1894

The Year 1894

In this year Britain has a burst of creativity that could have come only from a nation with boundless optimism and a strong sense of honour. In this year Du Maurier came out with Trilby; Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda; Kipling, The Jungle Book; Shaw, Arms and the Man; Beardsley, drawings for Wilde’s Salome; and Ramsay and Raleigh discovered argon. We owe at least some of this to the prince and his ideals of education and social justice.

I had not intended that this turn into a eulogy for the prince, and certainly not as a recommendation for the monarchy. I remain a staunch republican. Yet I cannot resist a temptation to compare the British achievement of 1894 with that of the French. His innocence notwithstanding, in this year 1894 to save the “honour” of the French army, Captain Dreyfus was sent to Devils Island. Could this have happened in Britain? Under the immortal eye of the prince? Never!