Marquess of Salisbury, Lieutenant Colonel
George T. Denison, President of the League in Canada, Mr. Chamberlain,
Mr. Edmund Barton of Australia and Mr. J. Israel Tarte of Canada were
amongst the speakers, and others present included the Right Hon. C. C.
Kingston, the Hon. Alfred Deakin, the Hon. J. R. Dickson, Sir John
Cockburn and Sir James Blyth of Australia, the Earl of Hopetoun, Lord
Lansdowne, Lord Wolseley, Lord Knutsford, Lord Strathcona, the Earl of
Onslow, the Earl of Jersey, the Earl of Crewe, Lord Kelvin and Earl
Grey. The Prince of Wales was enthusiastically received and
congratulated upon his recent escape from assassination at Brussels.
After some eloquently appropriate remarks upon this point, he welcomed
the Australians in kindly words and then referred to the war. "We little
doubt," he went on, "that in a great war like the one we are now waging
we should have at any rate the sympathy of our Colonies; but it has
exceeded even our expectations. We know now the feeling that existed in
our Colonies and that they have sent their best material, their best
blood and manhood, to fight with us, side by side, for the honour of the
flag and for the maintenance of our Empire." Such words may fittingly
conclude a brief record of the Prince of Wales' interest in Empire
affairs up to the time of his accession to the Throne.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Prince as Heir Apparent

The Heir to a Throne such as that of Great Britain has an exceptionally
difficult place to fill. He has to have the broad sympathies and
knowledge and training of a statesman without the right to express
himself upon any of the political problems and issues of his time; he
has to live in a never-ending blaze of publicity and be liable to
unscrupulous, or too scrupulous, criticism without the power of direct
reply; he has, perhaps, to suffer in private life and character from the
caustic shafts of men at home or abroad who do not like the institution
which he represents; he has to officiate in a ceaseless round of
functions and public ceremonial; he has to travel constantly from Court
to Court in Europe and, in the case of the Prince of Wales, he had to
act for several decades the part of the Sovereign in public life without
the resources or responsibilities which the actual ruler would naturally
possess.

There are, of course, important compensations. He has the foremost place
in every leading national event, the privilege of knowing as inti