The Life of King Edward VII Part 13

OPENING AND SUCCESS OF THE EXHIBITION

The Colonial and Indian Exhibition was opened on the following day at South Kensington by Her Majesty the Queen in the presence of an immense gathering, representative of all parts of the British realm. It was, in fact, the first of those great fetes with which the people became so familiar in the next two decades and which did so much to unify and typify the power of the Empire. In the brilliant throng surrounding the Queen and the Prince of Wales, as the latter read an elaborate address of loyal welcome, were the members of the Government, the various Foreign Amba.s.sadors, distinguished men in every walk of life, representatives of Colonies and British islands in all parts of the world--Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, Lord Cranbrook, the Earl of Northbrook, the Dukes of Manchester, Buckingham and Abercorn, the Earl of Iddesleigh, Lord Granville, the Earl of Kimberley, Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach, Sir F. Leighton, Sir Charles Tupper and Mr. Hector Fabre from Canada, Sir Alexander Stuart, Sir Arthur Blyth, Sir Samuel Davenport, the Hon. James F. Garrick and the Hon. Malcolm Fraser, from Australia, Sir Lyon Playfair, Sir Richard Cross, Sir William Harcourt, Lord Wolseley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. H. C.

E. Childers, the Maharajah of Joh.o.r.e, Rustem Pasha, Count Hatzfeldt, Earl Spencer, and many others. Madame Albani sang that splendid ode by Lord Tennyson beginning:

"Welcome, welcome with one voice In your welfare we rejoice, Sons and brothers that have sent, From isle and cape and continent Produce of your field and flood, Mount and mine and primal wood, Works of subtle brain and hand And splendours of the Morning Land, Gifts from every British zone Britons, hold your own!"

The National Anthem was first sung in English and then in Sanskrit as a compliment to the Indian visitors. The address read by the Prince of Wales referred to the origin and progress of the project, to the development of the Colonies, to the late Prince Consort's interest in Exhibitions and to his own position as President of the present Royal Commission, and concluded as follows: "It is our heartfelt prayer that an undertaking intended to ill.u.s.trate and record this development may give a stimulus to the commercial interests and intercourse of all parts of Your Majesty's dominions; that it may be the means of augmenting that warm affection and brotherly sympathy which is reciprocated by all Your Majesty's subjects; and that it may still further deepen that steadfast loyalty which we, who dwell in the Mother Country, share with our kindred who have elsewhere so n.o.bly done honour to her name." The Queen's reply expressed an earnest hope that the Exhibition would encourage the arts of peace and industry and strengthen the bonds of union within the Empire. An interesting feature of the proceedings was the receipt of a telegram from Sir Patrick Jennings, Premier of New South Wales, expressing that Colonial Government's "thanks and appreciation to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for the profound interest" he had shown in the success of the great project now so auspiciously opened. The London _Times_ on the following day spoke of the "energy and devotion" of the Prince in this connection, and the press as a whole at home and in the external Empire joined in congratulating him upon the issue.

The Exhibition was a great success in every way. Over five and a half million visitors were recorded and the Queen helped, personally, to maintain public interest in it by herself visiting the various Sections repeatedly. The final meeting of the Royal Commission was held at Marlborough House on April 30th, 1897 and the Prince of Wales submitted an elaborate and exhaustive Report which was afterwards published. In his own remarks the President pointed out that the project had served its main purpose in very largely promoting knowledge of the Empire's resources and products and that, incidentally, its success had given the management a surplus of 35,000. This sum, he suggested, should be largely devoted to the advancement of the project for a permanent Exhibition or Imperial Inst.i.tute--"in the promotion of which the Queen and I both take so warm an interest." Later in the evening the Prince expressed the hope that as the late Exhibition had been, allegorically, burnt that day, "the Imperial Inst.i.tute may be a Phoenix rising out of its ashes. I trust that it may be a lasting memorial not only of that but of the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen." Of the sum mentioned, 25,000 was accordingly voted to the new project.

The proposal of the Heir Apparent--as first expressed in a letter to the Lord Mayor on September 13, 1886--was that the idea evolved in the Exhibition should be made permanent and be embodied in an Imperial Inst.i.tute which should be at once a visible emblem of the unity of the Empire, a place for ill.u.s.trating its vast resources, a museum for exhibiting its varied and changing products and industries, a centre of information and communication for all British countries, an aid to the increase and distribution of national wealth, a medium for combining in joint co-operation older and smaller inst.i.tutions of tried utility, and a fitting national memorial of the Queen's Jubilee. The movement developed steadily and, on January 12th, 1887, a gathering was held at Kensington Palace, upon invitation of the Prince of Wales, and was one of the most representative over which even he had ever presided. Amongst those present were Lord Hersch.e.l.l, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, the Earl of Carnarvon, Lord Revelstoke, Lord Rothschild, Sir Lyon Playfair, Sir H. T. Holland, Sir John Rose, Sir Henry James, the Right Hon. H. H. Fowler, Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir Charles Tupper, Sir Saul Samuel, Sir Edward Guinness, Sir Ashley Eden, Sir Owen T. Bourne, Sir Reginald Hanson, Lord Mayor of London, Mr. J. H. Tritton, Chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Pattison Currie, Chairman of the Bank of England, Sir Frederick Abel, Mr. Neville Lubbock, Lord Campden, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the Lord Mayor of York, the Mayor of Newcastle and nearly two hundred other mayors, or chief magistrates, of British towns.

The Prince of Wales was accompanied by Prince Albert Victor and spoke at length upon the objects to be served and the progress already made in the matter which he had so much at heart. "It occurred to me that the recent Colonial and Indian Exhibition, which presented a most successful display of the material resources of the Colonies and India, might suggest the basis for an Inst.i.tute which should afford a permanent representation of the products and manufactures of the Queen's dominions. I, therefore, appointed a Committee of eminent men to consider and report to me upon the best means of carrying out this idea." So much for the initiation of the scheme. The Report had been duly submitted and accepted and he now invited co-operation and a.s.sistance in establis.h.i.+ng and maintaining the proposed "Imperial Inst.i.tute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies and India." His Royal Highness pointed out that no less than sixteen million persons had attended the four Exhibitions over which he had presided--the Fisheries, Healtheries, Inventories and Colinderies, as they were popularly called--and expressed the strong belief that they had added greatly to the knowledge of the people and largely stimulated the industries of the country.

INITIATION OF THE IMPERIAL INSt.i.tUTE

"My proposals are that the Imperial Inst.i.tute be an emblem of the unity of the Empire and ill.u.s.trate the resources and capabilities of every section of Her Majesty's dominions." The Colonies and Motherland would thus teach other and emigration would also be greatly aided along British channels. He believed that the work upon which he had entered in this connection would be of lasting benefit to this and future generations and, after a careful review of the whole situation, declared that "from the close relation in which I stand to the Queen there can be no impropriety in my stating that if her subjects desire, on the occasion of the celebration of her fiftieth year as Sovereign of this great Empire, to offer her a memorial of their love and loyalty, she would specially value one which would promote the industrial and commercial resources of her dominions in various parts of the world and which would be expressive of that unity and co-operation which Her Majesty desires should prevail amidst all cla.s.ses and races of her extended Empire."

A public meeting at the Mansion House followed with the Lord Mayor in the chair and was addressed by Earl Granville, Mr. A. J. Mundella, Mr.

G. J. Goschen, and others. Strong resolutions of support and approval were pa.s.sed, many telegrams of sympathy with the object announced, and a statement of initial subscriptions given which included the names of Lord Rothschild, Sir W. J. Clarke of Australia and Lord Revelstoke.

During the next six years the project was steadily pressed forward; large individual subscriptions obtained by the personal influence of the Prince of Wales, supplemented by the growing sympathy with the Colonies and with Empire unity; while grants were given by the British, Indian and Colonial Governments. Gradually, the splendid building in South Kensington, known over the world as the Imperial Inst.i.tute, approached completion and, on May 9th, 1893, was opened by the Queen amidst stately ceremonial and all the trappings of regal magnificence. Nearly all the Royal family were present and, in the progress through the streets, a particularly enthusiastic reception was given to the Duke of York and Princess May of Teck whose engagement had been very recently announced.

Around Her Majesty and the Prince of Wales, as the latter presented the address of the Committee, were ranged the most representative men of England, many Amba.s.sadors, and Indian Princes and Colonial statesmen.

Lord Salisbury, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Mr. H. H. Asquith, Sir William Harcourt, Lord Rosebery and Lord Randolph Churchill were there, but not Mr. Gladstone. After a brief description, in the address, of the objects and history of the Inst.i.tute, the Prince continued as follows: "We venture to express a confident antic.i.p.ation that the Imperial Inst.i.tute will not only be a record of the growth of the Empire and of the marvellous advance of its people in industrial and commercial prosperity during Your Majesty's reign but will, also, tend to increase that prosperity by stimulating enterprise and promoting the technical and scientific knowledge which is now so essential to industrial development." After some brief words from Her Majesty the great building was declared open and another important project initiated by the Prince of Wales had reached completion. The London _Times_ of the succeeding day referred with accuracy, in this connection, to his "clear-sighted initiative and untiring energy" and a member of the Executive Committee, which had the enterprise in hand, wrote to the same paper that during the past six years "every important step in connection with the Inst.i.tute has been taken under the immediate direction of the Prince of Wales. By his energy men have been moved to action and difficulties apparently insuperable have been overcome. The result of years of devoted labour was accomplished to-day."

EARLY ADVOCACY OF IMPERIALISM

These were the two chief products of what may be called the Empire statesmans.h.i.+p of the Prince of Wales. Long before either of them were undertaken, however, he had shown a deep and sincere interest in the unity of the Empire--a natural outcome of his training, his travels, his individual abilities. For many years he acted as President of the Royal Colonial Inst.i.tute, accepting the position at a time when people were only beginning to awake to the fact that Great Britain was more than an Island and sea-power and when the Inst.i.tute was the rallying ground and centre for a small group of men like the late Duke of Manchester, Lord Bury, Mr. W. E. Forster and Sir Frederick Young, who devoted much energy and enthusiasm to the promotion of what long afterwards became known as Imperialism. The patronage and support of His Royal Highness did very much to give the movement, in its earlier days, a place and an influence and to establish the Inst.i.tute as the factor which history has since recognized it to have been. It was in this connection, on July 16th, 1881, that the Lord Mayor of London--Sir William McArthur M.P.--entertained the Prince of Wales at a banquet attended by many representatives of the Colonies and distinguished guests. In his speech the Prince referred with extreme regret to his not having been able to visit all the Colonies, and especially, Australia. He had greatly desired to accept the invitation extended to him two years before to visit the Exhibitions at Sydney and Melbourne. "Though, my Lords and gentlemen I have not had the opportunity of seeing those great Australian Colonies, which every day and every year are making such immense development, still, at the International Exhibitions of London, Paris and Vienna, I had not only an opportunity of seeing their various products then exhibited, but I had the pleasure of making the personal acquaintance of many Colonists--a fact which has been a matter of great importance and great benefit to myself."

A further reference was made to the sending of his sons to visit Australia and memories of his own tour of British America were revived, with an expression of special gratification at seeing his "old friend,"

Sir John Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada, present on this occasion.

In August, 1887, the Prince of Wales showed further and practical interest in Australia by accepting the post of President of the Royal Commission appointed by the Queen, in England, to promote and help the Melbourne Exhibition of 1888. The Earl of Rosebery acted as Vice-President and much was done in making the British exhibit a good one. Years before this, speaking at the laying of the foundation stone of the first Melbourne Exhibition--February 19th, 1879--the Governor of Victoria, Sir George F. Bowen, declared it to be well-known that the Heir Apparent was animated by "a desire to visit the Australian Colonies in person should high reasons of state permit." As ill.u.s.trating the opinions formed of him by colonial statesmen, the following may be quoted from the autobiography of that uncouth, clever, patriotic personality, Sir Henry Parkes: "I met His Royal Highness on several occasions in London, and he struck me as possessing in a remarkable degree the princely faculty of doing the right thing and saying the right word."

Another matter to which the Prince of Wales gave an Imperial character was the Royal College of Music which he initiated, organized and finally inaugurated on May 7th, 1883. Upon the latter occasion he explained in his speech that the inst.i.tution was open to the whole Empire, that scholars.h.i.+ps had already been provided by Victoria and South Australia, and that he hoped it might become an Imperial centre of musical education as well as a British centre. "The object I have in view is essentially Imperial as well as national, and I trust that ere long there will be no Colony of any importance which is not represented by a scholar at the Royal College." During the years which followed, up to the time of his accession to the Throne, the interest of the Prince of Wales in everything that helped Imperial unity was continuous and most earnest. At the Jubilee periods of 1887 and 1897, he entertained many Colonial statesmen, as he had done at other times when opportunity served, and he was always delighted to meet them and to discuss the affairs of their countries with men who naturally knew them best. It was a process of mental equipment for the government of a vast empire which, in addition to his early travels, must have made the experience and knowledge of Queen Victoria's successor as unique as were the conditions and greatness of his Empire.

During the last Jubilee the Prince presided, on June 18th, as President of the Imperial Inst.i.tute, at a banquet given to the Colonial Premiers and other representatives in London. Upon his right sat Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier of Canada, and upon his left Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the special Envoy of the United States. Amongst others present were Lord Salisbury, Sir Hugh Nelson, Premier of Queensland, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Rosebery and Mr. Chamberlain--all of whom spoke; while Lord Ripon, Lord Dufferin, Lord Kimberley, the Marquess of Lorne, Sir W.

V. Whiteway, Premier of Newfoundland, Lord Rothschild, Sir Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona) the Archbishop of Canterbury and a splendid array of other representative men in Church and State, army and navy, art and science and literature, were also present. In one of his tactful speeches on this occasion, His Royal Highness referred to the enormous growth of the Colonies during the Queen's record reign and expressed the hope that present peaceful conditions might long continue. "G.o.d grant it," he added, "but if the national flag is threatened I am convinced that all the Colonies will unite to maintain what exists and to preserve the unity of the Empire." In little more than a year these words were fully borne out by events.

But the Prince of Wales was never content to make mere speeches in advocacy of a principle. His aid to the Royal Colonial Inst.i.tute and organization of the Imperial Inst.i.tute were cases in point. When the Imperial Federation League was formed he could only help its aims indirectly because there were political possibilities in its platform, but when, in 1896, the British Empire League succeeded to its place and mission, with a broader and more general platform, the Queen and the Prince extended their patronage to the organization. On April 30, 1900, a great banquet was given under its auspices to welcome the Australian Delegates who had gone "home" to discuss the Commonwealth Act, and to recognize the services rendered by Colonial troops in the South African war. The Duke of Devons.h.i.+re occupied the chair, with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York on either hand, and next to them again the Dukes of Cambridge and Fife. The Marquess of Salisbury, Lieutenant Colonel George T. Denison, President of the League in Canada, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Edmund Barton of Australia and Mr. J. Israel Tarte of Canada were amongst the speakers, and others present included the Right Hon. C. C.

Kingston, the Hon. Alfred Deakin, the Hon. J. R. d.i.c.kson, Sir John c.o.c.kburn and Sir James Blyth of Australia, the Earl of Hopetoun, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Wolseley, Lord Knutsford, Lord Strathcona, the Earl of Onslow, the Earl of Jersey, the Earl of Crewe, Lord Kelvin and Earl Grey. The Prince of Wales was enthusiastically received and congratulated upon his recent escape from a.s.sa.s.sination at Brussels.

After some eloquently appropriate remarks upon this point, he welcomed the Australians in kindly words and then referred to the war. "We little doubt," he went on, "that in a great war like the one we are now waging we should have at any rate the sympathy of our Colonies; but it has exceeded even our expectations. We know now the feeling that existed in our Colonies and that they have sent their best material, their best blood and manhood, to fight with us, side by side, for the honour of the flag and for the maintenance of our Empire." Such words may fittingly conclude a brief record of the Prince of Wales' interest in Empire affairs up to the time of his accession to the Throne.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Prince as Heir Apparent

The Heir to a Throne such as that of Great Britain has an exceptionally difficult place to fill. He has to have the broad sympathies and knowledge and training of a statesman without the right to express himself upon any of the political problems and issues of his time; he has to live in a never-ending blaze of publicity and be liable to unscrupulous, or too scrupulous, criticism without the power of direct reply; he has, perhaps, to suffer in private life and character from the caustic shafts of men at home or abroad who do not like the inst.i.tution which he represents; he has to officiate in a ceaseless round of functions and public ceremonial; he has to travel constantly from Court to Court in Europe and, in the case of the Prince of Wales, he had to act for several decades the part of the Sovereign in public life without the resources or responsibilities which the actual ruler would naturally possess.

There are, of course, important compensations. He has the foremost place in every leading national event, the privilege of knowing as intimately as he pleases the great men of his own and other countries, in every line of statecraft and human attainment, the pleasure of travel in many lands and amongst varied scenes and people, the opportunity of taking up any matter of a non-political character which he deems useful to the state, the people, or the Empire, with a reasonable certainty of substantial backing. To succeed, however, in the position as did Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, demands a peculiar combination of qualities which very few men possess in any rank of life. Tact, self-restraint, self-reliance, knowledge of human nature, energy, dignity, good intentions earnest patriotism, are more or less necessary.

How seldom these qualities have all been possessed by Heirs to the British Throne is plain upon the pages of history. There have been amongst them seventeen Princes of Wales of whom the best, before the chief of the line, was the Black Prince, and of whom only four have reached the Throne since the time of Edward VI. They were Charles I, Charles II, George II, and George IV., and the careers of the last two consisted in the establishment of rival Courts, continuous disagreements with their fathers, the heads.h.i.+p of political factions, and the possession of characters about which the least said the better. The Prince who became Edward VII. may be said to have created the position of Heir Apparent, as his Royal mother created that of a modern const.i.tutional Monarch.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE POSITION

He established himself as a sort of advisory statesman to the nation, an absolutely impartial leader in questions of high, as distinct from party politics, the first gentleman in the land in society, sports and manners, the leader of philanthropic projects and social reforms. He became the busiest man in England, the most popular personality in the three kingdoms, the head and front of many important public undertakings. Such a development was new to British inst.i.tutions, but it came about so gradually that only when he ascended the Throne did people fully realize how large a place the Prince of Wales had held in public affairs as well as in their affections. Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, the eloquent American Senator, expressed the personal side of the matter very well when he said, with some surprise, after first meeting His Royal Highness: "I met a thoughtful dignitary filling to the brim the requirements of his exalted position. In fact, a practical as well as a theoretical student of the mighty forces which control the government of all great countries and make their best history."

There were many sides to this career, and in some of them the Prince never received the credit which he deserved. One was the essentially business-like management of his financial affairs. From the time of attaining his majority the Heir Apparent received 40,000 a year by grant of Parliament; at his marriage a special grant of 10,000 was given the Princess of Wales; when their children grew up the Prince was given 36,000 to apportion amongst them as he saw fit. During his minority the wise management of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall--which is an hereditary appurtenance of the Prince of Wales--by the late Prince Consort, gave the Heir Apparent a total of 600,000, of which 220,000 were expended upon the purchase of Sandringham, and a considerable sum upon improvements there. On the Prince's marriage he was voted 23,455 to defray expenses and his allowance for the Indian tour of 1875 was 142,000 of which 69,000 was for presents. Marlborough House was given him by the nation, though he paid taxes upon it like any other citizen. The Duchy of Cornwall was so well managed after it came under his control that it yielded in 1897 a total income of nearly 74,000, or almost double the value of the returns received forty years before. Birk Hall, an estate inherited from the Prince Consort, was sold to the Queen for 120,000. The total public income of the Prince of Wales during many years was about 180,000, or nearly a million dollars, and the management of his finances was always careful. The stories of extravagance and indebtedness were absolutely without foundation. Yet these tales of poverty were always widespread and were probably believed by many millions of people.

The truth is that he was a first-rate business man in money affairs, knew how to make his income go to its furthest extent, and had an established system on his estates and in his palaces which combined comfort and luxury with judicious economy. A few words upon this point may be quoted, in pa.s.sing, from an article in the well-known _Ladies Home Journal_ of Philadelphia, written in July, 1897, by Mr. George W.

Smalley, an American critic of authority who lived in London for many years: "It is not a subject which I care to touch upon, but I may refer to the stories about the Prince of Wales' financial position. It is a matter with which the American public has absolutely no concern.

Nevertheless all sorts of stories are printed here about his debts to this person or that. Such stories were circulated when Baron Hirsch died--so circ.u.mstantial that they must have either been based upon minute knowledge or have been pure fabrications. They were not based upon knowledge, minute or otherwise, because they were not true." These stories were rendered more absurd by the fact that a rough calculation of his receipts during forty years of public life would indicate a sum of between thirty and forty millions of dollars.

CHARITIES OF THE PRINCE

Of course the expenses of the Heir Apparent were very great even when those are excepted which the nation paid. His personal gifts to benevolent inst.i.tutions, educational concerns, religious interests, objects of social, moral and physical improvement, hospitals and infirmaries, asylums, orphanages, commercial and agricultural organizations, the relief of children and foreigners in distress, deaf and dumb and blind inst.i.tutions, memorials and statues, Indian famines, war funds, calamity funds of various kinds at home, in the Colonies, and abroad, have been reckoned by an English student of statistics at 3,200 a year, or 128,000 in forty years--$640,000 spent in response to public appeals alone without reference to the many private charities about which little was known except that a very large amount of a.s.sistance was given yearly by the Prince and Princess in response to all kinds of private and authenticated requests. In this general connection Mr.

Gladstone, when Prime Minister, spoke very warmly during the Parliamentary discussion of 1889 upon the Royal grants of that year. "It will be admitted," he said in the course of his somewhat famous speech, "that circ.u.mstances have tended to throw upon the Prince of Wales an amount of public work in connection with inst.i.tutions as well as with ceremonials, which was larger than could reasonably have been expected, and with regard to which every call has been honourably and devotedly met from a sense of public duty."

Reference has been made in the preceding pages to the infinitely varied public functions of His Royal Highness and the aid thus given to charities and benevolent objects. A few instances only were quoted in which many thousands of pounds were obtained for worthy objects through his patronage. The fact is that the Heir Apparent gave his position a rather unique characteristic in this respect by becoming a sort of Grand Almoner of the nation. Almost any charity which he patronized or which the Princess supported with his approval, became a success, and it is probable that every thousand pounds which he gave away became a hundred thousand pounds through the _prestige_ of his example and his often vigorous and effective personal exertions. One of the interests to which he was most devoted was that of the London and other hospitals.

Attendance at the festivals, or annual dinners, was frequent, and the consequent subscription to their funds from time to time considerable.

During the Diamond Jubilee the Prince thought he saw in this cause a way to fittingly commemorate that great event--as he had already marked that of 1887 by the Imperial Inst.i.tute.

Under date of February 5th, 1897, therefore, an elaborate statement and earnest appeal appeared in the London _Times_ and other great papers signed by the Prince of Wales, and asking for organized help in making up the existing deficits of 100,000 in London hospitals. The Royal writer pointed out that the efforts of individual inst.i.tutions, praiseworthy as they had been, failed to obtain more than a small number of subscriptions from the great population of the metropolis; that the reasons for this was partly the difficulty of choosing amongst so many useful charities, partly the lack of definite opportunity for giving annual subscriptions to the cause as a whole, partly a feeling that small sums were not worth contributing; that it was proposed to establish this "Prince of Wales Hospital Fund" in order to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's reign by obtaining permanent annual subscriptions of from 100,000 to 150,000. He also announced that Lord Rothschild had accepted the post of Treasurer, that a commencement in subscriptions had been made, and that the Lord Mayor had promised his active a.s.sistance.

The success of the movement thus inaugurated by the Heir Apparent was p.r.o.nounced. The annual Report of the Council of the Fund, which was issued on May 2nd, 1899, stated that during the past two years 89,000 had been distributed, and that the hospitals had been enabled to re-open and maintain two hundred and forty-two beds. It had, however, not come up yet to the requirements and, on March 1st, of this year, the Prince made another effort to help the hospitals. He called a large and representative meeting at Marlborough House, and placed before it a plan for the establishment of an Order to be called the League of Mercy. Its object would be to reach locally persons who did not subscribe to minor Funds, or individual inst.i.tutions, and to do this by offering an honour in the form of this decoration, "as a reward for gratuitous personal services rendered in the relief of sickness, suffering, poverty or distress." These services would be apart, altogether, from gifts of money, (although the latter would be gladly accepted) and must be continued during five years. The Queen was to be head of the Order and the Heir Apparent its Grand President. All names were to be submitted to Her Majesty and the honour itself was not to confer any rank, dignity or social precedence. The plan was approved, and its success marked despite some caustic and unjust criticisms in certain Radical papers. On December 1st (1899), following, the annual meeting of the Hospital Fund was held at Marlborough House, with His Royal Highness in the chair, and attended by Lord Rowton, Lord Iveagh, Cardinal Vaughan, Lord Lister, Lord Reay, the Chief Rabbi and others. Lord Rothschild submitted a statement which showed the year's receipts to be 47,000, the first distribution from the League of Mercy to be 1,000, and the total amount of the Fund to be 217,000. The meeting of December 18th, in the following year, showed receipts of 49,468; of which 6,000 came from the League of Mercy. In his speech upon this occasion Lord Rothschild heartily congratulated the Royal chairman upon his "wisdom and foresight" in forming this League. In pa.s.sing, it may be said that Grey's Hospital, London, was one of the individual inst.i.tutions which the Prince undertook personally to help, and at one special banquet, at which he presided for this purpose, he was enabled to announce total subscriptions to the extraordinary amount of 151,000.

THE PRINCE AND THE WORKINGMEN

There was no part of his public career more creditable to the Prince of Wales than his sincere, unforced friends.h.i.+p and sympathy with the workingman. Like his philanthropic work, it was the natural product of a generous disposition, and won the honest liking of men who had always looked with suspicion upon aristocratic, to say nothing of Royal, efforts in their behalf. This was another ill.u.s.tration of the difference between Heirs Apparent to the Throne. Imagination fails to grasp the thought of the Stuarts or the Georges, when holding that position, trying to help the poor or uplift the labourer! Speaking at a meeting in London on January 12th, 1887, Lord Mayor, Sir Reginald Hanson, said: "All those who have been engaged in this scheme (the Imperial Inst.i.tute) know that the Prince of Wales is one of the first in this country who looks to the interests of the working cla.s.ses." For many years, indeed, he had been an annual subscriber to the Workingmen's Club and Inst.i.tute Union and to the Workingmen's College in Great Ormond Street. In the Alexandra Trust, founded by Sir Thomas Lipton, at the instance of the Princess, much interest was taken by the Heir Apparent as well as his wife, and, on March 15th, 1900, they privately and unexpectedly visited the Restaurant in City Road and inspected this praiseworthy effort to supply wholesome food at low prices to the poor. After walking about and speaking to many of the people, they enjoyed a "three-course dinner"

costing four pence half-penny, and left amid a scene of great enthusiasm.

More than once the Prince aided workingmen's inst.i.tutions by visiting them. On one occasion he heard that an Exhibition in South London, promoted by workingmen, was languis.h.i.+ng for want of patronage and at once arranged to visit it unofficially. He went through it carefully, buying a number of articles and expressing much interest in the project.

There was no further neglect of the inst.i.tution by the general public.

There was, perhaps, no single work in which he more appreciated the opportunity of doing good than that connected with the Housing of the Poor Commission to which he was appointed in 1884. He more than once presided at its meetings and took an active part in the investigations which were necessary. He attended every sitting and studied quietly and privately the whole condition of the poor in the poorest quarters of London and other cities. The Prince never hesitated to criticize those who neglected their charitable duties, or to praise those who lived up to the level of their opportunities, and in connection with an inst.i.tution which he opened at Deptford, in 1898, his condemnation of the wealthy people in that neighbourhood was severe.

On March 4th, 1900, the working-cla.s.s dwellings built in Sh.o.r.editch by the City Council were opened by the Prince of Wales. They were largely the product of the Royal Commission in which he had taken such interest and whose proposals were the basis of so much progress in this direction. His Royal Highness was accompanied on this occasion by the Princess and Lord Suffield and was surrounded on the platform by Lord Welby, the Earl of Rosebery, the Bishops of London and Stepney, the Earl and Countess Carrington and others. In his speech the Prince was expressive and vigorous upon the necessity of better housing for the poor. "I am satisfied, not only that the public conscience is awakened on the subject but that the public demands, and will demand, vigorous action in cleansing the slums which disgrace our civilization and the erection of good and wholesome dwellings such as those around us, and in meeting the difficulties of providing house-room for the working-cla.s.ses, at reasonable rates, by easy and cheap carriage to not distant districts where rents are reasonable." He concluded an elaborate speech upon the question generally by expressing the hope that the Legislature would deal with and punish those who were responsible for insanitary property. Speaking at a banquet of the London County Council on December 3rd of the same year, the Prince again urged attention to the improvement of dwellings in various city areas. A part of this generous desire to aid the poor was the Princess of Wales' dinner to three hundred thousand persons in London at the Jubilee of 1897.

Contributions poured in unceasingly to the project and amongst others was the gift of twenty thousand sheep from the pastoralists of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. The organization of the dinner was in the hands of the Lord Mayor of London and it proved a great success.

The gifts of a statesman were cultivated by the Prince of Wales upon every proper opportunity. His Empire unity ideas and projects were abundant evidence of this while a not less distinct proof of statecraft was the apparent absence of it--the absolute non-partisan position of the Heir Apparent. No one was ever able to say that he held political views of any particular type. His delicate tact was particularly shown in his kindness and courtesy to Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone. When the aged statesman finally retired from politics the Prince visited him again at Hawarden Castle and was photographed in a family group. He and the Princess attended his funeral and showed the greatest respect for his memory and services. When the time came, in 1900, for Mrs. Gladstone to be laid beside her husband in Westminster Abbey one of the incidents of a sad occasion was the wreath sent in by their Royal Highnesses with the following inscription:

_In Memory of Dear Mrs. Gladstone._