June 13, 1908.]
hoped will, in one form or another take practical shape. Whatever rights of com- bination working men may have with a view to improving their position, these rights must not be exercised in a manner that will cause public danger. It may be remembered that this principle was abso- lutely asserted many years ago when a strike of gas-works employés was threatened in Loudon-and when a certain number of those who were promoting the strike were brought up before the criminal courts, and were found guilty of acting illegally in combining in a manner which threatened the public safety. The justice of this view has never been questioned, though similar action has not again been taken in any strike that has since occurred. It is of course a principle of a very far reaching character, and naturally the authorities are loath to act upon it unless the public exigencies make it absolutely necessary to do so. The great difficulty is to define what is a public danger, and to differentiate a case purely of that character from others in which the public may be much inconvenienced, but in which it cannot be fairly urged that public order is sufficiently infringed to justify in- terference by the authorities-as for instance a cab strike, or a coal-carriers' strike. On the other hand there are certain services among which those of railways and tele- graphs may be classed, where a sudden stoppage of work on the part of the em- ployés must cause great public injury; and in such cases, it is clear some limit should be put upon the power of "striking." It may be said that a combination of the kind is only what people in other trades have a right to, and that persons n he employ of railways or telegraphic departments should not be deprived of it; but this is not an answer to the real issue. The remedy that is sought in such a case is so mani. festly disproportioned to the wrong it is designed to put right, that no reasonable person can consider it justifiable-and if the right of striking in a reasonable manner for a legitimate object is liberally recognised as a necessary
concassion to working men, it will be no hardship that some definite limits should be put upon the exercise of so strong a power; and the least limit that can be put is that it shall not be made the means of injuring or endangering the public at large.
ROYAL TOURISTS.
14
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
873
different circumstances Queen Victoria paid | other's ways, between the various con- a ceremonious visit to the King's successor tinental people. The frequent visits of the Emperor Napoleon III on the occasion King Edward VII. both as Prince of Wales, of his opening the great Naval Station at and recently as King to Paris, has done Cherbourg. Napoleon was consistently much in accustoming the French People to friendly towards England, and it was English ways and English customs, many of always a source of chagrin to him, that his which formerly looked upon as insular, and approaches failed to overcome the rooted in old French eyes vulgar and objectionable, suspicion of the English people; so strong have of recent years become thoroughly accli- was this prejudice that even Lord Pal- matised, and the ready way in which the merston thought it necessary to warn the language leads itself to the assimilation of English people of the evil intentions of the these has certainly contributed much to the Emperor, and the first beginnings of our better feeling existing. It is not many Volunteer system was not remotely en- years since the Frenchman who drank tea nected with the panic this excited. In would be despised as an effeminate imitator spite of the many proofs he had displayed of an alien habit; now, as everyone knows, of his friendly feeling, there were not few five-o-cloquer "is a recognised word in who up to the last moment had their sus- the language, and the practice is incumbent picions, and warned the country against ou' every devotee of fashion, and largely the danger of permitting the sovereign to dominates the social lite of the entire put herself into Napoleon's power in his country. So of many other things which very stronghold. They had no doubt what- have been discovered to usefully fit acknow- ever that the object was to kidnap Her ledge gaps in French social intercourse. Majesty, and hold her to ransom of the What has happened in France is happening nation. In spite of these warnings Queen in many other countries, even in Spain, Victoria persevered in her intention, and on which longest retained its exclusive state arrival met with a right royal welcome. etiquette; under a new king who dared to At the time monarchs had but few marry an English princess, who has already opportunities of meeting one another endeared herself to her new subjects, and personally, and international codes of eti- elsewhere we find the same process of quette were so arranged that interviews, assimilation slowly, but steadily proceeding. when they did take place, were confined to the most formal and distant intercourse.
There is little doubt that these early visits of Queen Victoria had some effect in ameliorating the personal intercourse of the European sovereigns. The improvement in the means of intercommunication, there is little doubt, would in the end have brought about this desirable end, but the example shown by Queen Victoria, that it was possible for two sovereigns to be on friendly, almost familiar conditions, and communicate in unrestrained social intercourse seems to have been something new, Intercourse with equals in rank which was the privilege of the meanest, as well as the most powerful of their subjects, was alone forbidden to the monarchs themselves, who were thus shut out from the enjoyment of one of the greatest enjoyments of human life, free intercourse with their fellow kind. It is curious to note how entirely a single half century has changed all this. King Edward when Prince of Wales had taken full advantage of the opportunities his position gave him of mixing freely in the society of the various continental courts, and of making himself personally acquainted with the royal families. Of a naturally sociable and buoyant disposition, he was everywhere a welcome guest, and the personal friendships thus made came to his aid when as King he had more seriously to concern himself with the Foreign Affairs of the nation--always complicated, but never more so than under existing circumstances. There are few or none of the continental sovereigas whom he has not visited at their courts, and with some he is personally on the most familiar terms; but although King Edward is probably the most travelled of European monarchs, many of the others closely approach him in their ubiquity, and recently the President of the French Republic has found it quite consistent with his duties to the State to indulge in what has now become the Royal etiquette of morning calls.
(Daily Press, 10th June.) Sixty-five years ago Queen Victoria, amidst the misgivings of nearly half her subjects, paid a visit of politeness to the Court of the Tuileries; the
Citizen " King Louis Philippe was then on the throne, France had had enough of military and imperial rule; the Bourgeoisie was in power, and commercialism was it fashion, and Louis Philippe was anxious to show to the French people how very superior he was to the old prejudices which had for so many centuries kept apart the two peoples of France and England. The visit was marked by no particular incident, it was as became the frugal King of the French markedly bourgeois in type, and became the subject for the time of much good natured banter on the part of the English press. Queen Victoria and her husband, then known simply as Prince Albert, were kindly received by the populace, but it could not be said that any enthusiasm was displayed; a few months later King Louis Philippe, as in duty bound, returned the visit in London, where he had a reception worthy of the occasion. Under somewhat
It was under these conditions that King Edward VII. has recently been making his round of morning calls. According to the new theory of the Foreign Offices it is now customary for monarchs to pay visits of ceremony on their accession. Though the late King Oscar of Sweden had often been a guest in England, this was the first time an English king had visited Sweden, and as King Gustavus had accee-led to the throne occupied so long and so well by his father, it was plain that a visit was due; the King
There is little doubt that in addition to removing much of the ordinary melancholy of a sovereign prince's life, and so prevent ing that unnatural brooding that was continually seeking out points of disagree ment, which led to quarrels and eventually wars, the new system has had its uses in lessening the points of disagreement, generally resulting from ignorance of each
Я familiar visitor in the streets of Copenhagen, and was fairly familar with Norway; it was but right and proper, especially in view of the ancient friendship between the peoples, that Sweden should be visited, and the Liberal Party, who have come to look upon themselves as the arbiters in these social functions smiled approval. It became another thing when the King proposed to go to St. Petersburg, and include the Tsar in his visiting list. Now the one point above all others wherein these social amenities of the various sovereigns is to be commended, is that the monarchs are able for the time to divest themselves of their representative character as heads of the various states, and meet as human beings on a footing of equality of station, one with another. It would not be right if the omniscient section of the Liberal party which holds the universe in the hollow of its hand should permit this to pass without its intervention. There are one or two reasons why it would be advisable that the two should have a quiet talk about things that concern both countries which any personal resentment on the part of the Tsar might go a long way towards spoiling, amongst others a satisfactory arrangement regarding Macedonia, already nearly con- cluded. Sir Edward Grey the other day proposed certain arrangements, which the other Powers, not over well disposed towards closing the troubles, affected to believe were not applicable; Russia, however, brought forward an alternative scheme embodying a great part of that proposed by the British Foreign Office, and France, in this respect (as she said) acting disinterestedly, announced her in- tention of agreeing to any feasible scheme that offered a chance of ending the distur bance, but saying that of all the proposals she liked that of Russia best. As in reality
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