Yet the
common love for the throne amounted to a half-ashamed
enthusiasm that burned with something like a sacred flame,
and was among the things not ordinarily alluded to,
because of the shyness that attaches to all feeling that
cannot be justified in plain terms. A sentiment of
affection for the reigning house certainly prevailed;
but it was a thing by itself. The fall of a British
Government would hardly fail to excite comment, and the
retirement of a Prime Minister would induce both the
Mercury and the Express to publish a biographical sketch
of him, considerably shorter than the leader embodying
the editor's views as to who should get the electric
light contract. But the Government might become the sole
employer of labour in those islands, Church and school
might part company for ever, landlords might be deprived
of all but compassionate allowances and, except for the
degree of extravagance involved in these propositions,
they would hardly be current in Elgin. The complications
of England's foreign policy were less significant still.
It was recognized dimly that England had a foreign policy,
more or less had to have it, as they would have said in
Elgin; it was part of the huge unnecessary scheme of
things for which she was responsible--unnecessary from
Elgin's point of view as a father's financial obligations
might be to a child he had parted with at birth.
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