ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY 477 



The Royal visit to Wales had for its central object the Investiture of the Prince of 

 Wales at Carnarvon Gastle on July isth, a magnificent ceremony and an imposing 

 investiture demonstration of Welsh nationalist sentiment, in the arrangements for 

 of the which Mr. Lloyd George, who had been appointed Constable of Carnarvon 



Prince of Castle, had from the first taken a leading part. In the course of the pro- 

 ceedings a national address was presented to the young Prince by Sir John 

 Rhys, Mr. Abraham, M.P., and the Archdruid; the Prince made part of his replies in 

 Welsh : and in the religious services two Welsh Nonconformist ministers were associated 

 with the two Anglican bishops. The whole affair was a great success. On July i4th, 

 the King and Queen visited Bangor for the opening of the new buildings of the Univer- 

 sity College of North Wales; and on July 15 they visited Aberystwyth and laid the 

 foundation of the new National Library of Wales. 



From Wales the Royal party went to Edinburgh, where on July i yth a great pro- 

 cession escorted them to Holyrood Palace. Here again ancient Scottish ceremony and 

 modern Scottish sentiment were duly observed and encouraged. A levee 

 foScotfand an< ^ a state banquet were held on the i8th; on the igth the King and Queen 

 assisted at the dedication of the new chapel of the Order of the Thistle 

 in St. Giles's Cathedral, and the King laid the foundation stone of the new City Hall; 

 and on the 2oth reviews of troops and boy scouts were held in the King's Park, and a 

 garden-party was given at Holyrood. On the 2ist the Royal party returned to London, 

 after having brought the whole of the United Kingdom more closely within the ambit 

 of the Coronation festivities by their personal presence in all its capital cities. 



But there still remained an important extension of the whole principle of the recog- 

 nition of Imperial sovereignty, in the visit paid by their Majesties to India and the 

 Coronation ceremonies at the ancient capital of Delhi. At the time of 

 The Royal King Edward's death the native unrest in India had become a source of 

 India. considerable political anxiety, and it was his successor's own idea that 



the personal presence of the King-Emperor, for the first time as such on 

 Indian soil, and the compliment paid to his Indian subjects by his being crowned Em- 

 peror in their midst, would give new life-blood to all the elements that made for loyalty 

 to the British connection and for Anglo-Indian co-operation in the great work of ad- 

 ministering India under the British Crown. The announcement that the King would 

 go in person to India for this purpose, and that, instead of sending a representative, as 

 had been done in the case of King Edward, he and his consort would themselves be 

 crowned at a Royal Durbar, was made in the autumn of 1910. It was understood that 

 the King's decision was assented to at this time by his ministers with considerable hesi- 

 tation, and when the Indian unrest continued to show itself during 1911 doubts were 

 freely expressed as to its being prudent. Prophets of evil, as the time drew nearer to 

 November nth, when the King and Queen were to leave England, were numerous; but 

 the King's own courage and prescience were fully justified by the event, and the history 

 of the Empire has included no more epoch-making act of State than was involved in all 

 its circumstances. Embarking from Portsmouth on the P. & O. steamship " Medina," 

 and attended by Lord Crewe, the Secretary of State for India, and a numerous suite, 

 with an escort of men-of-war, the Royal party arrived at Bombay on December 2nd (see 

 INDIA), and were not back in London till February 5, 1911. 



From a political point of view the most remarkable part ot the proceedings in con- 

 nection with the Delhi Durbar was the Royal announcement of certain changes in the 

 Indian administrative system (see under INDIA). In celebration of the 

 Coronation itself various boons were granted, measures of relief and release 

 for certain classes of debtors and prisoners, a large preliminary outlay 

 towards a new scheme for the extension of popular education, extra pay to certain classes 

 of native officers and civil servants, and the inclusion of native officers and men among 

 those eligible for the award of the Victoria Cross. But all such concessions were 

 overshadowed by the fact that occasion was taken for a public assertion of Royal power 

 and authority in respect of the government of India, by the King's announcement that 



