KING EDWARD: PEACEMAKER.

Northern Advocate, 7 June 1912, Page 5

KING EDWARD: PEACEMAKER.

A FRANK BIOGRAPHY,

MATERNAL RESTRICTIONS.

FINE PERSONAL QUALITIES,

(Received June 7, 8.52 a.m.) LONDON, June 6

The outstanding feature.of the new volume of the Dictionary of National Eiography is Sir Sidney Lee's candid memoirs of King Edward, largely based on unpublished and unwritten sources. • He siays that Queen Victoria's obstinate refusal to grant him genuine political responsibility or settled and solid occupation somewhat affected his moral robustness, while the gloom of his mother's Court helped to evoke reaction against the -conventional strictness of his upbringing. Among the proposals for his employment that Queen Victoria vetoed was Mr Gladstone's, in 1873 that the Prince should join the India Council. A key giving access to foreign despatches was not granted, until 1895. . At his Accession King Edward was strange to the administrative details of. his great office, when too old to repair the neglect of his political training. Though at the outset there were slight indications that he had overestimated a 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 dispassionately the programme of all parties. He earnestly desired a peaceful solution of the Lords and Commons conflict, but passively acquiesced in Mr Asquith's rlans. King Edward found no comfort in the action of any parties to the strife, but to the last he privately cherished the conviction that peace would be reached without the creation of more Peers. Though there were short seasons of variance between him and the Kaiser, he could not be charged with deliberate and systematic hostility tow-ardrtfre-German people. His personal J&eling,was very superficially affected by the" mutual jealousy which grew up during his reign between Britain and Germany. He was a peacemaker not through the exercise if any diplomatic initiative or ingenuity, but by faith in the blessings of peace and by the infiuence passively attaching to his high station and temperament. His personality greatly strengthened his hold on Royalty and on public affections. Probably no King won so affectionately the goodwill at once of foreign peoples and his own subjects. A man of the world, he lacked the intellectual equipment of a thinker, ] yet he was always eager for information, and he gathered orally many varied stores of knowledge. MEN RATHER THAN MEASURES. Sir Sidney ice's article says that King Edward was more interested in men than measures. The inclusion of a Labor member in the cabinet was not uncongenial to him, and he was soon on cordial terms with Mr John Eurns, who interested him. The King failed to persuade Ministers to deal with the housing, question, beyond which few other domestic problems obtained much attention from him. Bismarck's attitude towards the Royal Family naturally affected King Eidward's feelings towards Germany. His grace r»f manner helped to create a temper favorable to the French entente, but otherwise he had no direct responsibilty for its initiation or conclusion.

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