TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE " EMPRESS " DEBATE.
MR. DISRAELI has carried the second reading of his Bill on the Queen's Titles by a great majority, but he has not contented either his own party or the country at large. They are not resisting him upon Indian grounds. They will allow cheerfully that, as far as India is concerned, Sir Stafford Northcote, in his very spirited and determined speech, secured an intellectual victory, and having allowed it, they will re- main as displeased and hurt as ever. It is quite true, as Sir Stafford said, that the Queen is paramount in India, that the majority of feudatories there entirely recognise her supremacy, and that in asserting herself as "Empress "—allowing always for Mussulman feeling about the wickedness of obeying an Infidel Padishah, which may yet give trouble,—her Majesty will rather gratify than annoy them. But when the Chancellor of the Exchequer has demonstrated that, what has he done to conciliate the country, which, he may rely on it, dislikes the change ? Simply nothing. Nobody really objects to the Queen being called "Empress of India" on Indian coins, or in Indian treaties, or in Indian proclamations, and a short Act authorising that would have been passed without a divi- sion. What really annoys people in this country, who—and not the natives of India—bulwark her Majesty's Throne, is the risk lest courtiers should gradually compel them to call the Queen "Empress-Queen," and her children " Imperial " as well as "Royal Highnesses." Some of them dislike it, as Mr. Freeman does, on historic grounds; some, as Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington do, because they feel that the lonely and splen- did title of "King" is really higher than the now besmirched title of "Emperor ;" and some, because they fear that the change of designation will involve a change of relation between the Sovereign and her people ; but they all dislike it, and the Ministry have said nothing calculated to remove the dislike. Sir Stafford Northeote did indeed say that the comic illustra- tions from the Prayer-book with which Lord Harlington pressed his point—he asking whether we were to pray for "our Sovereign Lady the Queen and Empress "—were absurd, but he gave, and could give, no guarantee that the new and grandiose style would not be employed in Europe. He talked about" unreasonable panic," laughed at the notion of the Queen becoming despotic, declared the Constitution in no danger, and in fact made the very best that was to be made of the situation. But he produced only one argument which met the English objection, and that was contained in the following sentence :— "Her Majesty will be no less the 'Queen of the United King- dom of Great Britain and Ireland' after adding to that title Empress of India,' than the Prince of Wales is less the Prince of Wales because he adds to that title the Duke of Cornwall ?" That was really his sole argument, and its absurdity scarcely needs to be exposed. The point is not what the Queen will be, but what she will be called ; and not whether the Queen will be less called " Queen" for the addition of a new title, but whether she will be less called so for the addition of a new and, in popular imagination, superior title. No Dukedom could overshadow the Princedom of the English Heir, but suppose he were styled "Prince of Wales and King of Bengal," does any one doubt that in a month he would be addressed as "Your Majesty," and that in ten years the Princedom would be a secondary appellation? Neither Sir Stafford Northcote, the only Minister who spoke, nor any other debater on that side, met this point at all, and yet it can be sub- mitted to a very easy test. The Queen is going to Germany. If this Bill raises before her departure—and we presume that is the reason of the hurry on which the Marquis of Harlington ani- madverted—will she not be addressed in Coburg and every- where else on her tour as "Your Royal and Imperial Majesty?" Undoubtedly she will, and the title will at once assume a European importance, which will compel, first Envoys, and afterwards Englishmen, to concede it, if not as a matter of necessity, at least as an indication of good-taste. The King of Prussia is still "King "in the formal documents of his kingdom, but all the same he is "Emperor" in the mouths of all his people. It is that danger which is disliked here, and that danger which was most closely, though respectfully, pressed by the leader of Opposi- tion, and not in the smallest degree dissipated by her Majesty's Government, which, indeed, from first to last, has never ad- dressed itself to this side of the question but relying on its ma- jority, has shown itself calmly contemptuous of a deep and nearly imiversal feeling. No doubt it denies that feeling, and even asks where is the proof of its existence, but it knows its reality quite well. The Ministry affect to despise the journals as ex- ponents of opinion, but they do not, we presume, desire that it. should be expressed in other ways,—that Hyde-Park railings. should again be pulled down, or that the cities of the North should declare that their allegiance is due only to a Queen.
The Bill is now safe in the Commons, but it has still to pass. the Lords, and in them we have but a feeble hope. They can resist readily enough when their own dignities are menaced by the introduction of Life Peerages, but they will: be passive when nothing is threatened except the historic dignity of the Crown. We would, however, ask- them seriously to consider whether they think that, in the event of the word " Imperial " being joined to the word' " Royal " in all the titles of the Royal Family—a consequence of this Bill which they will admit to be possible—the English impatience of unreality will not be greatly increased. Let them remember that, while the English respect rank only too. deeply, and are only too much moved by title, they have never yet respected any formula expressing rank not derived from their own history. A Count may be a Crillon, but in their eyes he is a dancing-master. No title, or decoration, or distinction derive& from a foreign source ever seems to them anything but ridiculous. There are many titled Englishmen who possess in full legal right higher foreign titles than those which they bear in this country, as, for example, the Dukes of Wellington and Marlborongh_. Could any one of them venture to employ them? Would not the- "Prince of Mindelheim" be regarded, if he were so styled, as in some sort a foreigner, who had no business among- the Peers, and ought not to have a seat in a British Cabinet ?. And if the Peers admit this, will they just reflect if it ia their role to help the Ministry to invest the Sovereign with a title which,-whenever it is used, suggests foreign and to English ears derogatory ideas, which seems to place its possessor outside English history, and which suggests to the body of the people, however unjustly, a certain vulgarity of assumption It is, their interest, at all events, that the Monarchy should live. Do they think it will live the longer because a title, simple in itself, but of traditional grandeur, is spoiled by association with ru title which to the British mind is associated at once with parvenu personages and with Asiatic modes of expressing reverence ?- They, at least, cannotargue that titles are of no importance. They„ at least, cannot but feel that tradition, to be powerful, must be unbroken. And they, at least, cannot be accused of vulgar democratic spite, if they declare respectfully, but firmly,—/VO/u- Taus Reges Anglire Inutari. For once they may, if they please, be avowedly aristocratic, and yet defend the popular cause. They are under no coercion from the Commons, who. have voted the Bill with a hearty hope that the pro- ject may yet be interrupted ; they are under no coercion from the Throne, for the Queen would abide by their decision ; and they are under no party fear, for they know that if Mr. Disraeli resigned in a pet because the Peers would not allow- him to " electro-plate the Crown," the Tory Ministry must re- turn next day to power, though, perhaps, without him. They can reject this measure if they like, and if they retain any sense of their true Conservative position in the country, they will re- ject it, and so defend the honour of a title more ancient than their own. They may rely on it that readiness to exchange formulas, to modernise ancient symbols, to pile up dignities on dignities, till Sovereigns as well as Dukes will have to be described as "three-hatted grandees,"is not the symptom which best guaran- tees the continuance of a historic re'ginie. And they may rely on it, also, that Mr. Beresford Hope for once hit the point, when he told the House of Commons that the wave of opinion now swelling up, was no wave of panic, but a healthy outburst of true loyalty. Their business is not to help on the few Republicans in the country, and it is these alone who will profit by the vulgar measure which Mr. Disraeli is forcing on an unwilling Parliament.
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