The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-03-18 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1876.

QUEEN OR EMPRESS?

The Fates proverbially laugh at political
prophecy, and it is undoubtedly true that
nothing is so certain as the unforeseen. This
has been brought forcibly home to the observer
during the last few days. Of all those who
ventured openly or mentally to foretell the
history of the present session, who could have
really hit upon the truth as we see it now ?
Who, in forecasting the subjects which would
occupy the largest share of public attention, and
around which the keenest controversy would
rage, could hit upon the truth as we see it now?
The meeting of Parliament was anticipated with
much greater interest than usual because of the
topics of discussion during the recess. These
included the purchase of the Suez Canal Shares,
the Andrassy Note, the Fugitive Slave Circular,
the Iranguard Minute, the cession of Gambia,
and the Confederation of the South African
Colonies. Within a month of the opening of
the Session the Suez Canal was ratified by the
House of Commons without a division, the
Fugitive Slave debate has been disposed of, a
night has been devoted to the Vanguard, and
the cession of Gambia has dropped out of sight.
All these are but as trifles compared with the
contentions which have arisen out of a brief and
scarcely noticed paragraph in the Royal Speech,
announcing that a Bill would be laid before
Parliament enabling her Majesty to add to her
existing titles one which, while paying a com-
pliment to the people cf India, would at the
same time be a graceful recognition of the way
in which the Prince of Wales had been received
in that dependency. This attracted but little
attention at the time, but a gradual increase of
public interest has surrounded it, and within
the past fortnight there has been scarcely a
home in the United Kingdom in which the mat-
ter has escaped reference.

Nor is this result at all surprising. Such is
the fierce light which beats upon the Throne,
that every scrap of information relating to
royalty is eagerly read every day by tens of
thousands; and the chronicles of the Court
Newsman, gravely recording, as they do, that
'the Queen wWked and drove in the grounds "
of Windsor, Osheine, or Balmoral, as the case ,
way be, are to large nunlers the most valuabk
parts of the daily journals. What the Queen
wore when presl.nt at any public ceremonial,
how she looked, what questions she asked, where
she will be going next week, how long she will
remain in Gernoiny, the route of her journey
thither, the date and manner of her return,
how she spends her time in that country—these
and many other details which in an ordinary
person are of interest only to himself and his
immediate relatives, are invested with a v( Ty
different a). of importance when grouped around
the person of tho Sovereign. The reason of
this is eleir. We are fully aware that the
Sovereign, whether King or Queen, pa,sess
likt passion: with ourselves. They must follow
the example of the meanest of their subjects in
many an affair of human existence ; and
although it is very trne that they are clothed in
purple and tine lken and fare stunptuous'y every
da:‘, they pre not endowed with the Divint
atm flu to of being enabled to List altogether, co
even forty days and jolty night. The plp,-sica
strength of a king, no more Ilia:, th.: ph.% sica
to bug wmdt m time mihsimce if fad hru oPi;;lieelpe o
necessaryto the sustenance of the mortal frame.
An insufficient antenna of cloilliog on the per-
son of a king would render him as liable to be
struck down by the cutting east wind as the
labourer working on the lonely wolds of York-
shire, or upon the desolate moorlands of Devon.
And aft( r journey has ended, We know that
even tie easest potentate must die—West-
minster Abbey and Windsor Castle tell us that
very plainly. Then, as the Sovereign is human
and mortal like ourselves, what is it which
makes her appear to the masses of the people as
though she lived, and moved, and had her being
in a diffsrent world from that in which the lot
of most of us is cast ? The reflective know that
. although the monarch occupies an altitude of
station which can be reached by none of her
subjects, the world in which she passes her
existence is the same. But the reason why the
Queen stands forth so prominently in the eyes
of her people, and why ber every act and deed
is regarded with interest, is because she is the
I,%ing embodiment of that solid authority which
has for centuries stood Great Britain in such
.(food stead. She is the animatei r presentative
of those constitutional rights which have been
secured to us through successive ages, and are
at once the strength, the safety, and the glory
of the land.