CANDID MEMOIR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 135, 7 June 1912, Page 7

CANDID MEMOIR

KING EDWARD'S LIFE QUEEN VICTORIA'S RESTRICTIONS LATE MONARCH AND THE KAISER. Bj" Tclegrapn.— Press Association.— Copyright. LONDON, 6th June. The outstanding feature of the new volume of the " Dictionary of National .Biography " is the candid memoir of the late King Edward — based largely on. information obtained from hitherto unpublished and unwritten sources — contributed by the editor, Sir Sidney Lee. ,The author says that Queen Victoria's obstinate refusal to grant the late King, when Prince of Wales, genuine political responsibility or a settled solid occupation, somewhat affected his moral robustness ; while .the gloom of his mother's Court helped to evoke a reaction against the conventional strictness of hie upbringing. Among the proposals for the Prince's employment which Queen Victoria vetoed was one by Mr. Gladstone, in 1873, that His Royal Highness should join the India Council. A Cabinet key, giving him access to foreign despatches, was not granted the Prince until 1895, and at his accession he was a stranger to the administrative details of his great office ; and he wae then too old to repair the neglect in his political training. Though at the outset there were slight indications that King Edward over-esti-mated the Sovereign's power, this was due to' inexperience ; and later, in Home politics, he was for the most part content with the role of onlooker, viewing detachedly the programmes of all parties. His Majesty earnestly desired a peaceful solution of the Lords versus Commons conflict; but passively acquiesced in Mr. Asquith's plans. King Edward found no comfort in the action of any of tho parties to the strife ; but to the last he privately cherished the conviction that peace would be reached without the creation of new peers. Though there were short seasons of variance between King Edward and the Kaiser, the former could not be charged with any deliberate, systematic hostility towards the German people. Hie personal feeling was; only .very superficially affected by the mutual jealousy which grew up in his reign between Britain and Germany. The late King was a> peacemaker — not through the exercise of any diplomatic initiative or ingenuity, but by his fjrith in the blessings of peace and by the influence passively attaching to his high station and his temperament. Hie* personality greatly strengthened the hold of royalty on the public affection, and probably no King ever won so affectionately the goodwill at once of foreign peoples and hii> own subjects. A man of the ■ world, King Edward lacked the intellectual equipment of tho thinker ; yet he was always eager foi information, and gathered orally very varied stores of knowledge. MORE INTERESTED IN MEN THAIS IN MEASURES. THE HOUSING QUESTION ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTJi CORDIAL!). (Received June 7, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 6th June. blr Sydney Lee, •in his memoir, says that King Edward was more interested in men than in measures. The in elusion of a. Labour member in the Cabinet, was not uncongenial to His Majesty, who was soon on cordial terms with Mr. John 1 Burns, who interested him. King Edward had failed to persuade Ministers to deal with the housing question, beyond which few other domestic problems interested him. Prince Bismarck's attitude towards the. Royal Family naturally affected King Edward's feelings towards Germany. King Edward's grace of manner had helped to create a temper favourable to the French entente ; otherwise he was entitled to no direct responsibility for its initiation or conclusion.