The fact that it is just fifty years since Queen
Victoria's death has served as a reminder that it is equally (and necessarily) fifty years since King Edward VII's accession. That was in some respects a more notable event than most people appreciate today. I very clearly remember the impression made by the notice posted up in a newspaper-office in the provincial town where I lived that the King had left Osborne for London. "The King." The title had not been borne in Great Britain for more than sixty years ; not a tenth of the population, I suppose, knew what it was to live under a king. And when the eminent jurist who, as Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., had sat for my borough for twenty years, became suddenly transformed into a K.C. it was plain that we were living in strange times. In deciding to style the King " Edward the Peacemaker " his- tory has gone a little beyond the facts. He no doubt cared for peace, like nine-tenthr of his subjects, and his visit to Paris in 1903 had an excellent effect. But the real architect of the Entente Cordiale Was Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Lansdowne's successor, Sir Edward Grey, has disposed of the legend of the King's participation in the formulation of foreign policy. He read all the important papers, %role Sir Edward, " but comment of any sort was rare, and I do not remember comment or suggestion." The King, in short, followed accepted constitutional practice, and left policy-making to his Ministers.
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