11 JUNE 1910, Page 21

" ICH DIEN."

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SID,—The secret of the popularity of our late King Edward, and also of Queen Victoria, is surely given in 1 Kings xii. 7, which, curiously, was part of the regular Lesson for the after- noon on which our King was buried : "If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever." And is not the Royal motto Ich .Dien (" I Serve ") P What was said of the tribes of Israel, then, is true of the British Empire now.—I am, Sir, &c.,