Read it through once

Something has already been said of the qualities with which King Edward entered upon his task and with which it was conducted to the moment when in passing to his rest he said: "It is all over, but I think I have done my duty." The unique feature of his career in a personal sense was his amazing popularity, the real affection with which every class in the great community of the British Isles regarded him. In the days of his unofficial labours as Prince of Wales, Lord Beaconsfield greatly esteemed him and Mr. Gladstone was "devotedly attached" to him. At the latter's funeral the Prince went up to Mrs. Gladstone and in a spirit of spontaneous courtesy bent over her hand and kissed it with an air of sympathy so great as to be beyond the expression of words. It was little acts such as this that won unstinted liking for the man as well as loyalty to the King. It was this magnetism of the kindly heart, this instinctive courtesy of character, coupled with a remarkable dignity of bearing at the right moment and in the right place, and a rare memory for faces and incidents and peoples and places, that made King Edward so truly the Sovereign of his people. In this connection a religious orator of the Radical type in London--Rev. R. J. Campbell--told an audience in Toronto, Canada, on July 22, 1903, that "Queen Victoria is gone but her son remains and I would not exchange King Edward, with all the criticism that has been directed against him, for any Sovereign ruler on the face of the earth or any President of any Republic on either side of the water."