grief is henceforth animated by some higher principle of life. We need to resolutely set ourselves to revive those ancient virtues which won for us our freedom at home and our reputation for truth and honour abroad. The deep reverence for the British flag everywhere springs from the recognition of our love of liberty, duty and truth.

One of the London newspapers reported some words spoken by people in that marvellous crowd of sorrowful and reverent mourners who passed through Westminster Hall to pay their last homage to their dead King. One person said, "It is beautiful." Another said, "It is wonderful." A third said, "I should like to stay here and pray." The writer of the report made the just comment that the third speaker expressed most truly the feeling which filled the hearts of that vast concourse of British people. If the spirit of this feeling remains with us, if stronger trust in God and a more genuine recognition. of Him in life and conduct fills the soul of the nation, it will do much to raise the tone of popular thought and expel what is selfish and, therefore, vulgar among us.

The best tribute which we can pay as we recall the memory of the late King is to resolve on earnest and unselfish devotion to the welfare of the kingdom which he loved and served so well, and, remembering how much he was able to accomplish for his people by the influence of his personality, to turn all endeavours more to the making of noble character than to the passing of new laws. Laws may be good and useful, but character is a far greater national asset. It is this lesson which national loss and danger are teaching us, and, if we can

learn it, our pain and peril will not have been in vain. If henceforward men of upright character, inflexible honesty of purpose, and unselfish lives are gathered round our King to support and encourage him; if the lofty and gentle influences of his happy and united home life are reflected in the homes of our country; if the passion of service expels the spirit of self-seeking; if personal character is accepted as the real strength of the nation, then the lessons of King Edward's short and glorious reign will not be wholly thrown

away.

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM

GENTLE reader, I bespeak your charity and righteous judgment as you read this chapter. You will approach it, I fear, with certain preconceived opinions. I do not blame you; for I do not see how it can be otherwise. The man who is the subject of the chapter looms too large in the imagination of men to-day to be ignored, and his actions. in policy and war have been necessarily brought under the judgment of his contemporaries. People have, as it were, made up their minds about him, and they pronounce their opinions with emphasis and without hesitation. I am not here challenging the views of any who have formed their judgment of the Emperor on adequate and carefully considered grounds. I am not putting forward my own opinion as being better than theirs. I am content to say that we can only speak, each of us, from such knowledge as we possess; we are all responsible to take care that our judgment is brought strictly within the compass of our knowledge, and that the impulses of resentment or disappointment, of hasty ignorance and even natural passion, should be allowed no place in the formation of our judgment of our fellow men.

To speak the final truth—we are none of us qualified to sit in judgment upon one another, and all that we can do is

to set down our impressions based on knowledge, and even these should be set down with the reservation that they are not designed to be more than contributions towards right estimates, and in no sense final verdicts.

Let there, then, be no misunderstanding concerning the drift and purpose of this chapter. I desire only to put down facts within my own experience, and at the same time to express my own views on those later facts which are known to the world. In speaking of my experiences I may be thought to throw into over-strong relief the attractive and good features of the subject: in speaking of the later facts I may be blamed for passing to another extreme. This, I fear, may be inevitable, but I trust that I shall neither set down anything in malice, nor yet, because of the warm attachment of other days, appear to condone things which ought to provoke just indignation.

The method which I propose, therefore, is to set out as clearly as I can the picture of the man I knew, and the traits in his character which did not fail to attract me and to awaken an attachment which was genuine and, I think, justified. And you, kind reader, will, I hope, understand that it could not be my part now or at any time to traduce the memory of a friend, even when in bitter disappointment I found myself unable to approve or defend his actions. If you, therefore, should think that I have dealt with undue tenderness at any moment, kindly remember that it is due to an affection which memory holds dear, even though now the wide estranging sea of difference separates our hearts and hopes and purposes. As I write, whatever I may be writing-words of censure or words of appreciation-there

sounds continually in my heart, like the tolling of a funeral bell: "He was my friend."

:

My first picture will be one in fair colours, because it is painted before the atmosphere clouded and the thick darkness enveloped us all. It is the picture of the man I knew -towards whose life and friendship I was drawn by circumstances. It was in circumstances tinged with sorrow that I first met him it was in circumstances just touched with the early clouds of impending storm that I last saw him. In the intervening years-twenty-five in number-the links which fastened the bonds of friendliness increased in strength; and it would be an unworthy thing in me to deny or belittle the growth of affection and of sympathetic hope which sprang up in my heart during those years. At times I have been tempted, in sheer dismay, to be silent altogether; but I have reflected that, whatever may be the darkness which these last years have brought upon his reputation and the censures which have been so widespread and severe, it is only right that the other side of the picture should be shown, and even at the risk of being, perhaps, misunderstood, which is easy; or misrepresented, which is not difficult, I ought to put on record the experiences which were mine in days when I hoped that the securities of peace and the forces which work for the welfare of the world would be strengthened and promoted by the influence which I knew he could wield, and which I had good ground for believing that he would wield, for the realization of our best ideals.

Had we not often together indulged in dreams of what the world might be under the united influence of those