King Edward in his true colours

Front matter

f T ¥ r^

TRUE COLOURS

DVvARD I.i£GGE

Chapter I The "coaching" Of King Edward

PAGE

King Edward's "coaching" in diplomacy — Some of his numerous

"coaches" — The Emperor Napoleon III at their head . 7

, CHAPTER II

The late Duke of Fife — Lord Farquhar — Sir Dighton Probyn — Lord Suffield — Lord KnoUys — Lord Coventry — Lord Esher — Sir Ernest Cassel — Advisers, friends and diplomatists — Sir William Howard Russell — Lord James of Hereford — Lord Alfred Paget 35

Chapter III

Some points in the Memoir of King Edward in the " Dictionary of National Biography" — Mr. Asquith, Mr. Balfour, Lord Crewe, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Rosebery, etc., on King Edward — M. Poincard's address — Extracts from the " Times," showing his Majesty's skill, tact, and success as a ruler — King Edward defends his "profession" at an audience to the Russian and Italian Ambassadors^-Effect of the National Biography Memoir in France — Mr. Keir Hardie on King Edward ... 49

Chapter IV The Prince's "debts"

A r^sum^ of the statements published in 1891 — An authoritative refutation of them 118

Chapter V

The bitter attacks made upon the Prince of Wales shown to have been based upon ignorance and made without justification — The Prince's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury . . .127 vi CONTENTS

Chapter VI Page

An appreciation by Comte d'Haussonville, of the Academie frangaise — The political and diplomatic skill of Edward VII as Prince and King — Ultimate agreement between England and Russia first sketched by the King — His Majesty presents the Marquis de Breteuil to the Empress Marie at St. Petersburg — The Empress aids the King's project — Panoramic view of the career of the Roi Pacificateur and First Diplomatist in Europe . 149 *

Chapter VII The Home-rulers Of Marlborough House

When the Prince and Princess of Wales were willing to reside in Ireland — The story of the Home Rulers of Marlborough House — Mr. Gladstone's statements to a friend of the Author — The personages who laid the Home Rule idea before Queen Victoria — The Author's proposition to the Press i75

Chapter VIII A Court And Cabinet Imbroglio

The Story of the late Marquis of Queensberry and the Prince of Wales, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Rosebery, and Lord Kelhead — Lord Queensberry follows the Prince to Homburg and accosts him — "You may write to me" — The Marquis's letter to H.R.H. — A copy of the original document, given to the Author by Lord Queensberry-*-The circumstances as narrated to the Author by the Marquis 184

CHAPTER IX Edward VII as the friend of Emperors, Kings, Chiefs of State, and

Princes 193

Chapter X Tomahawking The Royal Family

Attacks on the Royal Family by the "Tomahawk'' and the " Annuals "—The editor of the "Tomahawk"— Government

clerks and the " Annuals "—" The Coming K "—"Worthy

a Crown?"— "Edward VII"— "The Empty Throne"— Queen Victoria — John Brown 210

Chapter XI The Religion Of The Royal Family

Edward VII's devoutness— " A sturdy Protestant"— His deepfeeling nature — His emotion at funerals — He escorts the Empress Eug&ie into a Protestant Church — His reverence for religrion— "Cheerful" Protestantism— The "beauty of holiness"

CONTENTS vii

PACK

— The Prince attends the funeral of the Governor of Poland at St. Petersburg : a striking scene-^The false statements that he was a Roman Catholic — The fable that he wore a scapular — The religion of the Royal Family 215

CHAPTER XII When the King was "at his best" — Various opinions— His Majesty

and the " Cowes week " — The scene in the Solent . . . 226

Chapter XIII

Edward VII criticised at home and by German journals — Teutonic admiration of his diplomatic activity — German Ambassadors " sleeping at their posts " while King Edward is ever at work for his Empire — " He is a cunning King " . . -251

Chapter XIV

The Author's recollections of the Prince and Princess at St. Petersburg — The marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh and the Grand Duchess Marie, only daughter of Alexander II — Picturesque scenes described by the Author as Special Correspondent of the "Morning Post"— At the Winter Palace — "Running up against" the Emperor — A gay time — What the future King Edward and Queen Alexandra saw — " The Prince's indiscretion " — Someone telegraphed it to London ? — The " Morning Post's" Correspondent and Mr. (now Lord) KnoUys — Result of the " indiscretion " in England — An outlDurst of fanatical indignation at the Prince " breaking the Sabbath ! " — The Tsar orders that the jourilalists are not to be present at the wedding — Intervention of the Prince of Wales on behalf of the Press — He declares that " the English Correspondents must be present " at the nuptial ceremonies — The Tsar gives in to the strong remonstrance of the Prince — A prominent English official is recalled to London on the eve of the marriage .... 260

CHAPTER XV "prince JOHN DE GUELPH "

The claims of "Prince John de Guelph" to be the eldest son of Edward VII by a first marriage are published in the Paris " Temps " and authoritatfvely denied in that journal by the Author — "Prince John de Guelph's" book not openly sold in London — Amusing expos^ of "Prince John" by "Truth" — " Prince John's " hair elixir, " Ermine Social Bureau," and " Amritam," "a beverage to 'avert premature old ^e and senile decay'" 268 viii CONTENTS

Chapter XVI Sandringham Page

The story of the Lady Farmer and the Prince of Wales— The Sandringham estate 274

Chapter XVII

The Personality of Edward VII — His mode of life — His hats and those of some other"personages : the late Lord Dudley, the late Lord Hardwicke, the late Lord Cheylesmore, Lord Suffield, the Marquis de Soveral, Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Burdett-Coutts, etc. — King Edward's favourite dishes, and other personalia — Souvenir hunters — Collecting the Prince of Wales's duck-bones at Boston — His cigar-ends as relic&^A lady drinks what is left of his coffee 285

Chapter XIX

Edward VII, as Prince and King, and his Grandson, the Prince of Wales, in France 356

Chapter XX Professor Vamb^ry Speaks

Arminius Vambery's tribute to the genius of Edward VII — The eminent savant's point-blank denial of the " Dictionary of National Biography's" assertion that King Edward "was no reader of books " and " could not concentrate his mind upon them." The Professor's recollections of Edward VII from the year 1864 — The King's intimate acquaintance with Asian politics — His geographical and ethnographical knowledge — His remarkable extempore address of welcome to the late Sir Henry Stanley, the African explorer, at the Royal Albert Hall — His care for his servants 382

Chapter XXI

Queen Alexandra, "I'Ange-Femrae" — The soul of a Queen — The scene in the death-chamber at Buckingham Palace : a beautiful picture — Taking a cast of the King^s head. The Queen's spirituality — The favoured guest whom Her Majesty " showed over " the Palace — Pierre Loti's eulogy of Queen Alexandra . 390

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

KING EDWARD : A PORTRAIT TAKEN SHORTLY BEFORE HIS

DEATH . .... . Frontispiece

KING EDWARD AT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN ^From the painting by Winterhalter)

KING EDWARD IN 1891 ......

KING EDWARD ABOUT 1 885 ....

THE FOUR GENERATIONS (tAKEN IN 1 894)

KING EDWARD IN 1 874

KING EDWARD : A LITTLE-KNOWN PORTRAIT

KING EDWARD AT THE TIME OF HIS ACCESSION

QUEEN ALEXANDRA IN I905 . ...

QUEEN ALEXANDRA AT THE TIME OF KING EDWARD's

ACCESSION . . . ...

KING EDWARD IN THE INSIGNIA OF THE ORDER OP

THE STAR OF INDIA . ....

Facing p. lo

„ 416

* The illustrations, except where otherwise indicated, are from photographs by Messrs, W. &= D. Downey, Ebury St. , W.

Preface

I DESIRE to state explicitly that the opinions expressed in this work are my own, excepting those of Comte d'Haussonville, Professor Vambdry, and other authorities cited, and those of some of itiy i}ersonal friends.

Neither King Edward nor Queen Alexandra required, or would have accepted, the aid of Psaphon's birds ' to increase their popularity.

I have endeavoured to present a faithful portrait of our late Sovereign as he appeared to me through the decades. As nothing is so easy of accomplishment as a cut-and-dried biography, so nothing is more difficult than to piece together the salient points of so composite a character as King Edward's. 1 have had the invaluable assistance of such accepted authorities as Comte d'Haussonville and Professor Vambdry ; and the former Servian Minister, M. Miyatovich, has furnished me with a document showing the King actually engaged in a diplomatic matter of high importance in conjunction with the Ambassadors of Russia and Italy. The King's utterances on that occasion are reported by the then Italian Ambassador, and prove, as nothing else could prove, the great ability and mental strength of this King, who "read no books," and who "showed small capacity for dramatic criticism," (I) when called upon to unravel the strands of a diplomatic tangle — in fact, an impasse.

From the narrative of the " coaching '' of the Prince who was destined to sway the destinies of the Empire and to lead Europe into the ways of peace — whether officially, or unofficially, is irrelevant to the issue — it will be seen that Edward VII was steeped in the methods of diplomacy from his early manhood. I need not dwell here upon the methods adopted by the King in his anxiety to master that diplomatic art in which eminent authorities of all nationalities agree that he shone, and in which, beyond all doubt or question, he distinguished himself above all other Sovereigns of modem times.

Edward VII is depicted in adversity (as in 1890-1) and in prosperity. Owing to the ignorance of many commentators, he was for a time engulfed by the outcome of what was known as the " Baccarat Case.'' Wholly guiltless, he was made the scapegoat. He was the victim of cruel slanders in reference to his imaginary " debts." Years before those events he had been, with his mother, remorselessly lampooned. There was a time when he read in print the threat : " If I am prosecuted I will put the Prince in the box ! "

He is silhouetted in Paris, at Cannes, at St. Petersburg, and in the Solent, the smiling centre of the "joyous life." In brief, I have striven to show him as he might have been displayed in a cinematographic picture.

The appearance of my volume three months after the publication of the " Dictionary's" Memoir of King Edward VII is a mere coincidence ; the Memoir is only one episode the more.

The gaucheries contained in that biography might have been avoided had the proofs been revised by, say, Lord Bumham, the one man above all others competent for such a task. He would have used the pruning knife with discretion. He would have asked on what foundation many of the assertions rested, and he would have sifted the evidence of the talebearers.

1 PsAphon, desiring to let the world know his supposed greatness, trained a Qiultitude of birds to pronounce his name. When the birds were letter.perfect they were freed, and flew wherever they listed, exdaimiDg " Psaphon I " This ingenious person is believed to have been the first of th« self-advertisers.

I B

One would have thought that when the ample extracts given by the newspapers had been read, some, at least, of the late King's thousands ot friends and millions of admirers would have come forward with remonstrances. Of all these, one arose— Mr. H. Lee- Warner, a fellow-pupil ot the Prince of Wales under Charles Kingsley's tutorship. On^J ^ M. Arren, with grim humour wrote in the " Eclair" : "As to his role ot King, complete silence [in the French Press]. It is a close preserve, strewn with traps for wolves. ' Trespassers will be prosecuted. ' " ^^

It was M. Arren who wrote in the "ficlair" (June 9): The 'Dictionary' will teach generations that Edward VII was an espnt mediocre, a statesman of the second class."

. On one important point the " Dictionary " considerately offers us the choice of two opinions. On p. 595 we read that " no direct responsibility for the initiation or conclusion of" the entente with France " belonged to him " (King Edward). On the previous page the opposite view is maintained in this passage :

"King Edward came to Paris at an opportune moment in 1903. The French Foreign Minister, M. Delcassd, had for some time been seeking a diplomatic understanding with England which should remove the numerous points of friction between the two countries in Egypt, Morocco, and elsewhere. The King's Ministers were responsive, and his visit to Paris, although it was paid independently of the diplomatic issue, was well calculated to conciliate French public opinion, which was slow in shedding its pro-Boer venom. On the King's arrival the temper of the Parisian populace looked doubtful (May i), but the King's demeanour had the best effect, and in his reply to an address from the British Chamber of Commerce on his first morning in Paris ^e spoke so aptly of the importance of developing good relations between the two countries that there was an immediate renewal of the traditional friendliness which had linked him to the Parisians for nearly half a century."

If this be not a contradiction of the biographer's subsequently expressed assertion that "no direct responsibility for the initiation or conclusion of the entente belonged to the King," it is a case of " hedging." In any event, the whole world is against the " Dictionary " on this point, as I have shown by quotations in the chapter dealing with this "belittling" biography.

We may hope that some who read in the papers on the 6th of June the accounts of and the extracts from the Memoir of Edward VII turned their thoughts to the relatives of the late Sovereign. I can imagine some who had perused with pained amazement the tit-bits extracted froin the biography asking themselves what effect these revelations might have upon the son and his mother ? Were King Georg-e and Queen Alexandra transported with delight when they read the candid sentences which had jgained the enthusiastic approval of M. Ernest Judet, M. Arren, and Mr. Keir Hardie? When their Majesties "graciously accepted" presentation copies of the " Dictionary of National Biography " did they exclaim : " A charming Memoir, indeed ! Written with admirable taste! And so undeniably accurate throughout ! The author is already, it appears, a knight. He richly deserves a step for the great service he has rendered the Empire. Let him be informed by letter how highly we appreciate his noble work " .'

Did all this happen — or something else ?

On "the day after" — the 7th of May, 1910— King George held his first Council at St. James's Palace. Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein the Earl of Crewe, and the Lord Chancellor (so it is recorded) went to the King, " and he entered the Council Chamber, and in a voice broken by emotion sppke as follows : " I will give only one of his sentences uttered with tears in his eyes and a sob in his voice : " I have lost not only a Father's love, but the afTectionate and intimate relations of a dear friend and adviser."

The " 6&a.r friend and adviser " of his son.

He was all this — and more.

On the loth the widowed Queen wrote her " letter to the nation ' — wrote it, she said, " from the depth of" her " poor broken heart," thanking " our kind people we love so well for all their touching sympathy in my overwhelming sorrow and unspeakable anguish. Not only have I lost everything in him, my beloved husband, but the nation, too, has suffered an irreparable loss by their best Friend, Father, and Sovereign suddenly called away. May God give us all His Divine help to bear this heaviest of crosses which He has seen fit to lay upon us — His Will be done !' Give me a thought in your prayers which will comfort and sustain me in all I have still to go through. . . "

To read this letter is to recall a stanza in " In Memoriam ! ''

1 sometimes hold it half a sin

To put in words the grief I feel ;

For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the Soul within.

We shall remember until the end those May days two years and five months ago. Impossible for the most callous to forget them. Tears filled the eyes of men and women when the gun-carriage passed.

" We had a King once, second to none." Did we not sincerely mourn the loss of our "best Fiiend, Father, and Sovereign, suddenly called away ? " Did we not all, high and low, rich and poor, echo the words of the " Times " : " He was a great King, one of the greatest in history " .''

But was he such a King.' We all thought he was. Perhaps we deceived ourselves. Perhaps we misconceived his acts and deeds. Perhaps Edward VII was not, despite the "Times," after all, "a great King, one of the greatest in our history," He certainly could not have been what all the world thought he was if the " Dictionary " be right. How can we apply such a term as " great " to a man whose mental powers were so inconsiderable that, as the biographer, his hand upon his heart, emphatically assures us, " he was no reader of books " ? Were that true, it would alone justify the " feclair's " terrible onslaught. Fortunately, Professor Vamb^ry, C.V.O., a man of European fame, volunteers the statement that he often found the King reading and studying serious books.

Are British school children throughout the Empire to be taught that King Edward was the kind of man which the " Dictionary of National Biography " proclaims him to have been .'' If so, they will learn some surprising things indeed, e.g. :

The title of 'le Roi Pacificateur ' is symbolically just, but is misleading if it be taken to imply any personal control of diplomacy."

" A moderate estimate was set on his political acumen when in informal talk he travelled beyond safe generalities."

"The King's sympathy and grace of manner helped to create a temper favourable to the ' entente cordiale,' but no direct responsibility for its initiation or conclusion belonged to him."

" The King had no conception of any readjustment of the balance of Ejiropean power."

" His constitutional position and his personal training disqualified him from exerting substantial influence on the foreign policy which his Ministers alone could control. In the intimacies of private intercourse he may have at times advanced a personal opinion on a diplomatic theme which lacked official sanction. But to his unguarded utterances no real weight attached in official circles either at home or abroad. Foreign

B 2 statesmen and rulers knew that no subtler aim really underlay his movements than a wish for friendly social intercourse with them, and the enjoyment of life under foreign skies, quite unencumbered by the burden of diplomatic anxieties."

" King Edward cannot be credited with the greatness that comes of statesmanship and makes for the moulding of history. Neither the constitutional checks on his power nor his discursive tastes and traming left him much opportunity for influencing political affairs. No originating

faculty can be assigned to him On questions involving large

principles he held no very definite views. He did not sustain a conversation with much power or brilliance, but his grace and charm of manner atoned for any deficiency of matter."

King Edward " was no reader of books. He could not concentrate his mind upon them."

King Edward "showed small capacity for dramatic criticism" (!). (" Du sublime an ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas.")

" A man of the world, he lacked the intellectual equipment of a thinker, and showed on occasion an unwillingness to exert his mental powers."

King Edward committed " a breach of etiquette " by remaining at Biarritz instead of ctjming to London when Mr- Asquith was forming his Administration.

Well may an eminent French critic's sarcastic comment on these " nigglings " be " Pauvre sire ! " ^

Those who could, and should, have protested seemed to have adopted the despairing words of the Abh6 Portal ; " II n'y a qu'k se taire et k courber la tSte. Que Notre Seigneur ait pitid de nous ! "

Britons are made of tougher fibre. We do not remain silent, we do not bow the head, when we read that one of our Kings was such a " slacker," such a " Pauvre sire," that he could not read books because he was a mental degenerate. We get up and say it is a lie.

Should the biographer desire to attempt to rebut the testimony which I have given in detail, he will doubtless find in friendly columns sufiicient space to reaffirm the complete accuracy of the Memoir, and so enable M. Judet to again hold up our Edward the Seventh, of glorious memory, to odium and contempt and the ridicule that kills, and Mr. Keir Hardie to throw more mud at the father of King George.

The bulk of the Memoir is unexceptionable. The Gradgrinds of the present generation will pore over it with the ecstasy which takes possession of them when they contemplate pages of facts which smaller intelligences are tempted to skip. Others, after reading it as a whole, will, perhaps, recall this stanzafrom William Cory's beautiful poem, " lonica," contrasting Ulysses and Ajax :

The world may like, for all 1 care.

The gentler voice, the cooler head.

That bows a rival to despair.

And cheaply compliments the dead.

But even if Edward VII were proved on oath to have been "im esprit mediocre," " une grande incapacity m^connue," " a statesman of the second class," * " a man who was " no reader of books " because " he could not concentrate his mind upon them," "a man who lacked the intelligent equipment of a thinker," a Prince who for yearS was not allowed to be initiated into State secrets because his mother feared that he would divulge them over " country-house dinner-tables " ' ; even if all these were sworn to on the Holy Book ; even then, the millions who owe

1"A poor creature!" (Dictionnaire International Frangais-Anglais. Par H. Hamilton et E. Legros.) The critic referred to is M. Gerard Harry, in a recent number of " La C^ande Revue." A faur rendering of " Pauvre sire 1 " would also be *' Poor chap t " " Poor fellow ! " or '* Poor devil ! "

3 M. Judet in ** L'BcIair," June 7, 1919. * " Dictionary af National Biography."

fealty to the British Crown and who have enshrined King Edward in their Joyal hearts would say with the friend of the glorious Dead : " The legends woven by the Peoples rou?id their Sovereigns ought not to be destroyed!^ '

The splendid tributes to Edward VII by men of such eminence as M. Poincar^, Comte d'HaussoTiville, and Professor Vambery will be read with gratitude throughout the Empire and wjth admiration all over the world. The writer of a notable article, entitled " The New Renaissance in France," ^ remarked : " A Ministry of All the Talents has assembled under M. Poincar^, the ablest and most respected Premier that France has had since M. Waldeck- Rousseau " ; and English politicians will echo that opinion. Comte d'Haussonville is one of the most prominent and honoured members of the Acad^mie Frangaise, and writes with an authority and a knowledge which none will venture to dispute. He is a double member of the Institut by the Academie Fran^aise and the Acad^mie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. During the siege of Paris he was an officer of the Mobiles, and in 1871 he was decorated for his services. Since then he has not changed his rank in the Legion d'Honneur. A cross gained in the war satisfies him without desiring any other rewards. But he is among those members of the Institut who have the greatest rights to the medal of 1870.'

The venerable Arminius Vambery, Professor of Oriental Langiiages at the University of Budapest, is illustrious in the world of learning. He had a dear and revered friend in King Edward, who championed him in his earlier years as he now champions the dead Sovereign. King Edward was "no reader of books," says the "Dictionary." Vambery replies: " This is decidedly the grossest possible calumny " ; and he gives us a faithful, lifelike, " intimate " portrait of the Monarch such as this world-famous Hungarian scholar alone is able to paint from his knowledge of the King since 1864. If there be any gratitude in the British people, now is the time for them to express it to Arminius Vambdry, decorated on his seventieth birthday with the C.V.O., as a mark of the King's appreciation for " having always proved so good and constant a friend of England."

It is only by attentively perusing M. Poincar^'s, Comte d'Haussonville's, and Professor Vamb^ry's appreciations of Edward VII, and by studying the splendid universal tributes to his powers recorded by the " Times, that the reader can form a just conception of his Majesty both as Prince and as King. The Professor, who knows all the languages, refers to the King's marvellous knowledge of French. Others have noted this gift — among them, Madame Steinheil ! This extraordinary woman writes in her very curious " Memoirs " :

I met King Edward, then Prince of Wales, several limes. He asked me, one day, quite unexpectedly what 1 thought of his F;-ench. Your Highness," I replied, '* speaks our language unusually well." " For one who is not French ? " " For one who is not always in France. But

ferhapsyour Highness speaks it too grammatically." " I see," said the Prince cheerfully, "my 'rench is too perfect to be — perfect."

This little story could not have been better told by Sir Charles Dilke, whose valuable diaries (choice pages !) aided the Editor of the " Dictionary of National Biography " in preparing his Memoir of Edward VII — a point which provoked the sarcasm of the " Daily Telegraph." Why ? Personally, I should rate the dead statesman's intelligence considerably above that of some of the "Dictionary's" living informers, who have not shown any particular desire to publicly substantiate their evidence. Perhaps they are " considering their position."

A writer in a weekly journal of high standing* credited Alfonso XII with the mot : " Being King is a dangerous profession, but it is devilish

1 The Empress Eugenie. 2 " Edinburgh Review" (July 1912).

* **Le Figaro," August 4, 1912. 4 The "Spectator," Dec, 30, tgii.

well paid" Many dangers have to be faced by those whom the German Emperor ranks among the Lord's Anointed : the danger of the dagger, the danger of the pistol, and the danger of the bomb ; also (and this is ever present) the danger of the poisoned pen. I have recalled the vile lampoons of the " Tomahawk " and the scurrilities of the " Annuals " in the lifetime of Queen Victoria ; and I have noted the " injuries " showered upon the Prince of Wales in i8go-i over the Baccarat Case and his imaginary "debts." Coming to 1911, we remember what many will consider the greatest atrocities of all : the monstrous accusation published by the person styline himself " Prince John de Guelph " and the crime of the man Mylius. Tnese are examples of the poisoned tongue and the poisoned pen.

King Edward was spared the pain of seeing the so-called " Prince John de Guelph's " book,' setting forth his claim to be the eldest son of his Majesty by a first marriage with " a lady of Queen Victoria's Court." But the story got into some of the Paris papers in 191 1, notably the " Temps," which is read by politicians and diplomats all over Europe. I contradicted it in the " Temps " on indisputable written information, and was honoured with King George's gracious thanks, conveyed to me in a letter from Lord Knollys.

Even Queen Mary has been the victim of the poisoned pen. In December 1891 a widely circulated Radical weekly paper published a cruel attack upon her, to which I replied in an article, also widely circulated. The young lady was just then engaged to the eldest son of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, and less than a month after the poisoned pen's outrage — on January 14, 1892 — Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, died. Not only charming Princess May, but her family en bloc was insulted. " If Teck," it was despicably said, " went to visit the most insignificant princeling of pure blood, he would not be asked to sit down." This was almost complimentary in comparison with the bulk of the article.

While those who outraged Queen Victoria and her eldest son in the " Tomahawk " and the " Annuals " went unpunished, Mylius, for his shocking and lying libel on King George, was mildly sentenced, in 191 1, to a year's imprisonment, and was released before the expiration of his term.

But, at the very time these prefatory pages are being written — September 19125— there is in circulation, certainly in London, and probably elsewhere, an abominable leaflet, addressed to the "Protestants ot England," and containing these words : " Printed and published from the originals by the Protestant Reform League, Belfast. No Popery at home and no Home Rule in Ireland. Three hundred thousand determined men say so." A copy of this infamous production was received at a well-known club in St. James's Street, and handed to me. It was sent anonymously from the Continent, and it may be assumed that copies were addressed to other London clubs. The statements printed are couched in such foul and blasphemous language as to preclude their mention here.