Chapter XXI.EDWARD THE PEACEMAKER.

Edward VII., King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India.

AND now let our pageant draw to a close with the figure of our present gracious and genial king. Long may he reign! He has laid his subjects under a deep debt of gratitude. Every inch a constitutional king, he has been by no means a mere figurehead of state, but a real and potent factor in the affairs of his land. His watchword has been Peace, and in its service he has won notable victories. It has been his great glory to bring the nations of Europe into closer friendship with this country than they have ever been before.

Let us present Edward the Peacemaker in a characteristic scene. For two years seven months and nineteen days the British nation has been engaged in a desperate struggle with the Boers of the Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State, and the resources of the British Empire have been strained to the utmost. Then, one blessed May day, peace is signed at Pretoria, and with a great sigh of relief the British nation learns that the war is at an end.

Three of the Boer generals, Botha, De la Key, and De Wet, come to England to meet the King. They have no knowledge of sovereigns and courts, and they have no experience to guide them in the presence of royalty. But their misgivings are speedily dispelled, for as they step on the deck of the royal yacht, King Edward comes forward to greet them with an ease and urbanity that is all his own. In simple, homely phrases he says that he is glad to meet them; he tells them that they have been brave enemies, and now he hopes they are to be good friends. And the Boer generals respond no less heartily. They reply that they hope so too; that they are happy to see him recovered from his illness; that their people had heard of it with great regret, and are glad to know that the Lord has given him back his health.

Then they chat frankly and freely with him and the Queen—God bless her!—and thus he wins the hearts of these simple, brave men, who in the years to come shall be his loyal subjects, and shall add a new pillar of strength to the British Empire. As they leave the ship a friend asks, “And what are you going to tell our people about the King, Oom Koos?” “I shall tell them this: that I think that if we had sooner known the King, and the King us, many things might have been different.”

Here is a kingly triumph indeed! We raise our hats as this royal lover of Peace passes by, and from our grateful hearts send up the prayer:

“God save the King!”

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

Some illustrations were moved to facilitate page layout.

Corrections to text: —“. . . Easter Sunday in the year 1491.” was corrected to 1471 to reflect the actual date of the Earl of Warwick’s death in battle.

—“In the year 1788” was corrected to 1759 to reflect the year in which Wolfe sailed for Canada, arriving in Quebec in May that same year.

[The end ofThe Pageant of British Historyby Sir (James) Edward Parrott]

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