Tur impending visit to China of the future King of England and his brother ig an event of both social and historical importance. he present Prince of Wales is, we believe, the first European monarch en future who has ever travelled as far as Central Asia, and his son is now extending his voyages to China and Japav, It is comparatively Intely that even private persons have began to regard the world at large as their legitimnto field of travel. Fifty years go, the grand tour' included little wore than a leisurely trip to Paris, the Rhine, and Rome. A man who bad been to Egypt was looked upon as almost as much of an explorer ay a man now is who accomplishes the transambulation of Afrien, Lady Duff Gordon, Lady Hester Stanhope, and the author of 'Bothen' were rendered famous by their association with places which wow are within the reach of every Cockney tourist, The voyages of Royal ramblers were necessarily even more limited, and foreign travel was very far fom being regarded as a desirable clement in the education of a future King.
Now, however, all is changed. It is deemed expedient that our monarchs should have seen something of the world in which they live, and especially that portion of it which they fare or will be hereafter called upon to govern, It is porlups still more expedient that the residents of our colonies in the West and South, and the subject populations of Tudin, should have an opportunity of making the acquaintance of their future Sovereign, Representatives of many royal Baropoan houses have come to China and Japan, and, in the latter country, have been received by the Emperor with a magni. ficance and courtliness us graceful as it was, in all probability, lavish. Here in China, of course, no such courtesies are offered, and none are certainly expected. The Emperor of Japan has even sent members of his own family to Europe, and thus followed the culighteued exumplo sct to him by the royalties of the West. Bat, while we strongly approve the custom under discussion, and appreciate to the fall the liberalising and educating influences it exerts on the minds of the travellers themselves, there is one direction in which it may be pushed to far, Wo entirely fail to seo on what grounds a King of England should be brought up as a suilor. It is dificult to understand in what way the discipline of a sea-lifo fits a youth for the duties of constitutional monarchy. Sea-kings may have been a very natural and necessary institution in Devmark and Iceland and Norway during the Middle Agos, but there seems no need for the revival of the race in the England of the present day. Nor is our own experience of sea-bred monarchs particularly calculated to bring them into the favour of the English public, The only sailor king
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.