The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-05-24 00:00:00

THE QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY.

TIIE celebration of her Majesty's birthday is
in the great towns of Engiaud an annual
occasion for the display of considerable
warmth of sentiment towards the reigning
sovereign.. Bort, on the 24th of May, 1819,
Queen Victoria is now (35 years of age.
Ascending the throne on the 20th June,
1837, for nearly 47 years she has ruled over
;. this empire. she had assumed the crown
and the sceptre before many of those now in
the prime of life were born. The occupancy
of her exalted position has been marked by
a series of shifting scenes, like those of a
a kaleidoscope. Called to the responsibili-
ties of a throne at the early age of eighteen,
she has been Queen of England three years
as a imiclen, twenty-one as a wife and a
mother, and twenty-three as a widow. The
term of her sorrow, it will be seen, equals
that of the other two previous stages com-
bined. . From the time of her Majesty's ac-
cession to the death of her mother the
Duchess of Kent, nearly a quarter of a cen-
tury elapsed, a period comprising the hap-
piest time of her existence. scarcely a
ripple appeared upon the waters. Then be-
gan the series of trials to which the Queen
so touchingly referred in her recent letter
to her people Mother and husband were
taken from her within a few months of eaeh
other, and in her matnrer years she has had
to bear the loss of two children who had
attained the ages of 35 and 31 respectively.
In fact, during the second half of her pro-
longed reign, Queen Victoria has never been
out of mourning: _ _ _ _

Comparing the world with that upon
which the sun shone sixty-five years ago,
in very many respects it scarcely seems the
same. At that time the sixty years' reign
of the infant princess's grandfather, George
111., was growing near its close. The de-
crepit old king, for nearly a decade, had
been confined in his palace, a prey to an
unfortunate mental malady. From the
celebration of his jubilee in 1810, until his
death in 1820, he knew nothing whatever
of the stirring events which were happening,
in. Europe. The disastrous retreat of Na-
poleon from Rus=ia, his overthrow by the
allied armies at Leipsig, the assignment to
him of the sovereignty of Elba, his escape
from that island, the hundred days, the
march upon Paris, the crushing catastrophe
at Waterloo, the surrender at Portsmouth,
and the banishment to St. Helena never
again to be a disturb e- 1 f the public peace
—upon all these event. du shattered mind of
the aged monarch wab a complete and total
blank. Could he have understood what was
passing, how grateful would have been the
intelligence that the tyrant who had deluged
the Continent with blood had been success-
fully grappled with at last! At the time
of the Queen's birth instead of a sovereignty
in England there was a Regency, and the
chronicles of that day have told us something
of what the Court of the Regency was like.
The quarrels between the Prince Regent and
his wife, afterwards Queen Caroline, had
become a national scandal. The vicious
atmosphere which surrounded the Court was
notorious. The outlook for the future was
a gloomy one. Princess Charlotte, the only
child of the Regent, who had been married
to the late King of the Belgians, had died
in childbed, so that there was no direct
succession to the Throne so far as the King's
eldest son was concerned. It passed to the
next brother, the Duke of Clarence, who had
f-ontraeted an unrecognised alliance with
Mrs.: fordan, an actress. Any issue of such
a union could nct come to the Throne. Then
the nation turned to the next brother, the
Duke of Kent, who for two years subse-
qnently to the death of the Princess Charlotte
was childless. At length. on the 24th of
May, 1819, a .Princess was born to the
Duchess of Kent, and the infant of that time
has for nearly half a century ruled over
the vast dominions pertaining to the British
Empire.
Those who were in the full flush of maim-
hood at the time of her Majesty'a access:on
have described the extraordinary enthusiasm
with which the Princess Victoria was wel-
comed to the Throne. This is not at all to
be wondered at. A young sovereign had
!en unknown ir these realms during more
than three-quarters of a century. When
George 111. died at the age of 82, his eldest
_ -- 00- TV
died at the age of nearly 70, his brother and
successor came to the throne at the mature
ige of 65, the number of years now reached
by her present Majesty. Therefore, when
the heralds, the trumpeters, and the pursui-
%rants proclaimed on a fine June day in 1837,
in all the market plaeet of our towns: "The
King is dead! Long live the Queen I" it
alay well be understood that the subGtitntion
of a young girl for a race of old and decrepit
Kings, was greeted with shouts of acclaim.
By far the greatest proportion of tl'ose who
then swelled the chorus of approbation have
ra3S3d "to where beyond those voices there
is p ,ace." The Queen remains a clig-nifiecl
Aria stately figure, looking down upon the
ever-ve,rying panorama of life outspread
before her. On the day whe she was sworn
in as sovereign of these realms she subscribed
the oath that she would govern according to
the constitution of the Kingdom. and this
obligation has been faithfully kept, Many
have been the complexions of the administra-
ions from the time of Lord Melbourne to
hat of Mr. Gladstone. But while Queen
'Victoria has always been a constitutional
-40vereign, it may also he truly said, "Length
days is in her right hand, and in her left
.and riches and honour !"

TIIE IRON TRADE
Waverbampton Wednesday,
The business this afternoon was rather quiet,
qnci tl•e orders given out were generaPy for small
_ .