THE MAGIC OF ' MONARCHY Ity Kingsley Martin
CURRENT LITERATURE
One of the few alleviating circum- stances ofthe abdication of Edward VIII is the stimulus it save to rational reflection on the subject of monarchy ; this short essay (Nelson, 2S. 6d.) is a direct and admirable response to that stimulus. Its aim is to strip monarchy of its mystical and magical attributes and substitute for them the somewhat humdrum functions which a king can perform in a modem democracy. Perhaps too much of Mr. Martin's little space is spent on an account of the monarchy in the last century ; but the essay on "The Defeat of British Republicanism" serves once again to emphasise that to many reputable politicians of last century kingship was not a sacred and essential prop of the Constitution, but a useless and even a dangerous ex- crescence on it. Mr. Martin preserves a rare sense of proportion in discussing the character of our last two kings and his account of the actual events of? that "nine days' wonder," the abdication, and the behaviour of the Press, is well documented and accurate. Mr. Martin is one of the few writers on the abdication who never allows sympathy for the personality of the Duke of Windsor to confuse his appreciation of the political aspect of his abdication.
Previous page
