After pointing out the nature of events in recent years, the growth of international friendships and new understandings and stronger safeguards for peace, together with the ever-tightening bonds of corporate unity within the British realms, Mr. Asquith went on to say that: "In all these multiform manifestations of national and Imperial life, the history of the world will assign a part of singular dignity to the great ruler Great Britain has lost. In external affairs King Edward's powerful influence was directed not only to the avoidance of war, but to the causes of and pretexts of war, and he well earned the title by which he will always be remembered, the Peace-maker of the World." Continuing, the Premier said, that within the boundaries of the Empire his late Majesty, by his broad and elastic sympathies, had won a degree of loyalty and affectionate confidence which few Sovereigns had ever enjoyed. "Here at home," he added, "all recognized that above the din and dust of their hard-fought controversies, detached from party, and attached only to the common interest, they had in the late King an arbiter ripe in experience, judicial in temper, and at once a reverent worshipper of their traditions, and a watchful guardian of their constitutional liberties." King Edward's life as a devotee of duty, as a sportsman in the best sense of the word, as an ardent and discriminating patron of the arts, as a good business man at the head of a great business community, possessed of intuitive shrewdness in the management of men and difficult situations, as a keen social reformer with "no self apart from his people," was then dwelt upon. It would be impossible in any limited space to analyze the views of the British press. The Times declared that "his people loved him for his honesty and kindly courtesy. To all he was not merely every inch a King but every inch an English King and an English gentleman. His influence was not the same as that of Queen Victoria, but in some respects it was almost stronger." The Daily Mail considered that "to his initiative his subjects and the Empire owe the pacification of South Africa and the final reconciliation with the Boers. The system of understandings with foreign powers which is our security to-day was in a great part his handiwork." To the Radical Daily News he was "the supreme example of a people's King by common consent" and this the Liberal Morning Leader echoed with a further tribute to "the sheer instinctive deference paid to his proved wisdom, his large-minded statesmanship, his unequaled knowledge of the world, and the tact that never failed him in the greatest or the least occasion."
A notable incident of this first week of mourning, during which the people were waiting to pay their final tribute of loyal sympathy on the day of the Royal interment, was the unanimous Resolution of the Legislature of Quebec. Coming from a French-Canadian people, amongst whom special interest had been aroused by King Edward's creation of the entente cordiale with France, something earnest and sympathetic as well as loyal in expression might have been expected and, if so, the hope was certainly realized. The Legislature in its address to King George V. (May 10th) put the feelings of the people of the Province in the following expressive words:
"We mourn the loss in him of a monarch whose chief aim was to draw all the nations closer together and to promote universal peace. Ever mindful of the great principles of the British constitution, through his broad-mindedness, his tolerance, and the exquisite charm of his personality, he succeeded in creating a potent bond of union between the various parts of our common country, and in closely consolidating the different branches of the greatest Empire that ever existed. Representing as we do the Province of Quebec it gives us pleasure to recall that the development of the idea of a powerful Canadian nation, devoted to the interest of the Mother-Country, was favoured by that great King. Imbued with the grandeur and nobility of his mission he won our admiration and our love through his solicitude in respecting our laws and our dearest traditions, aspirations and liberties."
The individual utterances of the Ministers were equally patriotic in terms. Sir Lomer Gouin spoke along the lines of his earlier tribute and declared that King Edward's reign had been "a glory to his people and a blessing to humanity." Mr. J. M. Tellier, the Opposition leader, joined the Premier in expressing the "confidence and sincere affection" of his people for this "the most powerful King of the most powerful of Empires" and in presenting to the new King "the allegiance, the faith and the heartfelt wishes of Canadians." Mr. H. Bourassa, the Nationalist representative, Hon. P. S. G. Mackenzie, the English-speaking member of the Cabinet, and Hon. J. C. Kaine and Hon. C. R. Devlin, the Irish Ministers, joined in these tributes.
The view of Foreign countries was unique in its friendliness, in its expressions of admiration for the great qualities of heart and head in the late Sovereign, for appreciation of his broad sympathies and international statecraft. One of the earliest official telegrams of sympathy to King George was from President Fallières of France: "I learnt with emotion of the death of your beloved Father. The French Government and the French people will regret profoundly the demise of the august Sovereign who upon so many occasions has given them evidence of his sincere friendship; and associate themselves fully in the great grief which his unexpected loss brings to you, the Royal family, and the entire British Empire. It is with a heart full of sadness that I ask Your Royal Highness to accept my personal condolences, those of the French Government and of all France." From the President of the United States came a prompt message of condolence to Queen Alexandra, and from the American Congress a unanimous Resolution of adjournment and expressive words of sympathy with the British people "in the loss of a wise and upright ruler whose great purpose was the cultivation of friendly relations with all nations and the preservation of peace"; from ex-President Roosevelt, speaking at Stockholm on May 8th, came words of regret and of regard for the people "who mourn the loss of a wise ruler whose sole thought was for their welfare and for the good of mankind, and the citizens of other nations can join with them in mourning for a man who showed throughout his term of Kingship that his voice was always raised for justice and peace among the nations."
From United States newspapers, the exponents of public opinion in a great kindred nation, came a wonderfully unanimous and kindly expression of real feeling. To the New York Herald the late King appeared as blessed with "a genial personality, a kind heart and a strong common sense, together with that highest quality of supreme importance in a ruler and statesman—tact"; to the Buffalo News King Edward was "the ablest Royal ruler England has known in centuries;" to the Baltimore American "he was, and the world to-day generously accords him the distinction, the first diplomatist of his time, the man who beyond all others shaped the policies of the world." To the Indianapolis News he had "served his country and the world wisely and well, and will go into history as one of the most successful monarchs that England has ever had." The New York Journal of Commerce paid special and high tribute to King Edward's diplomacy and, after dealing with the French entente cordiale went on as follows: "Even more marvelous than the closing of the secular feud with France was the termination of that with Russia, which seemed more bitter and more hopeless of adjustment. The seemingly impossible was, nevertheless, accomplished, and the power which but a few short years before had been the chief menace to the safety of British India became one of the guarantors of its immunity from attack. It will be reckoned one of the miracles of history that Russia could have been induced to abandon a policy which she had steadfastly supported and been ready to concede that the affairs of Afghanistan were purely a British interest and those of Korea exclusively Japanese."
In most of these tributes of regard and respect—British, Imperial or Foreign—there was a reference of affectionate admiration for the Queen Consort who, at this moment, allowed it to be understood that she would like in future to be known as the Queen Mother. The far-famed beauty of person, the charm and graciousness of manner, and nobility of mind and character, which had won a way so quickly and permanently into the hearts of the British people and had been such potent forces in the life of King Edward and of her own family, brought to Queen Alexandra at this time a world-tribute of sympathy and regard. British subjects all over the Empire, multitudes outside of its bounds, were ready to echo those famous words of Lord Tennyson, applied to the similar sorrow of Queen Victoria:
May all love,
His love, unseen but felt, o'ershadow Thee,
The love of all Thy sons encompass Thee
The Love of all Thy Daughters cherish Thee
The Love of all Thy people comfort Thee
Till God's love set Thee at his side again.
Few more touching words have been written than the Queen's Message to the Nation which was made public on May 10th: "From the depth of my poor broken heart," she wrote, "I wish to express to the whole Nation and our own kind people we love so well, my deep-felt thanks for all their touching sympathy in my overwhelming sorrow and unspeakable anguish. Not alone have I lost everything in him, my beloved husband, but the nation, too, has suffered an irreparable loss in their best friend, father, and Sovereign thus suddenly called away. May God give us all his Divine help to bear this heaviest of crosses which He has seen fit to lay upon us. His will be done. Give to me a thought in your prayers which will comfort and sustain me in all that I have to go through. Let me take this opportunity of expressing my heartfelt thanks for all the touching letters and tokens of sympathy I have received from all classes, high and low, rich and poor, which are so numerous that I fear it would be impossible for me ever to thank everybody individually. I confide my dear Son to your care, who I know, will follow in his dear Father's footsteps, begging you to show him the same loyalty and devotion you showed his dear Father. I know that both my dear son and daughter-in-law will do their utmost to merit and keep it."
It may be added that the surviving children of King Edward and Queen Alexandra at the time of the King's death were his successor—George Frederick Ernest Albert, Prince of Wales; Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, who was born in 1867 and married in 1889; Princess Victoria, who was born in 1868 and was unmarried; Princess Maud, Queen of Norway, who was born in 1869 and married in 1896 to Charles, then Crown Prince of Denmark. King Edward's only surviving brother was H. R. H., the Duke of Connaught, who was born in 1850. His surviving sisters were Princess Helena, married to Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein; Princess Louise, married to the Duke of Argyll; and Princess Beatrice, widow of the late Prince Henry of Battenberg.