Page:The golden book of King Edward VII.djvu/35

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THE GOLDEN BOOK OF


And again:

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My country as well as your own, I feel sure, has but one wish, and that is to uphold the honour of our flag and to maintain the colonies we possess without encroaching on the possessions of others.

He was determined to drag out his kingdom from her position of "splendid isolation," that she might bear her part in maintaining the European balance of power, which is the European peace: and with splendid tact and patience he achieved his end. King Edward was never parochial in his patriotism: he sought the ultimate good of all, as of fellow-members of one great family.—and so he pointed out in his fine phrase to the English Freemasons:

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I do not wish to allude to foreign Lodges with whom we are not in accord, but I would ask that at any rate we should strive

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