KING EDWARD VII
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
It is the purpose of this work to set forth in as complete, accurate, and lively fashion as may be attained by the writer, the personality and the public character and career of Edward the Seventh, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, whose sudden and regretted death has plunged the whole world into mourning. The record will show how truly remarkable, and without parallel in our history as a free people, that career and character were. We shall note the vigorous, tactful, sympathetic, and dignified discharge of every kind of public duty in a man of manifold activities and of universal interest in all that concerns the public weal. We shall show how vain is the notion that, in a thoroughly constitutional monarchy, the head of the State, or, for many years in the case of King Edward the Seventh, the personage next the Throne, is a mere puppet or figurehead; how strong, on the contrary, is the influence exerted by a popular prince, devoid of direct political power, over the classes distinguished by rank, wealth, and leisure an influence not, perhaps, based on anything noble, but capable of being used by skilful leadership and timely example for ends most beneficent to the needy and suffering. Kindly consideration for the feelings of others in every rank; sympathy, broad and deep, with human suffering and wrong; earnest patriotism combined with a due regard for the rights and sensibilities of foreign peoples; adaptability of manner to all sorts and con-
9
