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 204, 29 August 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1910. THE DIVINE RiGHT OF KINGS.

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i Since the great outburst of popular in- ! dignation which two years ago greeted ' 1 the Kaiser's last intrusion into the fielJ jof international politics, we have heard \ ; little from that versatile monarch in the I ; way of personal opinions about the <_vmdi-1 ■ tions of government abroad or at home, j j Indeed, the resolution of protest which | the Reichstag then ;idi;(>ied \v;is so em-1 phatic and outspoken that, bold a-? he is, i tiie Kaiser seemed for the moment over- | awed. However, he has not yet cured i himself of his unfortunate habit of ob- | truding his own personality upon tho j public stage, and he seems to have broken i . out all the more vehemently now because jo: his long repression, lie h;- just dc- | livered an address to his people in which ihe explains that he regards hie Crown as I conferred upon him, not by them or by J their Parliament, but by the will of I Heaven, and that he, as "the instrument of the Lord," must therefore go his on-u way, regardless of public criticism. Mingled with thia astonishing pronounce- ! ment were the usual oracular remarks about national dangers and national armaments; but infinitely the mos: important feature of the speech was this uncompromising assertion of "' the Divine Right of Kinsrs," which has evoked almost as vehement an outburst of popular feeling in Germany as it might have been expected to arouse in England. Perhaps no more illuminating proof I than this could be desired of the ob- , scurantist and retrograde tendencies of j ! continental Imperialism. There was a | j time when the doctrine of "Divine Right"' 1 was held as an axiom of Kingcraft in England. Its most enthusiastic ex- i ponents were the Stu-art Kings; and it was nothing but their obstinate adherence to this fundamental principle of mediaeval tyranny that cost Charles I. his head and Jamts 11. his crown. Now, Charles I. died in 1C49, and James 11. ■was driven into exile in IGSS; and since the Eevolution which hurled James IT. from the throne no English sovereign has ever dreamed of suggesting that the King re/krns by any inherent virtue of his own. Even on the Continent, since the great Revolution of 1789, the doctrine that the King i 3 merely the representative of the people's will has been steadily extending itself; and though the theory of Autocracy is not yet obsolete in Russia, even the Czar has been compelled to admit that his subjects have a right to a voice in the administration of his country and the control of its affairs. In Germany, it is true, the conception of Kingship is still largely mediaeval. But Germany is in many ways one of the most enlightened and intellectual countries in the world, and merely as a matter of policy, no , step could be more injudicious than to bring this archaic view , of sovereignty thus forcibly into contact with the democratic sentiments that so strongly characterise German public opinion today. The effect of the Kaiser's attempt to reassert his creed of autocratic Imperial- ' ism in this impressive fashion is very 1 much what might have been anticipated, r The Social Democrats, who really form the majority of the German nation today, a-re naturally incensed at this pube lie assertion of a doctrine which is funda--3 mentally opposed to their own political 9 views, and are prepared to take up the 1 Kaiser's challenge. Even the Conservative Press is constrained to rebuke the Kaisers recklessness in thus offering an '• excuse for the enemies of the Monarchy "i to blaspheme. Surely, at a time when '" the reaction in favour of the Social Democrats is so strongly marked, it c would have been well for the Kaiser to °' refrain even from good words, lest he I should give his opponents an opening. 'As it is, the will find it ex- , i tremely diilicult, if not impossible, to j ignore altogether this public denial of ite constitutional claims. And, as a natural consequence, the question of public " policy on which the Kaiser touched in '' his speech must share the discredit that will attach to his extremely unpopular sentiments. Just at the moment when the German nation is rebelling against . the crushing burden imposed by the necessities of national defence, and the fate of the Kaiser's naval programme is E once more in the balance, it might have been expected that ho would have ' handled so delicate a subject with ex,u I treme care. But, not for the first time, i the Kaiser "is irresponsibility lias confounded his discreet and tactful MinisI ters, and we may expect to find as one — immediate consequence of this Royal pica for Autocracy th.it the cry for Disi armament, already heard in Germany le will be taken up and re-echoed by ever ■ the most loyal supporters of tUe exnpiro ** i and the throne.