he
State and to her personality in their hearts and lives that the
possibility of her death was regarded with a feeling of shocked
surprise.

During the days which immediately followed and while the shadow of death
lay over the towers of Windsor, its influence was everywhere perceptible
throughout the press, the pulpit and amongst the peoples of the
Empire--in Montreal as in Winnipeg, in busy Melbourne and in
trouble-tossed Cape Town, in Calcutta and in Singapore. When the Prince
of Wales, on Thursday evening, the 22nd of January, telegraphed the Lord
Mayor of London that "My beloved mother, the Queen, has just passed
away," the announcement awakened a feeling of sorrow, of sympathy and of
Imperial sentiment such as the world had never seen before in such
wide-spread character and spontaneous expression.

Yet there was no expression of uneasiness as to the future; no question
or doubt as to the new influence and power that must come into existence
with the change of rulers; no fear that the Prince of Wales, as King
and Emperor, would not be fully equal to the immense responsibilities of
his new and great position. Perhaps no Prince, or statesman, or even
world-conqueror, has ever received so marked a compliment; so universal
a token of respect and regard as was exhibited in this expression of
confidence throughout the British Empire.

THE EMPIRE'S CONFIDENCE IN THE NEW KING

Public bodies of every description in the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, India and other British countries rivalled each
other in their tributes of loyalty to the new Sovereign as well as of
respect for the great one who had gone. The press of the Empire was
practically a unit in its expression of confidence, while the pulpit,
which had during past years, expressed itself occasionally in terms of
criticism, was now almost unanimous in approval of the experienced,
moderate and tried character of the King. The death which it was once
thought by feeble-minded, or easily misled individuals, would shake the
Empire to its foundations was now seen to simply prove the stability of
its Throne, and the firmness of its institutions in the heart of the
people. The accession of the Prince of Wales actually strengthened that
Monarchy which the life and reign of his mother had brought so near to
the feelings and affections of her subjects everywhere.

On the day following the Queen's death the new Sovereign drove from
Marlborough House to