MR. H. R. L. SHEPPARD, a clergyman who never lacks courage, is to be congratulated on his outspoken references to the Prince of Wales in the October number of the St. Martin’s Review. The Prince is returning to England after a world tour during which frantic adulation has hardly ever ceased. He is without question the most popular young man in the world. “Insistent pressure of foolish and rather brainless popular applause”, says Mr. Sheppard, “is to-day being directed against the young heir to the British throne.” And such brainless, popular applause must be dangerous to anyone who has not “almost superhuman strength of character”. The Prince has found that everywhere he can win unbounded popularity by stooping to conquer. The consequence is that he stoops too often. Mr. Sheppard has written what many people, who realize the tremendous national value of the monarchy and the necessity that it should maintain its dignity unimpaired, have been thinking. He has done well, too, to point out that the quiet, detached, entirely untheatrical manner in which the King and Queen perform their duties to the State provides the best possible example “of the way in which the hearts of a great people are to be worthily held”. A king in the modern world must command the affection and the respect of his people. Affection alone is not enough.
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