"Whether the associations of the Imperial name are bad, as Mr. Gladstone thinks, I will not discuss. Splendid and imposing they certainly were, not only in the age of the Antonines, but in the best days of the mediaeval Empire, from Otto the Great to Frederick II. But that splendour they have lost. ... In fact, the title of King is now the less common of the two, and, with such associations as our kingship has, it is far more dignified. There has been a King of the English ever since the ninth or tenth century; no other Monarchy in Europe (except the lands of our Scandinavian kingsfolk and except the Crown of St. Stephen) can boast of anything like an equal antiquity. ... Why endanger the pre-eminence of style of the only European Crown which combines the glories of ancient legitimacy with those of equally ancient constitutional freedom?"
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Presidents of the Board of Trade (United Kingdom)Academics from Northern IrelandPoliticians from Northern IrelandChief Secretaries for IrelandBritish Ambassadors to the United States
Original Language: English
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Sources
Letter to The Times (13 March 1876), p. 8, after Queen Victoria was given the title "Empress of India"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Bryce%2C_1st_Viscount_Bryce
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James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, OM, GCVO, PC, FRS, FBA (10 May 1838 – 22 January 1922) was an Ulster-born academic, jurist, historian, and Liberal politician.
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