The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-08

imposition of two or more antiquated, uncomfortable and unbecoming crowns, arrayment in cloaks, and capes tunics, and stole, dalmatics and manties of con secrntion. presentation of arbs, spurs, sword and sceptre, all of which he will merely touch, and very sensibiy not at tempt to stagYer under up and down the steps of the throne. will not add to the height or breadth of his sovereignty by an inch, make him dearer to his subjects or his person more sacred in their eyes. Why. we argue, cannot this coronation be shorn of It's almost barbaric splendor- tom foolery." Labouchere calls it-and reduced to the simplicity and common sense proportions of one of our Presi- dential inaugurations?
 Many of the ablest and most advanced thinkers in England look at the coming coronation spectacle through idconiclastic glasses equally strong. They regard mon archy as an anachronism and would giad- ly see it swept away by peaceable con- stitutional means. but the majority of the English people are far from being or this opinion-at least the governing class es. If they do not consider 1t the most important factor in the structure Of their governmental system, 1t Is regarded by them as a useful, and, perhaps, an essential one. Stripped of all the oppres- sive prerogatives he once possessed. the occupant of the throne Is impotent to do mischief and may sometimes do good. In theory the King can do no wrong. As a matter of fact, he would not be al- lowed to do so were he to attempt 1t. The consciousness that they have thus constitutionally bridled and saddled their ruler. and, through parliament, given him really a set of masters in the per sons of the minister's reconciles the En- glsh people to royalty, so that the very weakness of the crown has become its greatest source of strength. George III. ruled for the most part, without the ad- vice of his ministers. Lord North, his prime minister when the war of the revo- lution was begun by the colonies. was an able man. and had he been allowed to pursue his own policies. might have saved the American possessions but the ob- stinate king thought he knew better. made a cipher of his premier, and paid the greatest territorial penalty In all history. Were Edward VII. to arrogate himself one-tenth the power claimed by the Third George, 1t would be the cer- tain signal for revolt if not revolution. | And yet 1t Is only eighty-two years since | George ceased to live and becoming in- sane, ninety-two years since he ceased to | reign. In England the substance of royal
 authority has all but departed, only a
 slender shadow of 1t remains.
 From a republican point of view, and.
 indeed. a purely historical one the intro- duction of the Cuban republic the other day into the family of nations transcends | In importance all the coronations that | have taken place in hundreds of years. | In the perspective of history the gor- | geous ceremonial in the greatest church edifice in the British empire will be char | acterized In few sentences, while for the other glowing pages and fervid chap fnR hA -Ak events media evalism and modernism, the order that is to be and the order that Is ultimately to pass Away, meet face to face. How petty the crowning of a king by one nation when contrasted with the unselfish creation of a new nation full-equipped for the battle. by another one! In the one we have hollow dis- play of imperial pretense. in the other a great epic of democratic fraternity. Still. a deep, human interest attaches to the revival if but for a day. of these an- cient rites in the splendid setting of the noble abbey which Is one of the glories of the world Down to us they come laden with the perfume of the centuries, ob- served of kings of many changing dy- nasties blessed of preiates of the old faith and of the new. Rome gave them early conservation. Protestanism has per petuated them as the ark of the royal covenant. Be thou anointed with holy oil as kings. priests and prophets were anointed Blessed art thou and conse- crated king over his people, whom the Lord thy God hath given thee to rule and govern. In the name of the Father and of the Son. and of the Holy Ghost Amen" This solemn invocation Is as old as Magma Charta. To 1t the proud barons that confronted their stubborn king at Runneymede said Amen" as will this month respond the mighty assembly of Ensland's nobility arrayed in all the magnificent insignia of their various or ders. At the same moment in resplend- ent robes of royal purple and gold will sit King Edward in the chair of the first King of the name, tho regal seat con taining the fateful stone," or "Stone of | Destiny of which that monarch plum dered the Scottish people at the Abbey of | Scone. Exactly six hundred years ago, 1t was first used in the coronation of an | English King. Edward II. The corona | ton crown pressed the brow of Charles IT.. in 1Gl1, while some of the vestments to be worn by the higher ecclcsiastics are far older than most of the European na- tioDs today. From a mere scenic point of view the picture win be one of un- paralleled magnifcence. Every royal house In Europe will be represented by princes and princesses of highest rank ambassadors from distant lands will swell the brilliant throns of Britains vast ar ray of erm.ned peers and jewel-covered pcercsses. her great officers of state, her viceroys and governors her jurists and her lawgivers, her generals and her ad- mirals, the potentatcs of her com raerce. the princes of her finance the dignatarics of her universities, in word the representatives of all that makes England mighty as a nation. In no other land could so wondrous ana mag nificent pageant he produced. But what a curious anomaly 1t is that he at whose feet all this obcisance iS laid. this hom- age paid. this loyalty pledged has less power outside the walls of his palaces and parks than have threc-fourths of the men around him. He dare not attempt to influence the legislative action of his lords and commons. TO make q political address would imperil his crown. His speeches from the throne are written for him, often by a minister he detests, but he cannot change a syllable. He can neither declare war TOT make peace. With the formation of treaties he has naught to do except sign his name. Pos sessed of veto on legislation. he dare not exercise it. And because of all this it is that England loves her King. scat ters flowers in his pathway and spends her blood and treasure in his defence If all this Is not king-worship what is it?
 
 Cauuht.