Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-03-31

Humanitarian Reasons Opposed to tho
Queen Opening Parliament-The Sharp
Shoulder Blades of the Ladies at Court.
The Knees of victoria's Bony scots.
Special Correspondence
LONDON. March u. In these unsettled and
uneasy times, when the relations between
rulers and people are becoming, to say the
least little strained, that monarch is wise
or well advised who relaxes habits and Gus
toms of sublime isolation and regal dignity
and takes the first steps toward diminishing
the awful distance between sovereign and
subjects, distance which nature never sane
toned and humanity is bound to rebel
against and greatly lessen, if not utterly an
initiate sooner or later. The ancient awe
some glory of English royalty fell into de-
cline and departed this life soon after the
''divine right OF kings" died a violent death
before Whitehall The constitutional mon
archy of Great Britain, hampered and re-
stricted more and more by the will of an in
telligent people, is really the most magnificent
sham in the world; and yet conservative
England, more than any other Protestant and
progressive nation, is bent on keeping up and
jealousy guarding certain ancient regal forms,
ceremonies and pageants, while beginning to
admit that they have lost their old time use
and significance-are even becoming lrksome,
cumbrous and absurd anachrOnisns. Some
expect little more of them than that they will
last out the queens time. About that vlr-
tuous and august lady still fingers something
of the romantic interest and tender respect
which embodied her and enhaloed her in the
days when she was young, fair and joyous,
keeping alive chivalric loyalty; at least, in
such of her sub jects can remember that
roseate period of the Victorian era, but there
signs that young England is getting lit
tie FESTIVE under the dull rule of ''the old lady
Of Balmoral," as boys of to-day would be dis
contented in the DANES school" of their
fathers They cry out here and there for
gayer or gamer" times; for live monarchy
and lively court or republic in full blast
Perhaps from an instructive perception,
rather than actual knowledge of this mild,
but increasing disaffection, there are indica-
tions of reenting from Windsor-of a break
ing up of the long winter of the queens
"discontent' in the cold, gray
clouds OF her obstinate secluson. 1t is an
nounced that she is actually resolved to wit
ness, in hall called after her Albert, pub
lie musical entertainment-nothin gay and
worldly-s something about death, believe
the "Mors ct VITA" of Gounod, and also in
tends to see tragedy at the Lyceum theatre,
something German in brigham English YER
sion of Faust"
1t is pleasa mt to think that her majesty has
at last forgiven the Lord"-to use the words
of good old Quaker. Such profound, pro-
longed excessive and obsessive mourning has
seldom been known in lofty or lowly con-
ditions 1t certainly, at the first, had an ele-
ment Of mild madness in it. For long time,
for instance, the queen never went for a drive
without having Prince Abert's stick in the
carra-e by her side. Every day she had his
dinner dress regularly laid out in his dressing
room, and his place kept, and his plate laid
at the table Doubtless the opera frequenters
and first-class theatre audiences will go wild
with joy at sight of her ma lesty in the royal
box, but her gracious act will not profoundly
move the mighty outside world of London.
The populace no longer enthuse over her in the
old way, which made her every drive through
her capital triumphal progress-every visit
to the opera or play an ovation The London
correspondent of The Manchester Guardian
described very wildly the latest roval
pageant-her ma jesty going to Westminster, to
open parliament, through snow, sleet and I'M
imaginable drcariness and appalling ugliness
slouching, unsavory roughs, bedraggled and
dripping drabs, and dirty, ragged aud SILVER
ing children, with here and there group of
well dressed loyal men and women. mostly
from the country, who had waited standing in
the miry streets for many miserable hours for
a sight of the grand procession, frank show,
which English taxpayers at least have right
to behold once every year, but which was there
to be seen for the first time for six long years.
Yet, as a rule, it is not the harClworking
British taxpayers, but the street idler and the
foreign tourist who eagerly lie in wait for
such sumptuous imperial shows.
| remember waiting for IN hour or so.
near the entrance to the grounds of Chswick
house, where the Princess of Wales was to
hold garden party, watching for the coming
of her majesty and the rest of the roval
family. Ii was noticed that the driver and
proprietor of our landau seemed very indf-
ferent, and some one remarking on it, he
growled out: Its enough for me to feel ron
Gtfg in the shape of taxes, without looking
at it,
won't you even look at your queenm
"Nay, | don't care to. Why, mum, it's
awful to think how much that old woman
costs us every year of her life"
shudlcred at the fiat blaSphemv.n
The correspondent | have referred to de-
scribeS the queen as looking very serious and
as bowug, when bow she did, quite gravelv
and uusympathetically to her subjects alone
her way He adds that there was little in
the peoples greeting of their sovereign to call
for the "hecks and mods and wreathed
smiles" But a small proportion of the
crowd cheered at all, and they rot heartily.
giving, in fact, very different reception
from those witnessed in times long past when
the of Nictoria's pleasant face was al
ways the signal tor glad shouts, and at times
for an outbreak of the very madness of low
atty.
The absence of lively enthusiasm on this
occasion was ascribed to the weather We
lay everything unpleasant to the weather this
winter--illness, insanity i'll temper. suicide,
murder, conspiracy and sudden DEATH but
fear that the GOODNESS, apathy and silence of
that London populace chilled, wet. snow
blinded and fog-choked as they were, had n
more logical than meteorological explain
alton 1t is that the mater patrp has, in a
great measure, weaned the hearts of the LON
doncrS from her by her long absenteeism and
apparent indifference to their love. LOYALTY
and commercial interests. 1t is her ma iestv's
habit, in her rare visits to her capital. to hold
drawingroom, to spend half hour with her
venerable aunt, the Duchess of Cambridge, to
drive like the son of Wimshi, her escort. on
the full gallop, her landau passing like a flash
past the open-mouthed and eager-eyed people.
and for this reason she dislikes pageants and
professions like that of the 2lst of January, in
which she has to assume regal state. submit to
measured movement and be longer on parade
She would rather he tIudging about visiting