The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-06-18 00:00:00

c.tourtiribe ellserbtr

SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1887.

THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE.

ALL her Majesty's subjects throughout the
vast reach of the British Empire are now
the completion of the fiftieth year of our
gracious Sovereign's occupation of the
mightiest nation the world has seen. The
half-century which has passed over the head
of the Queen, on whom congratulations are
now pouring in from every corner of the
earth, has been one of storm as well as of
shine, of sharp sorrows intermingled with
mncli joy. In every domestic grief and per-
sonal trial, however, Queen Victoria has had
the sustaining love of her people, and when
the cloud of trouble has darkened the palace
door it has never arisen from lack of loyalty.
In that sense her Majesty has been favoured
far above the monarchs of many another
nation of her own time ; and her's has. in-
deed been a happier reign than that of any
of her foregoers on the throne of England.
Our land has had less of plague and pesti-
knee, less of disastrous war, more of pros-
perity and commercial advancement, far
more of moral and intellectual progress dnr-
ing the Victorian era thin at any corres-
p ,rding period in history. And in all the
inie,..tv onward movement; of [knowledge
and goodwill between man and man which
have characterised the leng years that have
(lapsed -ince she first wore the crown, our
Queen has had a sympathetic share. Her
Majesty is an ideal 14_,Inelislivroman, a true
Quee,,n of the ho tie And th se high qualities
which she has shown in so marked and ex-
emplary a way within the family circle have
been ex panded and applied by her in the direc-
tion of guiding the government of her domain.
Statesmen of giant mind hive been since
137 at the head of Britain's affairs, but
while Premiers have come and gone to and
from place and power, one thoughtful woman
has all the while sat on the throne and kept
up by her influence a continuity of rule and
consistency of policy which has gone far to
hold the land in its proud pre-eminence.
With a gentle firmness the Queen has all
along miantained the principle of right and
justice in her councils, and oftentimes her
woman's wit- has seen the right course when
political chiefs, warped by the prejudice of
party feeling, would have ste2red the ship of
state among dangerous reefs. When the
world was shaken—to take a case in point
—with the tremendous internecine conflict
in the great English speaking country across
the Atlantic, and public opinion seemed to
run high in favour of the demands of the
Southern States, Queen Victoria stood
sternly against slavery, and the splitting-up
of a great Power, some of her able advisers
te the contrary, notwithstanding. The
Queen's strong common-sense enabled her to
judge aright in this difficult matter, as the
sequel has amply shown. And again and
again since, when her Majesty has differed
from tr...ined publicists, her perceptions have
proved wise and well-grounded. She has
entered deeply into all things concerning
her people's welfare, and hence lit is that
she has ;been able to carry on without a
break -.the rule of right for so lengthy a
period, in times of crisis and of national
danger as well ILS when all things have
seemed
,peaceful and protitions. Melbourne
and Peel, Russell, Derby and Aberdeen,
Beac,onstield, Gladstone, and Salisbury, have
acted in turn as her Prime Minister, now
one in o lice, now another. She has listened
ntelli4ently and with high esteem te all her
administeat ,rs, and has been spared to us
until to dv with no faculty at all impaired,
the posses tor of a splendid experience in all
those art 4. of governance which make a
nation powerful ald prosperous. She has
shown how Monarchy mey be something
more than sp!enlour and pageant without
being at all tyrauoieal. In short, our Queen
has been tarungn her reign t he living repre-
sentation aud taneible evidence of that solid-
arity an,t sttbi:ity which have made Eng-
land's might: i her person has been ever
exempliied that reitiond adherence to right
and to high principle which might otherwise
have been hi hleu oat of siva by fluctuating
popular feeliii4 or obscured by the hot con-
tent:on of party strife. She has lifted Con-
etitutioaal Sovereiemcy to a higher level
than ever before it attained; and so long
as the Crown is distinguished for the iateg-
rity and wisdom which have illuminated it
ii our day, Britain will have no d.asire for
other than hereditary rule. The record of
et reign, under such beaign influence as
t at of her AI tjesrv, Wilt) has been a
patron•ms ,f all th., arts, and a participator
iu eve .y p'iilantni.opie and educationsl move-
ment, has iielee I been a glorious one. Her
loved Consort, during his lifetime, was an
easiring fellow-worker iu everything
te improve tie lot an •I b!•ig'tteu the
life of the p.ople; and since he has g ne to '
ins rest, tu er s nol and daughters have
entered heartily and eneouragin.ily i :to the
good works of their Royal pareaes, as almost
,•eery town in the land can tes-ify. It has
.deed been a glorious lislf-eentury for Eng-
land, this which has last passed. Our Queen
has seen every creed and every class freed
on, the fetters of prejudice and bad old
"stow, and justice to all established on a
firm and impartial foundation; she has seen.
e;le sick ao. 1 old, and errins cared for bv
S e•e • " ,
arty; in her tinie tile war tuaing naa neen
,i)t)ily diminished, and the thousand years
poilco brouglet seasibly nearer to reality •
eisanies, an 3 ICU/Leto* and,Ara „o;..

have gone out into the unknown world end
laid. open fresh leaves in 11,t lire's vast
volume; it has been the golden age of
s iience and discovery; the steam engine lies
arisen, electricity has been made man's ni)st
o')edient servant ; intellect has marelle,l
mightily on, while human hearts have :,ro,,vn
larger. Our lives are purer, our sum und.
lags iiiore lovely, our cares and daily s
less than fifty yearsjago. Long may the
gracious lady,- who has seen and shared in all
these vast changes for the better, yet live.
May her Jubilee of Queenship but be the
beginning of many years of further happy
rule over the people whose love is her
brightest treasure.