Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-30
GREAT BRITATNETcfTEp.


A despatch by cable announces that The
Right Honorable benjamin nisraeli at
tended dinner at Hughenden, his coun-
try residence and home. She ether day
and in proposing the toast of Her Majesty,
the Queen, took the occasion to assure his
friends and neighbors that the sovereign
lady has become physically and is
morally incapacitated from performing hel
public duties longer. This utterance O
the bold Ex-Premier has been published
and the excitement in consequence is said
to be great. There is establishment and
Indignation amongst the most intensely de-
voted of Her Majestys subjects at the
temerity of Disraeli in proclalmlng 'he
fact even though it were true. 80 sacred
do some hold the person of royalty that
they will not tolerate word which lnoi-
Gates that kings and queens are mortal,
and subject to the common ills and imper-
fections of mortals. Upon the ears of
such the disclosure of the poor condition
of Victoria falls roughly.
But there are other classes who listen
to the report with different feelings. There
are those who believe it to be true. Some
hear it with alarm, some with hope. The
former tremble at the thought of the sue
oessor who is to follow the beloved and
virtuous Queen. His qualities are such
that the people cannot respect him. The
nation will be imperiled when he ascends
the throne. He has little ability to WELD
the power that will fall to him, while his
vices will lead him to use it wickedly and
bring disgrace upon the people he rules.
But the other class to whom we refer
consists of those who desire radical
change in the government, with more
freedom for the masses, less aristocracy
in fine, government republican in form
and spirit. Under such a government
they might select their ablest and best
men to govern them, and not as now be
obliged to witness miserable rake, faith
less husband, and disolute debauchee, of
no capacity whatever for his high position,
exalted as the sovereign ruler of the ma
ton. This class hopes that the prospect
of having such a King may awaken the
British people to the glazing monstrosity
of government that compels a people to
swear fealty to crime, insanity or idiocy, |
rs the case may be. So there is excite |
mcnt in England because the Queen is sick.
The succession is secured but it promises |
only danger and shame. The despatch
which we have mentioned appeared in the
New York Herald. The following para
graphs copied from it show what is said
about the matter.
The subject of the propriety of an abdica-
ton by the Queen is spoken Of in the clubs,
and very many of the most extreme loyalists
now regret that Her Majesty did not hearken
to the advice which was given to her by the
late Lord Palmerston years since when ne
counseled her to delegate part Of her mon
archical duty-sueh as the signing of acts of
Parliamentary royal warrant to member
Of the Privy Council, and thus begin Of her
own free will to aecustom the public mind to
her gradual and graceful disappearance from
the throne years before her death.
The Queen rejected Palmerston's advice,
and has since held on to a rigid assertion of
every essential of the prerogative, with that
spirit of obstinaey which has been ever char
acteristic of the reigning members of her
family.
Disraei is likely to master the public crisis,
notwithstanding. His bold diagnosis of the
state of the health of the Queen is accepted
very generally as being correct. The royal
lady has remained fevered and irritable during
very many months. She has been lately
afflicted with infammatoiy sore throat and
most painful glandular tumors, and has only
just shaken off severe attack of general i'll
ness. People speak of the tendency to insan-
ity which is hereditary in her family, and
there remains, on the whole, not the slightest
doubt that Disraeli has expressed sentiment
which is already ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS abdica-
ton, cheaper government, or a complete
change in the form of the ruling power of
Great Britain.
NEW YORK CON VENTION.