New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-11

stitute Of France. Svo, PIP. VI, Az. Lohoon'
Methuen Co.
Mr.. Bodleys experience has well qualified him
for the authorship of this book. written by
Bis Majesty's gracious command" in comment
Grafton Of the ceremony at Westminster Abbey
q year ago. He had some share in public af-
fairs before he left England for the long study
OF France which has already borne fruit in one
volume OF remarkably useful reflections the
genius Of that country in action. Furthermore
the very detachment Of his position as an OBJ
server OF British progress has helped him to
strike the right note in the difficult task Of pay
ing a tribute to his sovereign which would be
neither wanting in sympathy nor excessive in
patriotic fervor. Occasional prose. like occa-
sional poetry, is apt to be either very good or
very bad. Mr.. Bodley's is very good. 1t is
marked by unimpeachable tact, where in other
hands the treatment of imperial theme
might easily have taken a parochial turn. under
the pressure of complacency and vainglory.
Nowhere does the author clearly show
his fitness for his work than in the form
which he has given to it. This is an Of
fetal record of the coronation in everything
save the conventionality which is usually
implied by the term. The great event is
duly described. but only in the last of the four
books into which the text is divided and the long
list of persons present, with the form and order
Of the coronation, and certain documents reIat-
ing TO the Indian and colonial contingents, are
RELOCATED to small type at the back of the book.
where, by the way, there is also an uncommonly
satisfactory index. In the forefront of his vol
ume Mr.. Bodley places study Of what he de-
scrfbes as "the evolution Of British loyalty" He
follows this with chapters on divers European
coronations notably that of Napoleon l. adding
some pages on the proclamation Of the first Ger
man Emperor at Versailles, and then dealing
ne he lat
before approaching the coronation Of her son.
The advantages OF this scheme obvious
They permit the author TO turn bald pro-
graInme into a living document, to give to a for
NAL composition something Of the quality Of an
Informal and suggestive contribution to histori-
cal literature. His plan has had its dangers,
from which. Il IS not unlikely. it will be said in
some quarters that he has not altogether es-
capped Especially does his introduction Of the
French and German empires preliminary to his
remarks on the British. suggest when it does
not actually involve, comparisons over which
the evf birds OF bitter controversy might beat
their wings increasingly. Yet to have omitted
these elements IN his argument would have de-
prtved Mr. Bodley Of some Of his most interest
ing points.
The imperial idea. he maintains, has emanated
from the Crown, and but for its consolidating,
binding influence the British Empire would
have failed to remain united. But of this same
idea he also says that at was generated by the
genius of the British race. which annexed and
settled distant lands in days when such enter
prize called for qualities Of courage, self-denal
and perseverance," We perceive through all
those developments of governmental policies
and public movements at which he glances the
persistence Of this racial force-and 1t is a sign
of the good taste with which he has set forth his
facts, that it is from the facts themselves, and
not from any special pleading his part, that
this impression is derived. Take, in illustration,
his observations on a rather delicate subject in
these Democratic days. the refusal Of the British
10 forswear their monarchical gods though they
are an essentially democratic people Speaking
of an earlier period. he says:
One reason why the Republican movement did
not spread in England under the influence Of
revolutionary missionaries from the Continent
is that the British workingman, like the ma
jority of his compatriots, cares little for alb
stract doctrine. He is not selfish ma
terialistic but only more practical, than the
French proletarian, who occupies the time Of
trade union congresses by chanting the Car
magnole. cursing the bourgeois and talking
about fraternity. He has daily needs which he
wishes TO satisfy rather than dim ideals which
he aSpires to realize. The word Republic has
no magic sound for him. He knows little Of the
speculative conception according to which Re
public and Democracy are synonymous terms.
At the time if the throne of England had
not been respected during the years in which
the Democracy has obtained political power it's
existence might have been held responsible for
periodical bad times. 1t would have been
tinually in unequal conflict with q disconnected
people. which would have looked for an example,
not across the Channel TO the French Republic.
which has attraction for the English work
ing classes. but across the Atlantic to the
American Republic. where they know that we'll
being is generally diffUsed among all sections of
the community.
The British point Of view could not be more
accurately expressed. It is conceivable that by
fheEa rOr6S Mr.
some readers, the old sneer about "a nation of
shopkeepers." But juster view is that which
viii recognize in this unfailing practically Of
the British not a callous indifference to the
kindling emotions implied in the Republican
ideal. but wholesome instinct contributing to
that equilibrium between the State and the peo-
PIE which Is the goal Of good government. The
coronation OF Napoleon means to Mr.. BodIey
not the ratification Of the imperial idea but
-the conservation Of the French Revolution in
the person Of its organizer who. with his sword
and the glamour Of his imperial attributes car
ried the doctrine and the institutions OF the
Revolution all over Europe" He left his mark for
good as well for evil upon Europe and passed
from the scene, carrying with him the imperial
tradition which. though revived for a time by
his nephew, seems finally to have been dis
missed, beyond recall. by the Third Republic
AS to the Germans, Mr.. Bodley thinks that
what they have gained in imperial pride they
have lost through the impetus given to mate
rtalism among an dealistic people by military
influences. Bismarck he sharply SAYS. whose
ideas humanism were those of a sergeant
major who had become a company promoter
transformed by his policy the character and the
aspirations Of the Germans. When the
centenary OF Bsmarck's birth in 1915 is cele-
brated, those who admire his almost single
W. will ha