The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1913. REGICIDE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1703, 20 March 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1913. REGICIDE.

The crime of regicide always arouses indignation and detestation in tho minds of the vast majority of human beings; but tho latest outbreak of rcgicide madness—the assassination of Kino George of Greecewill bo specially reprobated throughout fcho British Empire owing to the dbad monarch's connection, through his sister Queen Alexandra, with tho Royal House of England. The late King has .only at intervals come prominently into the notice of.the world outside Grccce, for he has spent his life in a quiet dovotion to the interests of the people amongst whom he came, an alion from Norway, just half a century ago. That, excepting on some great occasions, of which the present war is the last, neither King George nor his country ever much 'occupied tho attention of the world is by no means any proof that either Grcetfe or her King have been inconsiderable entities. If'lie never attained to such a position in his adopted Kingdom as is held in Germany by the Emperor or in Britain by King Edward or his present Majesty, the late King of Grccce at any rate performed the feat of retaining his throne for fifty years,. through national vicissitudes which mijjhtJ

have been expected to end his rule, and through discomforts and discouragements which only, a wonderful sense of duty prevented. him from shakmg off by the simple process of retiring to his native land. It is a hard stroke of Fate that he should fall to an assassin's bullet just at the time when the Greek successes in the war were promising to give him the fullest trust and affection of his wayward subjects. There appears to be no reason to suppose that the tragic event need affect the situation in the Balkans and, least of all, to suppose that Greece will be otherwise than hardened up by the opportunity of making some kind of posthumous reparation to the ruler who suffered so much through the failure of the longago war on the Ottoman Turk. It appears that the assassination, like so many acts of regicide or attempted regicide, in modern times, was the work of a madman. Insanity, indeed, is implied by regicidc. Normal people cannot hope fully to understand the dark and tortuous imaginings of those wretched men who persuade themselves that some great good can bo achieved by murdering -Kings and Presidents. But it is not surprising that there should alwavs be a few minds which will push to its fulHogical length the doctrine of revolution which is, in one or otherof many shapes, now constantly .preached in many 'countries. The King is the personal embodiment of the social idea, and regicide is the symbol of anarchy and disorder. In olden days it was frequently the case that the King was a despot, and that his removal would make way for another King who would rule more nearly as the people wished. When a tyrant ;was, assassinated of old, his assassins rarely aimed' at the monarchical princip)e. To-day it is hatred of the monarchical principle as the essence of order and social stability that is the target of the extreme revolutionaries. The modern revolutionary is not concerned with anything but tho disruption of society as be sees it, and the Kings and Presidents have to pay the penalty. There isi really no very vast difference between' the British Socialist M.P. who threatens the Grown and the delirious criminal who murders a King. Their philosophy is only tho logical last development of the philosophy of the revolutionary enemies everywhere of the existing social system.