THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY,JANUARY 30, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11564, 30 January 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY,JANUARY 30, 1901.

i '■"■■.'■ '■ " - ■"• '" ■ I King Edward VII. has begun his 1 reign, well. In addressing the Privy I Council, met to do him reverence, he 1 has spoken to us all words that are 1 vibrating in men's hearts wherever 1 English is spoken and the Crown be--1 loved. He speaks with a self-efface-I merit that shows how deeply he feels I the solemnity of the occasion. Not 1 only does he exhibit the habitual 3 tact that distinguished him as our 1 Prince of Wales, but he proves him--1 self possessed of kingly qualities and 1 manly feelings that augur a good and 1 noble reign. lb may be said that in I] time of grief the best part of a man 1 is uppermost, that the worthless 1 dross of human nature is ever I melted in the fire of sorrow. I This is most true. But the I capacity for sorrow, the possesI sion of a nature which can look 1 away from worldly glory to'..', the "* sanctities of human; life, is in itself I the index of a loyal and lofty spirit. I Tho record of kings, as the record of I all sorts and conditions of men, in I the present as loyal and lofty spirit. The record of kings, as the record of all sorts and conditions of men, in the present as in the past, shows us I that . in weaker natures the selfish I joy of entering into inheritance 1 outweighs and overwhelms all other | influences. We have seen with our « own eyes how the glamour of unac--1 customed power has fevered the egoI tism of new monarchs ; sacred and I profane story is full of unhappy inI stances of men, born 10 great trust, I being weighed in the balance and 1 found wanting. " My little finger I shall be thicker than my father's I loins," declared the son of that great ; Solomon whose fading years were ! spent in theworship of strange gods. ! "I will walk in my mother's foot- | steps as a Constitutional Sovereign ! in the strictest sense of the word, I for the good and amelioration of my | people," declares the son of that j Victoria who walked in the paths of l righteousness from the crowning I which few remember to the death- ! bed enhaloed by a nation's love. j That is th 3 pledge of the King who ] sits on the throne of Victoria and of ! Alfred. We could have asked of i him no more. We expected of him i no less. We referred last week to the | sterling loyalty with which the heir | of Victoria served her and to the | filial affection which for sixty years i has made even slander refuse to i charge him with waiting impatiently I for his inheritance. With kingly I dignity Edward VII. makes his reI lations to us clear and unmistak--1 able. The crown that he never § sought has come to him, with all its 1 manifold responsibilities, with all its 1 arduous duties. It is his by inheri- § lance, according to our ancient laws I and the immemorable custom of our Ipeople, confirmed and conformed by § the estates of the realm in free ParI liament assembled long centuries I go. Its responsibilities he accepts, I its duties he assumes, without pre-! tence of humility but without un- j worthy pride. He claims no per- | sonal merit, no superhuman attri- | bates, no divine right or individual I excellence. He is the Constitutional 1 King of a free people, who have | found freedom and order in the ConI stitution of which his family is part. So he gives no thanks lor an honour I he" did not ask for, offers no gratiI tudc for a crown he did not seek, j does not pose as one foreordained I to do mighty things. We are a free | people, but ne is equally a free man j and a free King. The Duty that I confronts him he will do, as his j mother did hers, as his father— I whose name he holds too sacred to I take—did l.is. And he asks Parlial ment and his people to help' him | do itas is equally out bounden I Duty, though that he is too generous I to say. Nor will he ask in vain. \ The King that understands us and | is at one with us, who sits above | parties and realises that beneath our | warring politics there is a common I love of country, a common craving | to make our people foremost among I the nations in all worthy things, \ may trust us to the uttermost and \ rest assured of the loyal support of j the free States he rules. This EdI nations who would walk his may trust us to the uttermost and rest assured of the loyal support of the free States he rules. This Edward of ours who would walk in his i mother's footsteps, who reveals to | us in his moment of deepest feeling | his living respect for the memory of | that Prince Consort whoso worth .! conquered our fathers' jealousy and | suspicion ?nd won from them ! gi eater title than that which they ! had denied, appeals to our better I instincts as did the mother he | mourns. He has swept away the I shadowy barrier that our lifelong ! loyalty to the dead raised between i us. There is no man who was loyal. ! to Victoria who has not been comi forted by Victoria's son. | This speech of the King's will be | placed among the treasures of our i nation, among the imperishable i treasures that need no policemen to I keep them ever in our hands, which | wc may fling away indeed, but which I none can ever take by fraud or force. ! It recalls the words with which the | Queen who is gone first began to I win our fathers' hearts: "Educated in England, under the tender and enlightened care of a most affectionate mother, I have learned from my ! infancy to respect and love the Constitution of my native country . . and I shall steadily protect the I rights, and promote, to the utmost, I of my power, the happiness and weli fare of all classes of my subjects." ! Thus began the great Victorian era. j which in our sadness we thought | had ended, but which in very truth may have only begun; for still the I spirit of the great Queen lives in her children and her example inI spires ) them to be worthy of the I mother who founded afresh the Brit- ! ish monarchy. Vainly we look back \ through the long history of our naI tion foi. such a declaration of Con- « stitutional principles as that made j by Edward VII. Vainly we search | the kindred nations for correspond* I ing frank acceptance of the status of ! p. Constitutional King. Even in Victoria's famous speech of 1837 there s is the vagueness of doubtful times I and warring conceptions. Even in the I kindred monarchies there are ever-

recurring signs that they lag behind the, freedoms of Britain. Our British Edward, walking ifi his mother's footsteps, claims only the place she held, asserts no prerogative that she flung aside as holding|her from her people. As she was the Victorian Queen so he will be a Victorian King, accepting loyally his' place, in our free Constitution, doing his duty to the utmost of his power and only asking of us that we help him do it. Thus she still lives who lies dead, "in the complete wedding of democracy and monarchy which she made possible. And thus it is that without waiving a letter of our selfgovernance, without surrendering one iota of our rights and freedoms, we can respond with loyal reverence to the King's appeal to us and pledge ourselves anew to honour and aid him. V ,