Lord Palmerston, the Queen complained, did not obey instructions, and she declared that before important dispatches were sent abroad the Sovereign should be consulted. Further, alterations were sometimes made by him when they had been neither suggested nor approved by the Crown.

Such proceedings caused England, in the Queen's own words, to be "generally detested, mistrusted, and treated with indignity by even the smallest Powers."

In the Memorandum the Queen requires:

"(1) That he will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given her royal sanction.

"(2) Having once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister. Such an act she must consider as a failure in sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exercise of her Constitutional right of dismissing that Minister. She expects to be kept informed of what passes between him and the Foreign Ministers, before important decisions are taken, based upon that intercourse; to receive the Foreign dispatches in good time and to have the drafts for her approval sent to her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it best that Lord John Russell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston."

More than once the alteration of a dispatch by the Queen prevented what might easily have plunged this country into a disastrous war.

After the Mutiny in India a proclamation was issued to the native races, and the Queen insisted upon alterations which would clearly show that their religious beliefs should in no way be interfered with, thus preventing a fresh mutiny.

On rare occasions her indignation got the better of her—once, notably, when, owing to careless delay on the part of the Ministry, General Gordon perished at Khartoum, a rescue party failing to reach him in time. In a letter to his sisters she spoke of this as "a stain left upon England," and as a wrong which she felt very keenly.

Her style of writing was as simple as possible, yet she always said the right thing at the right moment, and her letters of sympathy or congratulation were models of their kind and never failed in their effect.

Few, if any, reigns in history have been so blameless as hers, and her domestic life was perfect in its harmony and the devotion of the members of her family to one another. She possessed the 'eye of the mistress' for every detail, however small, which concerned housekeeping matters, and though her style of entertaining was naturally often magnificent, everything was paid for punctually.

After the visits of King Louis Philippe and the Emperor Nicholas of Russia, Sir Robert Peel acknowledged that "Her Majesty was able to meet every charge and to give a reception to the Sovereigns which struck every one by its magnificence without adding one tittle to the burdens of the country. I am not required by Her Majesty to press for the extra expenditure of one single shilling on account of these unforeseen causes of increased expenditure. I think that to state this is only due to the personal credit of Her Majesty, who insists upon it that there shall be every magnificence required by her station, but without incurring one single debt."

When one remembers that the Queen had to superintend the household arrangements of Buckingham Palace, Balmoral Castle, Osborne, and Windsor, and that the latter alone gave employment, in one way and another, to two thousand people, it can be realized that this was a tremendous undertaking in itself. Method and neatness, first instituted by the Prince Consort, were always insisted upon in place of the disorder and waste which had reigned supreme before the Queen became head of the household.



Before her life was saddened by the untimely loss of her husband the Queen was the leader of English society, and her influence was, as may be imagined, thoroughly wholesome and good. She was all her life a deeply religious woman, and though her observance of Sunday was strict, she never allowed it to become a day of penance. Her religion was 'humane'—indeed, her intense sympathy with all sorrow and suffering was one of her supreme virtues, and her early upbringing made her dislike all elaborate forms of ceremony during the service. When in the Highlands she always attended the simple little Presbyterian church, where the congregation was, for the most part, made up of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

It is this simplicity and 'homeliness' of the Queen which were so often misunderstood by those who could not realize how much she was at one with her people. The Queen was never more happy than when she was visiting some poor sufferer and comforting those in sorrow. Her memory for the little events which made up the lives and happiness of those far below her in social rank was amazing. She was a great and a truly democratic Queen. She gave the greater portion of her Jubilee present toward a fund to establish institutions to provide nurses for the sick poor.

During the latter years of her reign, when she was less and less to be seen at public functions and ceremonies, many complaints were made about her reputed neglect of royal duties. She felt the injustice of such statements very keenly and with good reason. No allowances were made for her poor health, for her years, for the family losses which left her every year more and more a lonely woman. Her duties, ever increasing in number and extent, left her no time, even if she had possessed the inclination, to take part in pomp and ceremony.

The outburst of loyalty and affection on the occasion of her two Jubilee celebrations proved that she still reigned supreme in the nation's heart.

The Queen was not only a great monarch, but also a great statesman. Consider for a moment the many and bewildering changes which took place in her own and other countries during her reign. Our country was almost continually at war in some portion of the globe. The British Army fought side by side with the French against Russia in the Crimea, and against the rebels in the Indian Mutiny; two Boer wars were fought in South Africa in 1881, and 1899-1902. There were also lesser wars in China, Afghanistan, Abyssinia, Zululand and Egypt.

The Queen lived to see France change from a Monarchy to a Republic; to see Germany beat France to her knees and become a united Empire, thanks to the foresight of her great statesman Bismarck, and her great general von Moltke. During the same year (1870) the Italian army entered Rome, as soon as the French garrison had been withdrawn, and Italy became a united country under King Victor Emmanuel.

Despite the fact that the map of Europe was continually changing, England managed to keep clear of international strife, and this was in no small degree due to the personal influence of the Queen.

The England of her early years would be an absolutely foreign country to us, if by some magic touch we were to be transplanted back down the line of years. It was different in thought, feeling, and outlook. The extraordinary changes in the modes of travelling, by means of which numbers of people who had never even thought of any other country beside their own, were enabled to visit other lands, broke down, bit by bit, the barrier between the Continent and ourselves. England became less of an insular and more of a continental power.

The social changes were, as has been shown, all for good. Education became not the privilege of the few but the right of all who wished for it. Step by step the people gained in power and in the right to govern themselves. The idea of citizenship, of a patriotism which extended beyond the narrow limits of these isles, slowly took root and blossomed. Through all these manifold changes the Queen reigned, ever alert, and even in her last years taking the keenest interest in the growth of her mighty kingdom.

"The use of the Queen in a dignified capacity is incalculable," declared Walter Bagehot in his famous essay on The English Constitution. He continues: "Without her in England, the present English Government would fail and pass away." It is interesting to read the reasons which such a clear and distinguished thinker gives to explain the hold which the Monarchy retains upon the English nation as a whole.

Firstly: there is the Family, of which the Queen is the head; the Nation looks upon her as its mother, witness its enthusiasm at the marriage of the Prince of Wales.

Secondly: The Monarchy strengthens the Government with the strength of religion. It is the duty of a loyal citizen to obey his Queen; the oath of allegiance is no empty form. The Queen from her very position acts as a symbol of unity.

Thirdly: The Queen is the head of our society; she represents England in the eyes of foreign nations.

Fourthly: The Monarchy is the head of our morality. The example of Queen Victoria's simple life has not been lost upon the nation. It is now quite a natural thing to expect and to find the domestic virtues personified in the ruling monarch, and this in spite of the fact that history has shown what temptations lie in the way of those possessed of the highest power in the state.

Shakespeare voiced the feeling of the people for the kingship in the words which he put into the mouth of Henry V:

Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls, Our debts, our careful wives, Our children, and our sins, lay on the king: We must bear all. O hard condition! twin-born with greatness, Subject to the breath of every fool, whose sense No more can feel but his own wringing! What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect, That private men enjoy? And what have kings that privates have not too, Save ceremony, save general ceremony?

And lastly, the actual Government of the country may change but the Monarch remains, subject to no changes of Parliament, above and aloof from the strife of political parties, the steadying influence in times of transition.

The Sovereign has three rights: "The right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn." A comparison of the reigns of the four Georges with the reign of Queen Victoria shows that it was only during the latter's reign that the duties of the constitutional monarch were well and conscientiously performed. The Queen worked as well as her Ministers, and was their equal and often their superior in business capacity. To conclude: "The benefits of a good monarch are almost invaluable, but the evils of a bad monarch are almost irreparable."

On the death of the Queen, Mr Arthur Balfour, speaking in the House of Commons, described his visit to Osborne at a time when the Royal Family was already in mourning. The Queen's desk was still littered with papers, the inkstand still open and the pen laid beside it. "She passed away with her children and her children's children to the third generation around her, beloved and cherished of all. She passed away without, I well believe, a single enemy in the world. Even those who loved not England loved her. She passed away not only knowing that she was, I had almost said, worshipped and reverenced by all her subjects, but that their feelings towards her had grown in depth and intensity with every year she was spared to rule over us."



Appendix

Victoria Alexandrina, only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. Born at Kensington, May 24, 1819. Became Queen, June 20, 1837.

Married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort, born August 26, 1819, died December 14, 1861.

Died January 22, 1901, after a reign of sixty-three years.



Summary of Chief Events during the Queen's Reign

1838. Commencement of the Chartist Movement.

1840. PENNY POSTAGE ESTABLISHED mainly through the efforts of Rowland Hill. War with China.

1841. Sir Robert Peel appointed Premier.

1842. War with Afghanistan. Peace with China. The Chinese cede Hong Kong.

1843. Agitation in Ireland for the Repeal of the Union. Arrest of Daniel O'Connell.

1845. War with the Sikhs. Failure of potato crop in Ireland, which resulted in a famine in the following winter.

1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws. Lord John Russell appointed Premier.

1848. Revolution in France. Prince Louis Napoleon becomes President of the Republic. Chartist Agitation in London.

1849. Annexation of the Punjab.

1850. Death of Sir Robert Peel.

1851. THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

1852. Death of the Duke of Wellington. Louis Napoleon elected Emperor of France.

1853. Turkey declares war against Russia.

1854. Great Britain and France declare war against Russia. THE CRIMEAN WAR. Invasion of the Crimea. The Battle of the Alma (Sept. 20). Siege of Sebastopol. Battle of Balaclava and Charge of the Light Brigade (Oct. 25). Battle of Inkerman (Nov. 5).

1855. Lord Palmerston appointed Premier. Death of the Emperor Nicholas of Russia. Fall of Sebastopol (Sept.).

1856. Peace concluded with Russia by the Treaty of Paris.

1857. THE INDIAN MUTINY. The massacre at Cawnpore (July). Capture of Delhi (Sept.). Sir Colin Campbell relieves Lucknow (Nov.).

1858. Suppression of the Mutiny. Abolition of the East India Company. The possessions and powers of the Company transferred to the Crown. The Queen's Proclamation to India issued by Lord Canning, first Viceroy.

1859. Establishment of the Volunteer Army. Fenianism in Ireland. Trial of O'Donovan Rossa.

1860. Second Chinese War and occupation of Pekin.

1861. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. Repeal of the duty on paper.

1862. The second Great Exhibition.

1865. Death of Lord Palmerston. Lord Russell appointed Premier.

1866. THE ATLANTIC CABLE LAID. Lord Derby appointed Premier. The war between Austria and Prussia.

1867. THE SECOND REFORM BILL passed. It largely extended the suffrage in English boroughs.

1868. Disraeli appointed Premier.

1869. Suez Canal opened.

1870. THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT passed, which compelled the attendance of children at efficient schools. The Franco-German War. Halfpenny postcards first came into use.

1871. Establishment of the German Empire. TREATY OF WASHINGTON, which settled by arbitration the Alabama claims.

1872. The Ballot Act passed to secure secret voting at elections.

1874. Disraeli appointed Premier for the second time.

1875. Purchase of shares in the Suez Canal.

1876. Disraeli becomes Earl of Beaconsfield. THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED EMPRESS OF INDIA.

1878. Congress of Berlin to settle the Eastern Question. Great Britain was represented by Lords Salisbury and Beaconsfield. Second Afghan War.

1879. War in Zululand.

1880. Rising of the Boers in the Transvaal.

1881. Defeat of the British at Majuba Hill. Peace concluded in March. Death of Lord Beaconsfield.

1882. OCCUPATION OF EGYPT. Bombardment of Alexandria and the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

1883. War in the Soudan. Defeat of Hicks Pasha.

1885. Fall of Khartoum and death of General Gordon. Redistribution Bill. Number of Members of Parliament increased from 658 to 670. The Revised Version of the Bible.

1886. Annexation of Upper Burmah.

1887. JUBILEE CELEBRATION.

1888. Death of the Emperor William I. of Germany, and of his son Frederick III. Succession of William II. The Local Government Act, by which England and Wales was divided into counties and county boroughs for purposes of local government.

1889. Charter granted to British South African Co.

1896. The Jameson Raid.

1897. The 'Diamond' Jubilee.

1898. Death of Gladstone. War in Soudan. Battle of Omdurman.

1899. South African War.

THE END