The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-03-28
Letting iu the Daylight.

In the "Easy Chair" of Harper's Monthly
for April, we find pleasant notice of Queen
Victoria's Highland diary, in the course OF
which Mr.. Curtis makes some very shrewd
and suggestive remarks upon the possible
effect of these very frank revelations upon
the public mind in England. He thinks that
though the book may crafty curiosity about
the personality OF the Queen, it is not un-
likely to play the mischief with the part of
pageant which belongs to the sovereign in
the British system. There is good deal in
this idea. The picture which the good Queen
has given Of herself is dangerously true. 1t
has the pitiless faithfulness of the photo
graph. 1t withers the hedge of divinity that
surrounds king and queen. 1t is dsenchanting /;
it strips royalty OF its impressive mystery !;
it disperses the cloud, it ruins the pageant.
1t is picture which urges home the simple
truth that queen is a woman merely, and
when that idea is once rooted in an ignorant
mind it may sprout into the most striking
and unexpected consequences. The shock it
| must give to the imagination OF John Bull
may upset the throne. 1t is quite true that
the woman here revealed is plainly most
excellent and amiable person; but then
everybody knows that her son and successor
has inherited all her mental irleriority with
none of her virtues. That is where the
danger comes in. The easy Chair" goes on
| thus:
But the Gold Stick in waiting, and the Gar
ter King-at-Arms, and the knights of the
| Bath, and Carlyle's Bigwiggery in general
| must read this work with preternatural alarm
| Shall the Queen be regarded merely or gener-
| ally as q teuder-hearted, simple little body,
| and nothing more? Shall all her evident linn
itations be ruthlessly exposed? Or, indeed, is
| il exactly the other way, and is this overflow
| of loyal enthusiasm in the papers the involun
tary expression OF delight upon finding that
| ROYALTY is so pure, domestic, and exemplary,
| and that the essential absardity of the pa
| geant is not made painful and intolerable by
| the folly or vice of the chief actor? Those whs
doubt the wisdom of system from which
they see no practicable escape, naturally praise
| with ardur whatever attractive blamelessness
they fiud in it. 1t was in this spirit that in
| this country, few years ago, many a man
| who felt the wrong, and feared the inevitable
tragedy of slavery, magnitied its patriarchal
| character, and repeated the instances OF kind
treatment upon the part OF the masters. The
English seem to seize upon this revelation of q
stainless royal life with the eagerness of those
who have found something good in it at least
But the book, like the photograph, must relent
lessly dispel illusions. All the time the reader
feels how much happier this little woman
would be if she could only have quiet cottage
in some soft shade, and there worship he
| spouse and darn her children's stockings in low,
and peace. To pay enormous sums of none,
for the maintenance of this doting little wifi
as a great political fgure-head; and to settl
the bills of an extravagant and dissipate
vouth who shows no especial interest in nuL
tic affairs, or aptitude for them, but who
conspicuously fond of the Garden MabilIe i
Paris; and to do all this while poverty widen
and deepens, and tremendous questions threat
en- from every side-how about that? She j
only part ofthe pageant indeed but she
not its crown; aud when any part is question
ed, eveIy part is in danger. Thus when IN
. great mass of the people in England VOC M
q they will have their representatives an IN IN !
: House of Commons. But the % ho'i1n 3o,s
the Commons may be paralyzesd IN w ~ -npJs
} of Lords Then who are the HOUSE ser ~ sbnmI
Hereditary Legislators. why on e"Ion Snour
few Engishmeu be heTsu,t y.
D while the rest,who elect to parliament are not
Thaso nuestious are not now very remot
TheS ore suppressed indeed by the feeling fC
Iuey a..;onate and faithful woman, who.
Sn sreat d sorrow has made her very precious