The Penn's Grove record., 1884-05-03
a Queens BusylLlfe.

Queen Victoria goes on a journey. To
keep her secure from harm within her
own residence, requires no little alert
ness, but when the queen travels from
London to Balmoral-a distance Of
about 500 miles, which takes nineteen
hours to perform-hundreds of men,
railway employees, policemen and other
officials have to be told off for special
duty; and scores of trains carrying
passengers or freight are delayed in
their progress. The lines of rail on
which the car journeys bristle with
soldiers; and, during the king Of Spain's
last voyage to Estramadura, one heard
of whole regiments being modified to
form cordons along the passage OF the
royal train; even NJ. Greyy, when he
goes from Paris to his seat at Montsous
Vaudrey, is reminded of his greatness
and its dangers by d~etaehments of
mounted gendarmes, and by sentries
with fixed bayonets in every station.
In England there is nothing of all this,
the queen has no military guard OF es.
cort, and yet all the measures for her
protection are admirably complete. A
pilot engine precedes the royal train
by twelve miles, and for half an hour
before its passes all traffic on both
tracks along it route is suspended.
There is no resumption of the traffic at
the different stations until a quarter of
an hour after the queens own train has
gone by them, and, during this time,
danger signals are exhibited at all these
stations. Moreover, every grade cross
ing has it's gate locked and guarded;
the switches have all been safely lock-
cd, and men are posted along the lines
to see that by no chance any human
being or animal strays on to them.
In the royal train itself there are two
"look out' men besides the ordinary
guard. One of them stands Oh the en-
CINE and faces the rear of the train to
watch for signals from any of the win
dows; the other is stationed in the
Sudluo VAIL anu hStpS iio CgO III bLiC
track behind the train. An electric
apparatus connects all the carriages
with the engine and guards van; and
three telegraph operators travel In n
of the compartments with appliances
for repairing the wires on the road if,
in the event of an accident, these wires
should be found damaged. Finally, a
director of the Northwestern company
goes with the train, and is supposed to
have charge OF it-a necessary precau-
ton, for if anything went wrong it
would be desirable that an official
should be on the spot with powers to
issue orders to all railway servants in
the name of the company, No capri
clous, unsocial feeling on the queens
part dictates the arrangement made to
secure full privacy during her travels.
When she is in good health it is ne
cessary that she should travel in such a
way that no inroads be made on the
time which she devotes to business.
There is not a lady in her dominion so
occupied as she; and she can only
transact public and private affairs to
her satisfaction by never allowing yes
terday's business to overlap to-day's.
Every morning while parliament sits,
and twice a week at other times, she
receives a report of the general state of
affairs from the prime minister, who
writes in the third person-''Mr. Glad
stone presents his duty to your majes.
ty," etc., and these reports are always
answered. Dispatch boxes are brought
into the queens train at all the stop
ping stations while she travels and she
dictates letters to Il of her ladies as
the train hurries her aIong-these mis-
sives being afterwards handed for reg
istry and copying to the private secre-
tary.
Copies of all dispatches sent out from
the. foreign, Colonial and India officers
are forwarded to her, and she reads
through the most important of them;
she has also to afix her signature to a
great many papers every day. Form
erly she signed with her own hand,
using a quill pen, but about five years
ago she adopted a stamping machine
with a fac smile of her signature. The
only documents which she signs now
in writing are patents of creation of
peers and knights of the different or
ders. The heaviest part of the queens
correspondence, however, consists in
sending letters to the members of her
widely-scattered family in England and
abroad. Most of the princes of Ger
many are in some way her cousins or
nephews, and no marriage takes Place
between members of the Protestant
houses without her being consulted as
to the p~reliminries. What Is more,
Queen Victoria IS often appealed to as
a peace-maker in princely quarrels,
and the assistance which she gives to
her ministers in this way, as regards
their foreign policy, is perhaps hardly