The Democratic advocate., 1883-08-04
THE QUEEN UNPOPULAR.
How the Sovereign of Great Britain il
Regarded by Her Own Subjects.
W. ID. Conmay's London Letter.

W. ID. Conway's London Letter.
1t is about time that the Americans
should be given hint that they are in
danger of making themselves little ride
ulous in the way they sometimes indulge
their sentimental side in speaking OF Queen
Victoria Not long ago [ was present at
the annual dinner given by the Novima-
gians, club of antiquarians, good many
gentlemen and ladies being present, when
Ex-Governor Holiday of Virginia made a
speech, in which he fairly decorated 'that
noble woman with rhetorical Kohinoors
and left her framed in constellation of
admiration points. The English people
smiled and winked at each other; there
were whispers about distance lending en-
chantment and about the curious notions
prevailing in the American provinces.
And now comes Grace Greenwood, who
has settled herself in London for time in
order to write life of Queen Victoria for
the young. [ found her also taking the
most picturesque views of Victoria and her
career, and gathered from her remarks a
lesson as to how mythology is made.
Some paragraphs in American papers,
about the time of the Queens birthday,
show how potent is the perspective of 5000
miles in making romantic figure out of
as prosaic a figure as ever sat on throne.
The English people are loyal to the throne;
every man of them would shed his last
drop of blood for his Queen; but, person
ally, Queen less loved, or even cared for,
never reigned in England than Victoria.
The Queen is certainly not liked by the
English people. l have formed pretty
large acquaintance in the course of twenty
wears residence here, and [ do not know
one English man or woman who personally
likes or admires the Queen. She is va
riously objected to as morose, morbid, stin-
gy, grasping, ugly, sulIen, ill-humored and
torpid, if not stupid. [ do not say that
these opinions of her are correct, but they
are generally held, though, of course, not
publicly expressed. There are a number
of English radicals of the Bright school
who set high value on the Queen really
because she has brought a large degree of
unpopularity on the throne. They would
like her to live a long time, because every
year the people learn more and more how
unimportant the throne is to them, and
are gradually forgetting the traditions of
court splendor and gayety. Their appre-
citation of the Victorian reign is as little
complimentary to the Queen personally as
the dislike of the average people. The
Queen has offended the most influential
women of England by her hostility to all
movements for enlarging the sphere of oc-
cupation and influence of her sex.
The thinking and literary people are
ashamed that her only effusive patronage
should be accorded to military men whose
glories have been won by attacks on small
tribes The great conservative middle
classes upper and lower) sneer at her
heaping up idle millions of money and Civ
: ing none of it to the Prince of Wales, while
he performs most Of her public ceremonial
duties for her. Again | say l am not
making charges against the Queen, but re-
porting them; if any one think it ungra-
cious to report them | respect their senti-
ment and demur to their judgment. 1t is
important that Americans should not be
misled by the loyal silence Of English
writer's and speakers concerning facts SO
pregnant with importance as these. So
long as our countrymen, at home and
abroad, indulge in eloquent platitudes about
the personality of the Queen-because, for
instance, she telegraphs coincidence on the
death of President, as if there were some
martyrdom in it-they will never realize
the profoundly historic significance Of her
unpopularity among her subjects. The
fact is, that England, having outgrown all
the reality of monarchy, has more fully
come to value it as the social and decora-
tive department of the nation.
The monarchy has finally become GER
emony, an ornament, a National drawing
room, a centre of festivities; and just as the
country has been politically evolved to dis
tinguish that as the sole raison d'etre OF
monarchy, behold, that is just what Queen
Victoria is not. If my reader will recul
to the grounds of the Queens unpopularity
given above he will find them to be mainly
the denial to her of such qualities as will
make a gay, lavish and decorative monarch
OF course a deacon might say she is all the
better for the absence of such worldly quail
tiles, but the average Englishman's reply
would be that he can pension a plain, re.
tired old lady in apartments at Windsor
for very little money, and, since he pays
largely in money and loyalty for splendid
historic court, he would like to have it.
The monarch being a constitutional auto.
maton, so far as concerns politics, if she
is not socially and ceremonially adequate ii
amounts to abdication.
The Queens growing unpopularity
measures the growth of the Prince of
Wales popularity. This has been steadily
increasing, until it is fast mounting up to
enthusiasm. The Prince has endless good
humor and marvellous tact, an instance OF
the latter being his prompt consent to &C
off to Eastboune and open small asylum
there, because it was named after his de-
ceased sister Alice He is clever, too
Not long ago the Savage Club invited him
to attend a banquet at their rooms; the
whole thing was slightly snobbish, and
there was a good deal of satisfaction when
the Prince, after dinner, suggested that SC
large and fine club Git consists chiefly OF
actors and musicians) should found schol,
arship in the new Royal College of Music
The afiuence of the club was chiefly on the
table, but they could not excuse themselves
to the Prince, and are now learning that
dancers who indulge in a royal piper must
expect to pay royalty.
The Prince always makes faultless
speeches now Che has lived long time
since he spoke of Queen Elizabeth as his
ancestor and never puts on any airs. He
has outliyed good deal of gossip, arising
from his liking for pretty girls (in which
was always more of the merry German than
the dangerous English ''firtatiousness' J
and his love for the Princess is shown not
onl y in his constant attentions to her, but
in the bloom and beamino hanniness of