[Illustration: DURHAM CATHEDRAL--NORTHWEST VIEW]
Some of us are apt to forget the immense advantage which we have
of the monarchical peoples in having cast away the very name of
King, for with the name goes the nature of royalty and all that
is under and around it. But because we are largely a fond and
silly folk, with a false conceit of ourselves and others, we like
to make up romances about the favor in which thrones,
municipalities, and powers hold us. Once it was the Tsar of
Russia who held us dear, and would do almost anything for
Americans; now it is the King of England who is supposed rather
to prefer us to his own people, and to delight to honor us. We
attribute to him a feeling which a little thought would teach, us
was wholly our own, and which would be out of nature if not out
of reason with him. He is a man of sense, and not of sentiment,
and except as a wise politician he could have no affection for a
nation whose existence denies him. He is very civil to Americans;
it is part of a constitutional king's business to be civil to
every one; but he is probably not sentimental about us; and we
need not be sentimental about him.
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