DEATH OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA. (Hansard, 2 August 1900)

§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.

Mr. Speaker, it is only a few hours ago that I had to ask the House to pass a resolution expressing our sympathy with the misfortune that had befallen the people of Italy, and our horror at the dastardly crime by which that misfortune was caused. I now have to ask the House again to pass a vote of sympathy, but, if possible, this motion is one which touches us more intimately and more nearly than that which I moved on Tuesday last, for the subject of my resolution is a Prince of our own Royal House, a countryman of our own, and a sailor of the British Navy of distinguished capacity. Mr. Speaker, the Duke of Coburg's death is not surrounded by those circumstances of violence and crime which attended that other Royal death to which I have referred, but in its suddenness and in its unexpectedness it produces, and must produce, an equal shock, an equal pain, an equal sympathy with those who are the most immediate sufferers. His Royal Highness was not only, as I have said, a Prince of our Royal House, and a member of one of the noblest and most exacting professions, but the high authorities I have consulted are unanimous in telling mo that he worked at that profession in no holiday spirit, and that he excelled as a sailor in competition with the very best of those with whom he was brought into contact. He worked his way through the ranks of that service, and when he reached the highest post of responsibility as Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet he proved himself to be not only an unequalled master of detail in all that concerned the naval service, but, what is of even more importance and is even of rarer occurrence, he showed himself to be a master of naval tactics—to excel in the manipulation of a great modern steam fleet. It was not given him in actual war to show how his great naval accomplishments could have been brought practically to the service of his country, but the work which he did in his profession was of the kind for which I think we, who depend upon the Navy for our very existence, may well bear him national gratitude. Sir, these are reasons why we should remember with respect and sorrow, on his own account, the Duke of Coburg; but it is not simply in relation to the 454 great loss that has been sustained by his death that I ask the House to pass this resolution. The motion which I have put on the Paper expresses more than this; it expresses the sympathy of the House and of the country, so far as this House represents it, towards the wife and towards the mother. Those, Sir, are not feelings which I should care to do more than to indicate on an occasion like this, but they are present to all our minds. When the wife with whom we sympathise is one who has gained so much of the affections of the people of these islands as her Imperial Highness the Duchess of Coburg, and when the mother is the Queen of this, country, whose sorrows are our sorrows and whose joys are our joys, then, Sir, I feel that this resolution will be passed by the House with more than common feelings of earnest sympathy. I do not think it is necessary to add anything to what I have said, or to reinforce the words of the resolution themselves, for I know that they will commend themselves to the hearts and to the feelings of every man whom I am addressing, be his opinions or his politics what they may. I will therefore content myself with asking the House to accept the motion standing in my name.

§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN (Stirling Burghs)

Sir, it is not a mere formal duty that the right hon. Gentleman invites the House of Commons to discharge. In passing this resolution, we not only follow former precedents and walk in the path prescribed by constant, usage, but it is the instinct of our hearts that we obeyx2014;the instinct of loyalty and devotion, and I may even say, of gratitude and affection. It has often been said of our gracious Queen—and our experience down to the most recent days amply vouches for it—that she suffers with all the sufferings of her subjects. Not less is it true, Sir, that any sorrow which affects the Queen or her Royal House touches deeply the hearts of all her people. And when, as on this occasion, a beloved son is taken from her by the awful stroke of death, it is the desire, quite as much as the duty, of the House to approach the Throne with dutiful expressions of sympathy. The Queen has made her life a life of duty, and therefore of happiness, and she has not been spared by the heavy hand of affliction, a hand which rests equally upon the palace and the cottage; and our 455 earnest hope is that she may support this most recent stroke with the same fortitude which has been proved before, and that Her Majesty's health, so precious not only to us and the people of these islands, but to the whole Empire—and I will even say to the whole world—may be fully sustained. Sir, it is, however, not only feelings of grief and sympathy that inspire us at this moment; we have also in our breasts a sentiment not less genuine, a sentiment of cordial regret. The Duke of Coburg was not only a German reigning Sovereign, he had not ceased to be a British Prince; and while we share the admiration with which his subjects and neighbours have seen him loyally and successfully set to work in his new duties and accomplish all that was required of him, and seen the skill with which he merged the old Prince in the new ruler, we still remember him and think of him rather as the Duke of Edinburgh than as Duke of Coburg. We remember the part he played in our national life, the readiness he showed on all occasions, as his Royal brothers and sisters have ever done, to display interest in any patriotic and philanthropic purpose. We remember, above all, the career which the right hon. Gentleman has referred to, his devotion to the noble profession to which from his boyhood he belonged, and the great service which, while he followed his seaman's career, he rendered to his country. I do not know if I am going too far in saying this, but surely when we see how this Prince, so essentially British by birth, by training, by associations, by sympathies, by his whole career—when we see how he was able with the most perfect success to fill the role of a loyal, unimpeachable, and acceptable Gorman ruler—surely we may believe that there is something between these two great nations, some affinity, some element of homogeneity, which will triumph over every passing suspicion or passing jealousy, and over the narrow views of selfish men. Therefore it is with grateful feelings that we record our sense of the loss which both nations have, by this Prince's death, sustained, and while we thus think of the Queen and her Royal House, and of the nation, we do not forgot the widowed Duchess of Coburg and her daughters, and we tender to them our respectful sympathy. I beg, Sir, to second the motion.

456 Resolved, nemine contradicente, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty to express the deep concern of this House at the great loss which Her Majesty has sustained by the death of His Royal Highness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh, K.G., second son of Her Majesty the Queen, and to condole with Her Majesty on this melancholy occasion; to assure Her Majesty that this House will ever feel the warmest interest in whatever concerns Her Majesty's domestic relations; and to declare the ardent wishes of this House for the happiness of Her Majesty and her family. —(Mr. A.J. Balfour.)