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THE POWER OF KINGS.
(Daily Press, 7th April.) That kings had ceased to have any thing to say in the governance of the world, and that the order had become not only a sinecure but an expensive luxury, was doubtless the opinion of the majority of Europeans and Americans not many years ago. Even the most out-and-out stickler for privilege will be prepared to acknow; ledge that the kingly function as represented by the European sovereigns of the early part of the nineteenth century had sunk very low indeed, and that most if not all of the crowned heads then ruling might have been consigned to oblivion, or found the keys turned on them in their own state palaces without the world or its doings being in the slightest degree affected. Monarchs such as GLORGE IV. of England, FREDERICK WILLIAM.of Prussia, FERDINAND of Austria,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
to the ordinary reader of contemporary hia- | tory. It may be sufficient to mention one or two of these the most remarkable in stance is of course the strange position of complete isolation in which the imitation of a real statesman, however questionable his methods, had almost succeeded in placing Germany. BISMARCK was no admirer of England, and took little rare to hide his sentiments. But BISMARCK, whatever his private predilections, was careful that his private ideas should not lead to a breach between the two great Teutonic Powers. BISMARCK was, while engineering his triple alliance against the attempted encroach. ments of France and Russia, not above coming to a private arrangement with Russia herself to partition Austria under certain eventualities; but notwithstanding this apparently glaring breach of trust he contrived to keep the alliance going as a live factor during his term of office. Not so his modern imitator, Count vON BULOW, who not only by his practical encouragement of vulgar abuse of England in the Reichstag brought the two nations almost into holi- ty, but by his malapropos management of his finance measures alienated the United States; and finally to crown all, after almost openly insulting Austria and Hungary in his shameless subserviency to Russia, suc- ceeded in driving Italy into the arms of France. There is no doubt that it is due to the wisdom of the Kaiser himself that the unpleasant consequences of the bungle were with some difficulty adjusted. It is this that renders the news just received that an understanding had been arrived at between the German Chancellor and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs to renew the old pact of the Triple Alliance the more grateful, and it is thus that the somewhat romantic
or even LOUIS PHILIPPE of France, always associated in English minds at least with his inevitable umbrella, might one and all have been retired from business and the world would still have warged in its custom- ary manner, and no one except their own personal attendants found the slightest difference. It was little to be wondered at that in each country the reigning sovereign came to be looked at us the last of his craft, and that the European peoples looked oa with satisfaction while they saw one crown after another tottering or dragged through the dust. With the commencement of the twentieth century a strange change has come over the scene, and we find the sovereigns or nominal chiefs of each state, from being absolutely nonentities, rising to be real powers in their respective countries. One king in the case of France has been suc- ceeded by a republic, but otherwise, except the launch of his brother's new yacht was that there has been a general process of conceived. In these undertakings we consolidation and formerly separate in-apparently see the working of an abler and terests are now amalgamated under one head, there is little change in the roll call of nations, and yet the circumstances as far as the personalities of the nominal rulers are markedly different. Monarchs have ceased to be mere Mayors of their Palaces,
and the nominal and actual heads have
almost throughout the world coalesced.
visit of Prince HENRY of Prussia to attend
Can
clearer mind than that of the Chancellor, and the Chancellor's position in the Empire forbids us to see any other hand than that of the Kaiser himself. The part taken by King EDWARD and President ROOSEVELT may not be so distinct, but it to the credit of both that they readily fell in with the humour of the affair, and have probably averted what at the moment was not unlike- of Germany, England, and the Unitedly to have led to a permanent estrangement States, where the names of the Kaiser WILLIAM, King EDWARD, and President. ROOSEVELT, are uppermost in every tran- saction connected with the foreign, and to a large extent domestic, affairs of their respec-
This of course is most marked in the case
tive nations. Nor is the rule confined to these nations: we can scarcely think of Austro-Hungary independent of the Em- peror FRANCIS JOSEPH, of France/outside of President LOUBET, of Italy beyond King VICTOR EMMANUEL, nor of, say, De mark or Belgium except through their respective kings. Strangest of all is perhaps the fact that the one monarch in Europe who lays claim to autocracy pure and simple stands isolated as the only sovereign whose thoughts and acts never enter into men's minds, and who is content to be the one roi faineant, the Satyr in the grove of Hyperi- ons. The inspiring cause, though some times approaching to, is never identical with the Jacobite doctrine of the Divine Right, as it distinctly lays down the principle of the responsibility of the monarch; and it is the faithful manner in which the chief sovereigns of the day have discharged their duties towards their subjects that has undoubtedly led to the recrudescence of kingly power. Even since the beginning of the present year many examples of this will commend themselves
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of the three Powers, which for the last few years have been working in unwonted har mony towards the worthy end of promoting a better understanding amongst the nations of the woll most interested in the advance
of civilization.
RUSSIA AND MANCHURIA.
(Daily Press, 8th March.)
[April 12, 1902.
finally settled, at which we are not sur prised; but when we are told in addition that they are "hoping that it will be sigued in a few days" we can only conjecture that either the story has no foundation or that the Convention is a bogus one, conceal- ing some totally different compact. Our Shanghai contemporary, in publishing the telegram, says that Russia's sudden with. drawal of her demands and simple promise to evacuate Manchuria 'next year
are
regarded with some misgiving in some of the Legations. We cannot imagine in what Legations, except those of Russia and France, such conduct can be regarded other- wise than "with some misgiving." We have had numerous stories of Russia's renunciation already in the matter of Manchuria, all of which we have taken leave to doubt. In each case the story has turned out to be without foundation in fact and has been followed by renewed demands on China by Russia. It is therefore natural that we should regard the latest report with the same suspicion. Events will prove whether this suspicion is justified
or not. In the
meantime the newest tale may be charac- terised as quite the most remarkable. It will be interesting to see whether it is supported from any other sources than the one through which it first appeared.
COLONIES AND MOTHER COUNTRY.
(Daily Press, 9th April.)
A subject which is beginning to attract a great amount of attention, and which may be expected to attract still more as time goes on, is the relation of the Colonies and the Mother Country with regard to the defence of the British Empire. As has been announced, the representatives of the Colonies present at the Coronation cere- monies next June bave been invited to con.
65
sider this question when they meet in London. The feeling has been steadily growing, since the beginning of the South African War, t at the obligations of the Colonies to take more part than they have hitherto in the burdens and expenses of Empire cannot be neglected. There is, it will readily be understood, no question of demanding from our colonists the recogni- tion of their duties. They have all shown, by their eager volunteering for service in South Africa, that they already recognise what is owing from them. But it is not what is right in times of great emergency that requires consideration, but the whole question of aiding in the maintenance of the Empire. We may call attention to a sen- tence from the Army Estimates for 1902-3, appearing in another column, where it is said: The contributions from the Colonial Governments of Ceylon, Hong- The telegram from Peking on the 30th kong, and the Straits are expected to in- March, which appeared in our issue of yes- crease, mainly owing to growth of revenue." terday, with regard to the situation in It is only to be expected that this Colony, Manchura, so far from bringing any en- like Ceylon and the Straits Settlements, lightenment only leaves
us still more must be prepared to bear part in the addi- puzzled. The writer of the despatch-the|tional burdens but, of course, the Colonies Peking correspondent of the North-China Daily” News · hears on most reliable authority "that the Russian claims with regard to Manchuria, as stated in the Con- vention proposed by Russia, have all been rejected, except the terms of the evacuation, in accordance with which Russia is to with- draw all her troops within eighteen months from the signing of the Convention. This, it is said, the Chinese Government accepts, and it retains in its own hands all the mining, railway, and other rights, and the drilling of its troops-in fact, all its rights as sovereign of the country. This agreement we are told, the Chinese are anxious to get
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chiefly concerned are Australia, Canada, nud South Africa. As a writer iu n service journal points out, in every sea we have stationed British squadrons for the pro tection of commerce, and where the white ensign floats British cerchants may carry on their business without danger of spoliation. In these advantages the colonists have fully shared, but their obligation to the Royal Navy does not end there. The costs of the three gret Colonies which we have just mentioned are patrolled by our ships of war. The Mediterranean and the route to the East are held open by a splendid squi- dron, and in this China Sea our fleet has
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