TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE KING AT THE FRONT.
WHAT a comfort it is to have a King who at a great. crisis can act simply and sincerely, without trying to make capital for himself or for the supposed interests of his dynasty, or, what is of more importance,without trying to pose as a national hero. Though it, is easy enough to formulate such maxims of good sense and good taste on paper, we may be sure that it is by no means easy for a King, especially for a Constitutional King, to carry them into practice. In the first place, a King is naturally haunted by the thought that people may think he is not doing enough and not showing enough con- cern in hours of peril, but is taking things too easily. This natural desire not to appear cold or indifferent is sure to be strengthened by the appeals of flatterers and other interested people to assert himself, to take the lead, and to do this or that unwise act. The King, then, might very well be excused for taking a wrong step and doing something foolish. It says a very great deal for King George's judgment that during the past four months he has done nothing of the sort. We can well imagine that be himself would explain this by saying that be had never been under any temptation to act otherwise since the war began. But that, if we may say so with all respect, is his chief claim to our admiration and gratitude. It is because he is not a self-seeking, self-opinionated, self- conscious, self-centred, or, in a word, selfish person, but a man simple, straightforward, and sincere, that he has found no temptation to step out of his natural place in the Con- stitution and pose, like his Imperial brother in Germany, as a War Lord. He has the wisdom to see that, though under a democratic Constitution like ours the Sovereign has no showy or sensational duties assigned to him, he has duties which no one else could perform, and which if well and truly performed may be of the highest service to the State.
But while it is right to point out that the King's personal character fits him specially for his post, it must not be supposed that his path is easy to tread, or free from many anxious doubts and difficulties. The King is bound to have his own opinion of events and policy, even though he cannot bend matters to his own will, but is obliged to follow the advice of his Ministers. In ordinary times the King, as a good patriot, may feel sorry to see things going, as he thinks, wrong ; but as the responsibility is not his there is no need for him to do more than record his regret at a false step. It is a very different matter in a great crisis to see things being done which ought not to be done, and things being left undone which ought to be done. Yet even here the King must temper his care for the common weal with discretion, and must be content to stand aside. No doubt a situation might arise where it would be the King's duty in war to resist his Ministers, and use the theoretical and dormant powers of the Sovereign in order to save the nation. Though it is most unlikely that an opportunity for such action will ever occur, it is possible to conceive circumstances that would justify the King undertaking revolutionary action of the kind we have hinted at. For example, in the case of a war going badly for a time, we can imagine a section of the people clamouring for a dangerous, even a disgraceful peace. We can further imagine such people obtaining control of the Government, and in this way a situation of infinite danger resulting. In that extreme case we can quite well understand the King using all the old machinery of the prerogative to insist on the people as a whole being fully and fairly consulted before peace was agreed to. In the imagined case the King would only have done his duty in insisting that the people must be consulted before a surrender of any portion of their birthright was accom- plished. As we have said, however, these are very unlikely circumstances, and happily need not concern us now except as an exercise in pure speculation. The nation is united as it has never been before in its history, and the conclusion of an ignominious peace is unthinkable.
Apart from the higher considerations with which we have dealt above, it is impossible for the ordinary English- man not to be delighted with the good taste and good breeding as well as the sincerity with which the King has
acted throughout the war. Burke bade us so to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen. That, again, is an easy thing to say and not always an easy thing to do, for undoubtedly there are many men who in the excite- ment of a great crisis cannot help showing a vein of coarse- ness in their fibre which no one had perceived before. Great events bring out great and good qualities, or mean and bad qualities, according as they predominate in the individual. The King unquestionably has known how to be a patriot without forgetting that he is a gentleman, and has shown us "an exact example." His speeches, his messages, and in fact all his public utter- ances, have been characterized by a perfection of manners which cannot but be applauded. There has never been any false rhetoric, any tawdry metaphors, or anything, indeed, which was not in perfect keeping with the characteristics of an English gentleman. We are not going to labour our point by detailed comparisons with the leader of the nation's enemies ; but when we read the Kaiser's Imperial messages and manifestoes we cannot help thanking Heaven that to the bitterness of war is not added for us the bitterness of having to blush repeatedly for our Sovereign's taste. And here asrain one feels that the King's good breeding is not due to any studied effort upon his part, but to his natural character, to his innate sense of what is good form. It is not necessary for us to express our great satis- faction that the King should have gone over to visit the troops in France, and should have visited them in so unostentatious and natural a way. That, we feel certain, will have been thoroughly appreciated by the troops themselves. But the King's action, remember, was only the sequel to what he had been doing from the very beginning of August. The King did not have a sudden impulse to see his troops, or suddenly awake to the fact that the men were suffering in the trenches, and feel that it would be a good idea to run across and see them. From the very first moment the King took the war seriously, and recognized that he had a great function to perform in encouraging the new levies and making them understand how great was the duty they were performing. It is not too much to say that the King, at this moment knows the Army as a whole, that vast Army which is preparing itself throughout the length and breadth of the land to make its great spring, better than any of his generals, better even than the Secretary of State for War. There is hardly a unit with which the King has not come into personal contact. He has made it his business to move constantly among his troops, and to see for himself the human material of which they are made. From time to time accounts have appeared of the King's inspections in the newspapers, but they have given no real idea of what the King has performed in his work of encouragement. The men of the new Army are no more lackeys and courtiers than the men of the Regular Army, but unquestionably they do feel great personal pride in being inspected by the King, for they know that he has the heart and instinct of a soldier and understands soldiers and their ways. They are not to him as to some Monarchs, instruments of policy or of pride—spectacular creatures whose essential purpose is the glorification of the Sovereign. He sees in them, though of course from a higher standpoint, what the company officer sees : men and brothers in arms, who are engaged in the great task of maintaining our national existence—men sanctified by their willingness to lay down their lives if need be for their country. There is a very sincere and straightforward understanding between the men in the ranks and George V. The King is a true sailor and soldier, and would be the last man to want to spoil or pamper the men of the Fleet or the men of the Army ; but we may be sure also that in a wise and reasonable way he is the best friend they have, and that his influence will always be directed towards their welfare.
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