THE TRUE TEMPER OP EMPIRE. 



31^ 



premature centralisation, but to strengthen the constituent 

 parts, and to develop trade relations between them." 

 I conceive this to be in the true temper of Empire. 



Of Kings. 



Although in the application of my text I have not adhered 

 to the interpretation assigned to the word Empire by Bacon, the 

 solemn ceremony of the Coronation suggests a word on the 

 exercise of the true temper of Empire by the Sovereign in 

 Bacon's sense of the phrase. I illustrate it by a parable from 

 Macaulay's Essay on Sir William Temple. Eef erring, to, a 

 conversation between Temple and King Charles II., Macaulay 

 wrote : " He strongly represented to the King the impossibility 

 of establishing either absolute government or the Catholic 

 religion in England ; and concluded by repeating an observation 

 which he had heard at Brussels from M. Gourville, a vei-y 

 intelligent Frenchman well known to Charles : ' A king of 

 England,' said Gourville, ' who is willing to be the man of his 

 people, is the greatest king in the world, but if he wishes to be 

 more, by heaven, he is nothing at all.' The King betrayed 

 some symptoms of impatience during this lecture ; but at last he 

 laid his hand kindly on Temple's shoulder, and said : ' You are 

 right, and so is Gourville ; and I will be the man of my 

 people ! ' " 



This I consider to be the true spirit of Empire, but the 

 conduct of Charles himself and his successors showed how hard 

 it is to keep. It is always perilous to mark off history into 

 epochs fixed by accession of sovereigns, but I venture to fix the 

 date from which the true temper of Empire has been kept 

 without solution of continuity by the sovereign of the British 

 Empire as the date of the Coronation of Queen Victoria. The 

 coronation of King George and Queen Mary may be accepted 

 as a ceremonial trial and assay of the perpetuity of the 

 temper. 



Note. — Many or most of the problems and points discussed in this address 

 are elaborated in my work. The Broad Stone of Empire. It has not 

 been thought necessary to encumber the address with 7iotes of reference to its 

 pages. 



