THE KING'S GENIUS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 120, 13 February 1908, Page 8

THE KING'S GENIUS.

Mr. Haldane, Secretary for War, unveiled - at tho- now buildings' of' University. College; School, Hampstead; recently, V statue of tho---King, erected over tho entrance. "The,statue' depicts,-the King in , coronation robes, and has - boon present<kl bj; Mr. Arnold Mitchell, .tlie architect who designed; tho new buildings. , • /■Mr'. Haldane.said:,-It was not easy tor..a. to speak of matters connected with' tho Sovereign which had been the subject of , a personal interview Jwithout ing , tho ■limits of,; what- was - constitutional; " -but he " might safely'say' that' lthe.interest';'of' 1 this King in the causo of tho : education of his ' 'ppoplo .wasnot only-a. deep interest; ;but'.an norcditary. ..'interest.... Had Prince . Albert. lived, ho believed that.tho cause of,education in- this country .would have been advanced 10. years quicker than it Subsequently had. been. It was no secrot. that King, Edward,.; con- '. > ceiving that ho had inherited.-tho .duty of his father, had boon, ho might say, almost, tho; mainspring' in' tho. institution of, that new and great, collego. of technology-with which they hoped to mako a beginning which . would put them on a footing. comparable. to other nations'in that sphere.'-' ; ■ -' ' Ho often"thought that those-who looked at them'from across; .the sea■ 'were , very '. apt to misunderstand the position.of.'a Sove- ; reign iri v this country.- Because; a monarch; was a constitutional monarch',7 there ; 'were somo people who. assumed; that' lie" took" no ■ part, took no initiative,; in the business; of government. .. Thero never was a moro profound mistake. A monarch had. nowadays to sttfdy closely the' tendencies and the liabitr of mind and tho resolution of his people/ One characteristic of tho King was th» gift ho had for. interpreting , the. : • publif mind. Ho was'deeply interested 'ill 'education, tho Army, tho Navy, in foreign affairs, and in evory department, of government. And in all of/those his great quality was thr. - capacity of taking tho initiative and yet bo ing in completo harmony not only with.hfi Ministers but with his Parliament and with his people. When the, constitutional Sovereign had tho gift of doing that ho was the greatest,of all Sovereigns and tho most.powerful of all Sovereigns., ho bad tho nation behind him and his; action was tho action of ' tho nation.' ;