1910] King Edivard's Character 307 



of the landlord class, a tall, good-looking fellow, with much intelligence, 

 heir to a baronetcy, and, Meynell tells me, an excellent speaker, he 

 may even have Redmond's succession some day. It has always as- 

 tonished me that no great landlord of them all should have come 

 forward long ago in this way even out of mere ambition. Leslie has 

 been at Eton and Oxford, but is nevertheless, as far as I can judge, 

 a quite sound Nationalist. He went away in the evening. 



" The Bellocs and Maurice Baring came to dinner. 



" 20th May. — To-day the King was buried, and I hope the country 

 will return to comparative sanity, for at present it is in delirium. The 

 absurdities written in every newspaper about him pass belief. He 

 might have been a Solon and a Francis of Assisi combined if the 

 characters drawn of him were true. In no print has there been the 

 smallest allusion to any of his pleasant little wickednesses, though his 

 was not even in make-believe the life of a saint or in any strict sense 

 a theologically virtuous man. Yet all the bishops and priests, Catholic, 

 Protestant, and Nonconformist, join in giving him a glorious place 

 in heaven, and there were eight miles of his loyal and adoring subjects 

 marching on foot to see him lying in state at Westminster Hall. For 

 myself I think he performed his public duties well. He had a passion 

 for pageantry and ceremonial and dressing up, and he was never 

 tired of putting on uniforms and taking them off, and receiving princes 

 and ambassadors and opening museums and hospitals, and attending 

 cattle shows and military shows and shows of every kind, while every 

 night of his life he was to be seen at theatres and operas and music- 

 halls. Thus he was always before the public and had come to have 

 the popularity of an actor who plays his part in a variety of costumes, 

 and always well. Abroad, too, there is no doubt he had a very great 

 reputation. His little Bohemian tastes made him beloved at Paris, 

 and he had enough of the grand seigneur to carry it off. He did not 

 affect to be virtuous, and all sorts of publicans and sinners found their 

 places at his table. The journalists loved him ; he did not mind being 

 snap-shotted, and was stand off to nobody. If not witty, he could 

 understand a joke, and if not wise he was sensible. He quarrelled 

 with nobody, and always forgave. He disliked family scandals, and 

 spent much of his time patching up those of the Court and whitening 

 its sepulchres. In this respect he has every right to the title of ' Peace- 

 maker ' given to him. 



" It was the same with his peace-making diplomacy. He liked to 

 be well received wherever he went, and to be on good terms with all 

 the world. He was essentially a cosmopolitan, and without racial 

 prejudice, and he cared as much for popularity abroad as at home. 

 This made him anxious to compose international quarrels. He 

 wanted an easy life, and that everybody should be friends with every- 



