(By sue Eant of Buxcenmeao) growth of his pupil's stature. To Jme it is amazing that a boy so educated, so over-tutored, 20 overgoverned, should have reached a [Stature so great. He was brought secluded from the world. Ex-feet for the very occasional companionship of a few Eton boys, he was hardly allowed to see a young man for fear that he might be con-laminated, He: was not allowed to rely upon his own innate manly Jqualities to meet and defeat, as all Jof us must try to do, the temptations Xie Eowana VII. A Biography. By Sir (lac- fof his age and sex. Sufficient con-nil lan), 81/6. sideration haz not, in my judgment, This conscientious and well do-prince of Wales was subjected.
If|been given to the difficulties of his cemented biography is as teholarly|he was not born-in an incubator, he] youth. The Prince Consort was a and as thorough as those who are vas treated as if he ought to have|man academic in type and character: familiar with the artistic eraftsmaa- been, He was to be screened from|not in the least in sympathy with ship of Sir Sidney Lee would expect. the world; he was to have eight|the budding dispositions—how difiiis work is throughout solid, and jours? work a day at lea browsing cult to explain—of a son. The only' it ie readable, with qualifications, isagreeably upon intellectual pro-idea of the boy's father was to pudding is eatable, with blems, which did not in the least in- educate him and to screen him from world. And education meant, qualification: One feels, in other terest him, and which perhaps in th Words, in the intervals of reading it,|his education as a Prince need not|cight hours a day of General Bruce the need of a change of diet. I|particularly interested him or of General Brace's equally dogged read it all through at one and the Ife was allowed no fun.
He was to deputies. same time on along railway journey be surrounded and as it_ were So over and over again we are and its return; and Iam bound to rased by the educational influence! confronted by General Bruce's com-Confess that I found the process Oifieult and even a little disciplinary, though the compensations for such task are many and ingeniously dis tributed through the volume.
It is a very discreet book. And, indeed, Sir Sidney Lee would have een most gravely to blame if the lifetime of persons of the high: consequence he had published anything but a discreet book. Yet the King Edward whom the people loved, sind who founded the monarchy upon tide of higher national affection and admiration even than Queen Victoria, was neither a cold nor an ascetic man, Few particularly likeable people are. The English nation has never, on the whole, been extrem ly: puritanical. I: rallied reune the Duke of Wellington; it support ed Lord Melbourne; it was extromeappreciative of the eccentricities of Lord Palmerston. King Edward's greatest charm—and, it may be added, his greatest gift—was his spontaneity, his patience in irksome duties, his tact, and his bovhomie, We understood the English people, and the English people understood him, And they treated him, and rightly treated him—for in' cool perspective he justified the view—ana Great King, and he was the Joyalest of friends. of a certain mber of middle-aged} plaints that the boy is not develop-"T may have, and have," he wrote, gentlemen, moral influence ing either in solid knowledge or in "many faults: but I have held one must always have been sound, but|learned conversation. The truth, great. principle in life from which whose company cannot always have of course, evident. The Prince of 1 will er waver, and that is satisfied a young and very human Wales was doomed day by day and loyalty to one's friends, and de-toy. night by night to listen to the con-fending them when they get into To-lay the attitude of the Prince|versation of middle-aged me who trouble."
Consort seems simply incredible Frobably had nothing to say anyhow He was not in the least intel-|To the Dean of Christ Church he of absorbing interest to one whose Jectual. In contrast to his mother wri 1858:—fife was dawning, and who were all there is hardly a letter of his which "The more I of it the more talking with view to educating. exhibits any close or sustained grasp I see the difficulties of the Prince What a hideous fate! A young upon any difficult political question being thrown with other young man must always rely for his He thought, indeed, with a good in-men, and having to make his|education upon older men.
But the stiner, but' rather in fragments selection of acquaintances Jeamouflaged extension of education There is not on record any coi to the whole of social life, when all The Use of Oxford? versation with him which T can that a high-spirited and devi recall exhibiting him as one who had And again in 1859 in a passage temper imperiously calls for is mastered the complex details of which Oxford ancient and] absolutely denied, surely intoler-any difficult public problem. And oder, will thank hi able. It is to the eternal credit of yet he had a quality as elusory as "The only use of Oxford is that Edward that he supported for undefinable, which you might with is a place of study, a refuge|so long, and without apparent imfrom the world and its claims! equal accuracy describe either as patience, a regime which would have intuition or the power of a general A. particularly bright cur-ruined 19 out of 20 of the young ugsimilation whi immensely. in. #culum was conscientiously thought men whom I know to-day. fluenced the political fortunes of [cut by the Prince Consort, who had Nor wax relief to come with the this country. The final fof rot himself to gallop the course. It Geath of the Prince Consort, which King Edward still remains to be Juded theology, science, German, Seeply moved the Prince. The written. Tt is no fault of Sir Fren modern history and law. maintenance of this pia hereditas Sidney Lee that he has failed toh" hi lcigure moments the young of tedious intensive and largely write it. But cannot be faithful. student was recommended to the futile labour was passionately. in-fiction of Sir Walter Scott. The Jy rendered in this generation. sisted upon by the Queen, almost, The conscientious pages of Sir|Prince did not like it, but I hardly Prince did not like it, but T hardly i'seemed, as one more way of de-Sidney Lee make thi at least plai monstrating her love for her dead that no more swe chance. husband. The Prince was then 19, ity has in the long and I must not be supposed to of an age to tong for, and with istory of the British Crown ug the final voice upon the very record of conduct which had de-een called. to the highest place. difficult question of the degree of served, a reasonable freedom. freedom which ought to be accord-In Rigid Leading Strings ed to young people of the female No human power," wrote the His youth must have been q sex; but I nevertheless mako it per-Queen to King Leopold, "will make terrible, The Prince Consort was fectly plain that Ido not believe that me swerve from what he decided very remarkable personality. He|there is not one young debutante and wished. I apply this particular-was oven, in a way, a of the year 1925 who would allow to our children Bertie, ete, for But perhaps her mother to treat her as King whose future he had traced every-Edward was treated by the Prince thing s0 carefully.' venture the criticism that he must Consort and by Queen Victoria. His|, cannot help wishing that the have been a very trying father. He Sof disposition, his pliabil- boy had dug his heels in a litre was an incredibly conscientious ibility to inherited Jat this point. There wasa limit pedant knowing nothing of English disc! cipline, exhibited him during the after all to the weapons in a mother's youth' and its traditional freedom. whole of this period in an extremely'
From the moment that King Edward! attractive and docile light. Very arsenal even though thet mother wes was born to the moment thatthe rare were his moments of revolt.
Queen Victoria was a very great. Prince Consort died, the youth was He is expected all the time, under woman; but great men and great submitted to an educational andjthe swollen programmes of intel-omen have made mistakes. She moral regime which few could lectual consumption placed before has become so much a dominating. survived without mental and physical him, to make a deep assimilation, \fgure of history that one may say collapse. Baron Stockmar di of very difficult and diverse subjects; quite plainly that she made an indeed, disappear at the most' re- {but he is not in the least intellectual; credible error in not more closely Jevant periods. But his doctrines ho is only human and intelligent. associating her son in the resper and his discipline survived his disbilities of government after the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.