| Show SOME ROYAL VIRTUES the choice of a of denmark to the throne of norway not only closes an incident that seemed at one time to threaten dangerous developments but it is also a substantial extension of the governing power of the royal house of denmark in his second son king christian has already given a king of greece and the second son of the king of greece Is likely to become king of crete the queen of england is the daughter of king christian and with heirs to follow her the second daughter of the king of denmark was the empress of russia and the present czar Is her son while king christian will himself bo succeeded by his eldest son the little northern kingdom has indeed played its full and valiant share in tho political story of europe and it la still playing its ehara although in a different way denmark was once alio dangerous rival of england in the supremacy of the european seas and her power may be gauged from tho tact that she was able to waga war at the same time with sweden england russia and prussia although eho waned from her position of a first class power after the surrender of her antiro fleet to nelson and the compulsory surrender of norway to sweden her influence has continued in another and in a less way stripped of all her possessions except the islands and jutland she has plucked greatness from her very weakness she has succeeded not only la checking her downward progress but in rebuilding tho little kingdom upon lasting basis of foreign amity and of domestic liberty other countries spain for example have gono downhill after great reverses with an impetus that no hand was strong enough to reverse bit the national influence the political and social freedom now enjoyed by tho people of denmark rank high amongst all european countries all this must be attributed in no small ii neasure to the wisdom and to the virtue of hor king christian IX who by giving his to tho nor throne lias in a reunited the destinies of iho two countries by tho most flexible but enduring of bics tics has now occupied the throne since and his family dispersed throughout the countries of europe probably combines within itself more political power than any oilier family in the world political and domestic virtue Is therefore still a factor in the royal government of europe without the support of armies or of navies tho royal house of denmark exercises a widespread sovereignty that tar more powerful nations might well envy king christian of denmark has won tor himself the reputation of possessing many kingly virtues and ho has kept them unstained by kingly vices not only has ho governed his own people as a man amongst men doing all duties in a manly way but he has inculcated in the members of his own family tho truest spirit of ethical democracy hia family is a large one but no scandal has ever been attached to it no foolish aaser tion of divine right no inflated professions fes of a more than human wisdom he haa approached the duties of his high officio a a man of honor and as a man of affairs ever more conscious of hl duties and of his responsibilities than of his transient dignities this venerable monarch has won for haselt and for ills family the respect the affection and the confidence ot europeans Europe and all tho navies of tho world could not more effectually bulwark tho frontiers of the tiny kingdom that owes its national existence to its modest and unassuming king the part played by king christian in denmark as played no less honorably by queen victoria in england here we have another illustration of the power wielded by character even though it bo unsupported by any remarkable degree of statecraft or of intellect queen victorias character loses nothing whatever indeed it immeasurably gains by tho recognition that its owner was not distinguished by many of choso mental gifts which we are too much accustomed to cot sider as necessary to a ruler it may be indeed that had sho been more intellectual she would have been less great for intellect has its own temptations and its own pitfalls await it to understand what queen victoria did for england we must try to imagine what iho results would have been had tho long span of her reign been filled by a succession of royal young men with all the weaknesses of young mu intensified by opportunity and by power the whole standard of english social and public life would have boon lowered the court would have become a center from which unwholesome and irresponsible if not positively evil influences would have gone forth to saturate the life of the whole such a monarch was charles II 11 under whose weak and good natured reign the moral life of tho english court and to a largo extent of tho english people became a hissing and an an abomination for more than halt a century queen victoria held tho fort of royal and courtly purity she made virtue fashionable and vice unpopular not so much from policy as from the natural instinct of a pure woman sho held at arms length and in frankly expressed abhorrence everything that was tainted with evil or with the mere suspicion of evil and eh kept her court swept and clean of all those questionable influences that aio always ready to gravitate toward a social brilliance mankind whether under a monarchy or under a republic is still swayed more by example than by precept and it is well for humanity that tho ideal domestic life speaks with a more appealing and effective force than elo quence or intellect or statecraft these things wo admire but we do not venerate them there is everywhere ait innate feeling and it is an honorable that alls right with tho man or with the woman who is In trenched within the united and harmonious family life and when such examples by tho fortune of birth or otherwise occupy great positions tho type that they set becomes a mold into which tha vast life of the nation insensibly fits itself queen victoria bet an example to her nation of good womanhood and of good motherhood and there are no mental gifts imaginable that in the absence of such power ot example could have made of her a greater queen |
