e man."

King George has also been trained Imperially. He has trod the soil of
his empire in every part of the globe and visited seas and lands which
no other British sovereign ever saw; he has seen the courage and
commercial skill and success of his more distant peoples, the pioneering
activities and growing civilizations of new states and territories
thousands of miles apart; he has obviously learned from them lessons of
great import. It required considerable courage in 1902 to make that
speech of "Wake up, England," to a people who do not readily take advice
from their rulers and who notoriously dislike being hurried along the
lines of their development. In other directions there is much to be
hopeful for. His Majesty has chosen his friends well. They are said, in
an intimate sense, to be few in number, but the fact of Lord Rosebery
being one of them augurs well of the others. He has a strong sense of
duty, his addresses indicate the principle of Imperialism in its best
sense, his life has commanded the respect of his people. It may well be,
and surely will be in his case, as with the late Queen, with Wellington
and Nelson and King Edward himself, that

"Not once or twice in our fair Island's story
The path of duty was the road to glory."

To the political situation at his accession, therefore, King George
brings a trained intelligence, detailed and intimate knowledge, a keen
perception of the basic interests and feelings of his people. No one
knows, no one can know, what are his political opinions. The
probabilities are that his principles are not those of any so-called
party. If they were closely analyzed in the light of environment,
education, instincts, and natural predelictions the King's policy might,
perhaps, be found to be something like this: (1) The maintenance of
British power, including a strong Navy and a United Empire; (2) the
maintenance of the Monarchy in all its essential rights and privileges
and absolute independence of party. These two lines of ambition would
really be, and are, one, as in his opinion and, indeed, in that of most
thinking men who are not blinded by passing party phantoms the interests
of Great Britain, of the Empire, and the Monarchy, are identical.

In the political crisis of 1910 two questions are uppermost--a
constitutional change and a fiscal change. In order to defeat the latter
proposals the Liberals in part have created the former situation. The
King can act onl