SYMBOL OF UNITY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 130, 6 June 1927, Page 4

SYMBOL OF UNITY

HOMAGE TO THE KING

POWER OF SENTIMENT

"OUR" REPRESENTATIVE MAN

Now that "the trumpets and tho shouting die," and only the memory is loft of: the winning personality of the Duchess, and the impression of serious purpose mado by the Duke, the question arises: "What is this compelling charm of Royalty which is felt from end to end of the British Empire?" Tho King may not always fulfil Carlyle's ideal of "tho King; the Ableman," but he is felt to be tho representative man of the nation, and the embodiment of the national aspirations of his peoplo whether in the direction of war or peace. History abounds with illustrations of the love the English race has borne for its Kings,* writes .Laura Bogue Luffnian in the "Sydney Morning Herftld." From the days when "Alfred the Truthteller" was loved for his tenacity of purpose and clearness of spiritual vision; when Richard Coeur do Lion, by nobly forgiving the base, usurpor John, set a shining example to his Court; when Edward Plantagenot, the lawgiver, taught that fidelity to the plighted word waß more essential than the mailed fist, the while his magnetic power of sympathy riveted his people's fealty?.. when Edward IV. was loved "for the great humanity and lowliness that in him was by nature most abundantly engendered", (an entirely human man); when Henry V., whoso ideals were those of a king ruling a willing people as a trust from God, becamo the hero of his age; when Kings and soldiers fought side by side at Orecy, Poitiers, and Agineburt; when courtiers and commoners alike expressed themselves as "ready to die for good^Queen Bess; when Charles I. rode into Edinburgh and a cheering, weeping crowd "covered even his . boots with tears and kisses; when, all the faults of Charles 11. were condoned by the genuine kindliness which converted foes to friends; when these, and "similar instances rise to the mind, it is easily seen that the personality of tho man has come before the authority of tho monarch, and that affection is the groundwork of English' loyalty. The "Four Georges," whose story haß been told.admirably by Thackeray, certainly constituted a hard pill for loyalty to swallow, and who can wonder that the King over the water" was secretly toasted in many English homes. But none;can gainsay that, during the last hundred \yearg, the sense of personal devotion to the Throne has been quickened to an unprecedented degree. "A GOOD BLOKE." Personality, kindness, tho sense of unison with the heart of the people, these are the qnalities which have endeared our reigning house to the nation/ inspiring the reply of the London bus driver to an Australian visitor who ha<a expressed surprise that King Edwarcl VII. should drive unprotected through the streets. "Why, o'oed ever 'arm Jim? >E's a good bloke, ?e is. Nobody'd touch a 'air or! 'is 'cd." , Tho deep sense ■of personal loyalty to the present King is extended to his family, which is more and more regarded an tho family of the nation. London papers speak of the Prince of. Wales as "our young man," and tho public regard him with fond parental pride., noting his daily comings and goings, not from "snobbishness," but from th-> interest of affection. The experionces :of the Duke and Duchess in faroff lands have thrilled the east end of London no less than Mayfair with a delight only equalled by the entrancing news cabled to the Dominions that Princess . Betty, driving in the park seated on her nurse's knee, had clapped her small Royal hands at the sight of a flight of gulls. Every mother in Eng-. land must have recognised immedately that "Our Royal Baby" is a remarkable child. Tho art of photoplay and the increase of illustrated papers have been contributory factors to present-day intimacy with Royalty. Early Victorians looked with disapproval at tho charming photographs in shop windows of the Princess of Wales with her baby Ron, our present King, riding on her back. They considered such display of intimate family relations to the eyes of tho vulgar boded ill for the futuro of Royalty. They wero wrong. It was just this revelation of her love for her little ones in the nursery,, followed in after years by nows of her devotion in times of sickness, when she-sat up night after night with husband and children, and ministered with a daughter's devotion to Queen Victoria in her last hours, which helped to make Queen Alexandra tho most loved woman of her time. The news that the old Queen had fallen asleep "in the arms of the Princess of Wales" stirred the nation's heart to its depths. "The Divinity which doth hedge a King" doe's not suffer eclipse because we sec him as a man. Even when a London magazine ventures to describe the howls of the present Prince of Wales when enduring, by order of His Royal. Father, castigation for a mischievous prank,' we are not one whit dismayed. The audacious writer is not sent to expiate his treason on the block, and, John: Bull, glancing at his own young hopeful, only feels thankful "our young man" was properly brought up. Loyalty burns as bright although the ''whipping boy" has long ceased to exist, a»d the Prince, as a very "human boy," remains.

UNITY BASED ON SENTIMENT.

There is a closer union than some might imagine between this senso of personal, affectionate loyalty and the constitutional position of the King in relation to the Dominions. In the address to the King by the Imperial War Cabinet (1918) these remarkable words occur: "The Dominions have come to claim equal status within tho Empiro of which the King is the symbol of Unity based on Sentiment." It is noteworthy that, at the Peace Conference the Dominions Plenipotentiaries received formal power to treat and sigu from the King •as well as from their own Governments. Professor Duncan Hall contends that the Crown is tho symbol of the constitutional independence of the Dominions.

Strange words these—"The Dominions have como to claim equal status . . . ." —to'find in a State document. Ana yet, years ago, Edmund Burke haa declared that "any hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges and equal protection. These are the ties which, though light as air, are strong as links of iron." The historian Freeman is the .first who darea utter the word "sentiment" in relation to Government: "The really unpractical men are those who take no account of national sentiment, which is one of the strongest factors) in national Hfe.l"

. Guizqt makes the astonishing statement that "the instincts of nations sco further than the negotiations" of diplomatists." After this may we not quote the deep saying of Pascal, "The heart has its reasons which reason does not know," as the last word in loyalty. It 1 ollowg, then, that tho enthusiastic multitude, who, seven years ago, cheered tho Prince of Wales, rejoiced in his smile, overwhelmed him with mayoral receptions, gifts, addresses, balls, banquets, and processions, and in this year of grace, 1927, have welcomed demonstratively the young father and mother, of the baby who may one day be England's second Queen Elizabeth, were

doing fa' more than they know. Cheering, waving flags, thronging tho roads obstructing the way, holding up children to catch tho ducal eye, loud in their expressions of delight anil admiration they were cementing thoso bonds of affection which hold the Dominions in tho embrace of tho motherland. They wero rendering yeoman service to the far-flung British Empire which havo we not read the astounding statement in a published document—"based on sentiment." They were offering homage to tho King as tho symbol of unity Tho instinct of the nation has leaped to the realisation of the truth that loyalty based on personal affection is tho best safeguard of the Throne.