The Portland daily press., 1883-07-14
The Facts About the Queen.
Why Englisnmenismile When Americans
Gush About Her.


Why craftsmanship When Americans
Gush About Her.
[Moncure d. Conway in Cincinnati Commercial
Gazette.l
1t is about time that Americans should be
given hint that they are in danger of max
ing themselves little ridiculous 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 Novimagians, club of anti
guardians. good many gentlemen and la
dies being there, when Ex-Governor Halli-
day, OF Virginia, made speech, in which
he fairly decorated THAT Noble Woman"
with rhetorical Kohinoors aud left her framed
IN constellation of admiration points. The
English people smiled and winked at each
other; there were whispers about distance
lending enchantment, and about the curious
notions prevailing in the American PROV
inces. And now comes Grace Greenwood.
who has settled herself in London for time
In order to write Life of Queen Victo-
ria" for the young found her also taking
the most picturesque views of Victoria and
her career, and gathered from her remarks
lesson as to how mythology is made. Some
paragraphs in American papers, about the
time of the queens birthday, show how po-
tent is the perspective of three thousand
miles in making a romantic figure out of as
prosaic 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 tor his queen but, person
ally, queen less loved, or even cared for.
never reigned in England than Victoria. If
one hears any enthusiasm expressed for the
queen in this country, unless it be in the
neigbborhood of BPlmoral, he knows the
speaker to be an American. Ii is ascribed
to American good nature, combined with
provincialism. No doubt Americans wish
to say the neat thing, hpt tif;eey are less pro-
yipeial than the English as a rule, and il is
a wonder they should be deceived by the
formal compliments which usage requires
the chairman to utter when proposing 'sthe
health of her majesty"
A TRULY LOYAL SUBJECT.
have never heard or read but one toast
speech which expressed genuine personal
admiration, and that came the other day
from the region of Balmoral, to be copied by
English papers as a joke. 1t is vouched to
be verbatim report of a speech at an agri-
cultural show dinner, and is worth quoting.
The chairman began
Nov, gentleman, will We a. fill lr
glasses, for I'm aooot to bring forward 'the
queen (Applause) Our queen, gentle
men, is really a wonderful woman, if may
say 1t; she's one o. the guild auld sort, nae
whigmaleeries or falderals ABBOTT her, but a
douce daecent body. She's respectable be-
yond a. doubt. She has brought up grand
family O weel faured lads and lassies; her
auldest son being credit TO any mother.
and they're a. weel married. One daughter
is nae less than married to the Duke o.
AIgylPs son and heir. Cheers.l Gentle
men, yell may be no. believe it, but / once
saw the queen. (Sensation.) | did. 1t
was when took my auld brown COW tae
Perth Show. / remember her well; such
color, such hair interruption and cries OF,
is it the COW or the queen We are propos-
ing?) The queen, gentlemen; beg your
pardon, but l was talking about the COW.
However, as to the queen, somebody point
ed her out tae me at Perth Station, and
there she was, smart and tidy-like, and says
to myself, Gin my auld woman at hame
slips away We need ma remain a widow
another hour longer (Cheers). Now, gem
tlemen, the whisky's guild, the night is long,
the weather is wet and the roads are soft
and will harm naebody that comes to grief.
So off wi yer drinks tae the bottom. 'The
queen (Cheers.)
HER MAJEsTY's UNPoPULARITY.
The queen is certainly not liked by the
English people. | have formed pretty
large acquaintance in the course of twenty
years' residence here, and / do not know
one English man or woman who personally
likes or admires the queen. She is various
ly objected 10 as morose, morbid, stingy,
grasping, ugly, sui en-, i'll. humoTed, and tor
pid II not stupid. | do not say that these
opinions Of her are correct, but they are
generally held, though, of course, not pub
licly expressed. There are a number of
English radicals of the Bright school who
set high value on the queen really be-
cause she has brought large degree of un-
popularity on the throne. They would like
her to live long time, because every year
the people learn more and more how unim-
portant the throne is to them, and are grad
ually forgetting the traditions of court
splendor and gayety. Their appreciation of
the Victorian reign is as little compliment
tary to the queen personally as the dislike of
the average people. The queen has offend
ed the most influential women of England
by her hostility to all movements for enlarg-
ing the sphere of occupation and influence
Of her sex. The thinking and literary peo-
pie are ashamed that her only ELUSIVE pat
ronage 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 heap
ing up idle millions of money and giving
none Of it to the Prince of Wales, while he
performs most Of the ceremonial duties for
her. Again / say, [ am not making charges
against the queen, but reporting them, and
if any one think it ungracious TO report
them, respect their sentiment and demur
to their judgment. II is important that
Americans should not be misled by the loyal
silence of English writer's and speakers con-
corning facts SO pregnant with importance
as these. So long as our countrymen at
home or abroad indulge in eloquent plati-
tudes about the personality of the queen
because, for instance, she telegraphs con-
doence on the death of president, as if
there were some martyrdom in it--.hey will
never realize the profoundly historic signifi-
canoe OF her unpopularity among her sub
jects. The fact is that England, having out
grown all the reality of monarhy, has more
fully come TO value it as the social and dec
orative department Of the nation. The
monarchy has finally become ceremony, an
ornament, national drawing room, CEN
ter of festivities; and just as the country has
been politically evolved to distinguish that
as the sole raison Getre of monarchy, be-
hold, that is just what Queen Victoria is
not. If my reader will recur to the grounds
of the queens unpopularity given above, le
will fiud them to be mainly the denial to her
of such qualities as would make gay, Law
ish and decorative monarch. OF course
deacon might say she is all the better for
the absence of such qualities, but the3 aver
age Englshman's reply would be that he
can pension plain, retired old lady in
apartments at Windsor for very little money,
and, since he pays largely in money and 10y
atty for a splendid historic court. he would
like to have it, The monarch being con-
stitutional automaton, so far as concerns
politics, If she is not socially and ceremo-
nially adequate, IL amounts to abdication
THE PRINCE OF WALES.
The queens growing unpopularity mea-
sures the growth of the prince OF Wales's