The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-02
QUEEN VICTORIA.
Complaints from the EnRIIsh Press Of the re-
motencss Of the Queen's Residenoe-hints nt
m RnRancY.


Prom the London Economist
In opposition to many Liberals the Ec0no-
mist has always maintained that constitu-
tional monarchy-a monarchy, that is, in
which the monarch is only permanent
member of the governing committee elected
by Parliament-has some great advantages
over republic It is better fitted to carry
i on the traditions of the departments, restrains
ambitions which might otherwise become too
fierce, and, above all, by creating among
the educated a feeling of awe, sense that
law must be powerful because it is visible,
dininishes the necessity for the exhibition of
force. We do not need bayonets to
disperse crowds Society in England with
out Queen would have to treat evil-doers
kmuch more sternly, and control roughs by
5much more unmistakable display of its power,
\ if necessary, to shoot them down. Even the
etiquette which surrounds monarchy, tire
some and unreal as it often is, acts constantly
as a buffer to break the collisions between
political parties whose violence might other
wise shake the fabric of society. These are
great advantages, but it must be acknow-
jedged that occasionally we seem to purchase
ihem rather dearly, and it is folly to deny
That the Queen has of late years once or twice
d ompelled politicians to reflect upon the price.
! lIhe best of constitutionalists, the most for
Bearing of sovereigns, her Majesty presses
btiquette until it becomes an almost
Il people but to her immediate advisers The
Bovereign is the first officer of the State, but
4 it is etiquette to consider that she is some
1 fhing more-the pivot of State organization1
the centre upon which everything depends
Aghere she is, there is the nominal seat of con-
stitutional power. Her signature even to
documents she never dreams of reading is in
alispensable her consent even to acts in which
she has no voice must not only be obtained but
accompanied by certain formaities her ad-
visers, although all powerful, in theory derive
*their power from acting in her name. The
presence of the sovereign validates their acts,
'and for years past Queen Victoria has refused
ito be present at the seat of government. For
wears she has never slept in London, and all
Xpublic acts. even acts as important as the
Hswearing in of a new Cabinet, have been per-
Informed at Windsor-a place twice the dis
tance of Versailles from Paris. Ancient ira
III dition and good railway service make Wind
sor tolerable to politicians but the Queen
greatly prefers places at the extremity of the
kir gdom-ber marine residence in the Isle of
Wight, her mountain home at the extremity
of Scotland she acts upon this prefer
ence like any private noble. Whatever the
Urgency of national affairs, whatever the ne
cessity of speed in official action, whatever
n the desire of any cabinet to consult its most
4 experienced member, the sovereign flies,
whenever she desires relief, to Osborne or to
& Balmoral; and her Ministers, all
g men loaded with anxieties all
q men to whom time is precious, all
men in the later maturity of life, have to
waste precious hours and still more precious
strength in railway journeys which would
exhaust the young. A great war, perhaps the
greatest of this century, is ravaging the Con-
tinent. Great Britain, for the first time
since 1864, has been compelled in so many
words to offer battle Her aid is sought in
4" u,bio iol, fha bnl n
" future of the world. Business of the last
Importance is astir in the two departments,
N the Foreign Office and the War Office, in
n which nothing can be done without her Ma =
jesty's signature and her Majesty's consent.
/ And the Queen, who has been staying for
4 weeks at one extremity of her king
dom, flies suddenly to point still more re-
mote, a place actually further from Lon
don than Nice from Paris, and there re-
y uuires her Ministers attendance. Every
q despatch is delayed three days, and the
q Premier, man of sixty-one, worn out with
the labors of a most severe session, is COM
/ PEELED to expend forty-eight hours at time
in railway travelling to and from a place so
completely in the desert that it is twenty
miles beyond railway communication. The
interruption to business is extreme, the hard
ship to individuals excessive, and except the
etiquette of monarchy it has literally no justi-
ficaion. No officer of state not sheltered by
that etiquette would be permitted so to inter
lupt the progress of affairs. 1t may be said
1 at her Majesty requires rest, but that,
though good argument as against London,
is no argunl ent as against Windsor, where the
Que en- possesses spaces, solitudes, air, woods,
waters, as attractive as those of Balmoral.
Ntr indeed can we admit that in the case
of any great officer of State health can
be admitted as a final argument for choice OF
residence 1t is only an argument for taking
leave, leave which, under our system, the
sovereign does not take. If, as in France
departure from the capital implied the estab
| isl ment of a regency, or if the Premier were
thereby enabled to act on his own authority,
it would neither be courteous nor useful tc
raise the smallest objection. But the eti
quette which demands the signature of the
Queen demands also the attendance of the
Minister, and thus, in a monarchy useful
mainly because it enforces etiquettes, one of
III en- is made visible as an impediment tC
public business. The telegraph is in this
matter no help, nor is any readiness in cor
respondence. The Minister must 60 in
person, and he could go to Paris in half
the time and with not more than half the
suffering. An etiquette which distinctly di
minishes the efficiency. the comfort, and the
rest of the entire Cabinet, is an etiquette
which sooner or later is certain to breal
down; and as we do no. want it to breal
down, it may be worth while to consider
whether it could not be met by another Ell
quette as powerful as itself. Suppose w
add another constitutional fiction to the mum
ber air ady existing, and hold that the sove
reign always is either in London or Windsor
assume that he IS present, and t
Sio in, hic -fhera yvoul1 h