KING EDWARD'S LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1460, 7 June 1912, Page 5

KING EDWARD'S LIFE.

. *— A CANDID MEMOIR. QUEEN VICTORIA KEEPS HIM POWERLESS. REACTION FROM EARLY GLOOM... By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright ■ (Rec.:, June G, 8.23 p.in.) London, June li. The outstanding ffature of tliiv new volume of the- f, : l)i ; etiqani;y of National . Biography"' is . Sir Sidney Lee's (jiuulid 1 - memoir of the Tifte. Kinf; Edward,, The memoir isJargely based on in a t.ei'i ii 1. gathered front unpublished and unwritten sources.

•Sir Sidney. Leo says Qr.een Victoria obstinate refusal to grant the late King genuine political'.rcsponsi.blii.ty'o.ra settled .aindsolid occupation .111. his', .early days "is Prince of Wales, somewhat. affected his' moral robustness, while the. gloom of his mother's £oiirt iie'lpeit to evoke ;a reaction against the conventional strictness-of. iiis ; upbringing:. ' -

Among the. proposals .for the employnient of the Pnncc \vlvicii Queen. Victoria: vetoed was; oiiti of- .Mi-, that he should, join the .India' 'Council Cabinet. "The. key. -giving- access to. the 1 foreign npt grained to. the Prince until. 1895;.' The result' was thatat his accession King Ediya.fd.- was a. stranger to the, administrative deta.ii'j of his great o'Kciv lie was then too old to repair the neglect of his, political.'train- 1 ing. 1 hough at the -outset. of his reign therewere slight-indications that King Edward ov c i 1 - c '^ti]!i^te{l; I tlie ; po I \ver, .this was due 'to inexperience,- and Uitc-i- lii.. Home politics 1 , -lie was 1 the 1 uiost part content with .tlio i'dlo: of an onlooker, *ieiving detachediy tlie : of ail parties. Ho./Earnestly 1 .desired;, the; pcaceful soliition .pf' j lie conflict-. -between .the. 1 Lords ajid; .■.Cqniihqiis, but passively acquiesced in' .Mr. Asquith's plans, 'lying Lduard founiiVino: ..comfort iii .-tho. .action-, of any of- the 1 parties to. the strife, but to (he last.-ipnyately. .cherishMl'.-'lhc t-oii'-viction that vvoiild he reached iv.itli- ■ out the creation;- of. 11'q.w' .peers:.

1 hough-.-there: were .siioi-i seasons of variance bet ween tha late King and the Kaiser, King yEdward- co.ulU: liot charged withv..:deliberate. .-and. ! systematic, hostility towa'rds'i;:the'..& 'jjj'g. personal fcclnig very superficially affected tha mutualjeaioYist '.vliieh grew }i[) ill his reign between Britain and Germany. He was a. peacemaker,. not through the exercise of any diplomatic initiative or.ingenuity, hilt ;by?iaitl4jii. iho" iiic.ssiiigs 'of peace, and by the influence passively .'rib' taching to his high station and t<<tnpe'rament.

King ICdward's s Sl'r.Sidney Lee, great ly si rongthened the hold of Royally on. the public affection, .and probably no vKing^,^ goodwill a.tronce?;o| ;f6reign peoples and his own subject*. :A iiian of the world, ho lacked.; the 1 ;:, intellectual equipiik-nt, : 'of : the thinker;.yet ;he wai always eager for informntionij^amfc^atfe^ varied stores of *