Whatever it is, it is one of the most
explicitly as well as the most tacitly pervasive of the English
idiosyncrasies. A few years ago--say, fifteen or twenty--it was
scarcely known in its present form. It was not known at all with
many in the time of the latest and worst of the Georges, or the
time of the happy-go-lucky sailor William; in the earlier time of
Victoria, it was a chivalrous devotion among the classes, and
with the masses an affection which almost no other sovereign has
inspired. I should not be going farther than some Englishmen if I
said that her personal character saved the monarchy; when she
died there was not a vestige of the republican dream which had
remained from a sentiment for "the free peoples of antiquity"
rather than from the Commonwealth. Democracy had indeed effected
itself in a wide-spread socialism, but the kingship was safe in
the hearts of the Queen's subjects when the Prince of Wales, who
was the first of them, went about praising loyalty as prime among
the civic virtues and duties. The notion took the general fancy,
and met with an acceptance in which the old superstition of kings
by divine right was resuscitated with the vulgar.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214