The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-24

e"i~~S
spects dwarfs compa rison. 1t has been TO
the United Kingdom what the nineteenth
century has been TO the world. In fact.
except for the length of the Queens rule
and Its exceptional freedom from personal
shortcomings, it has not been so conspic-
uous as some earlier reigns, allowing for
the luster it inevitably borrows from the
progress of a century that is often said to
nave outstripped all previous centuries put
together. As whole the house of Han
over has shown about as little native tall
ent as any house that has ruled the ma
ton since the Norman conquest. Perhaps
the Stuarts and the warning houses of
York and Lancaster ought to be excepted.
but the reigning Hanoverians have had no
such opportunity to plague their subjects.
with all the splendor of an empire that
girdles the globe, the Queen of Great Brit
ain and Empress of India has less real
power than any of her predecessors. Louis
XIV could say to his ministers, his armies,
his people, Il the state" The mobiles
and the common people were alike his serv-
ants He built up and perpetuated to the
end of his reign a government that existed
solely for his pleasure and profit. None
CT the English kings succeeded in estab-
lshlng such a despotism, but it took eight
hundred years OF almost continuous strug-
gle 10 prune down their prerogatives to
present limits. The House of Commons not
only governs the country, but the sovereign
quite as completely any of her subjects.
She is permitted the fiction Of appointing
ministers, whom the House has already Sc
lected. All her estates and dignities her
very crown, are held subject to the unques-
toned right of Parliament to bestow or
withhold them. as it pleases. 1t is not
ored for the example she has set as a wife
and mother, as lady, who for sixty years
from extreme youth to advanced age has
filled the highest social position without re-
proach or scandal. than the ruler of
nation she never governed. Since the
death of Prince Albert his widow has lived
in a seclusion that would have been i'm
polite, if not impossible to a real ruler
The extracts from her journal, published
Il few years ago, showed how completely
her interests and tastes were those of
private gentiewoman, more concerned with
her children and grandchildren, her serv-
ants and other feminine vocations than
with any of the political and general prob
lens of her great realm.
An American reader of recent English
history is struck with the very small space
her Majesty occupies in the most loyal ac-
SOulllS Oh HeT long reign. her domestic
virtues are duly lauded. the excellent ex-
amples she has set socially and morally,
but of her attitude toward public ques-
tons, her relations with the statesmen,
scientists, authors, philanthropists of her
time. the men and women who have made
the British empire, we hear nothing. 1t is
we'll that the Englishmen of the nineteenth
century rule their rulers just
pletely as We rule ours. though not SO di-
rectly. 1t Is well that the dazzling achieve
ments of a great nation should dwarf into
insignificance 1.-The divinity that does hedge
a king yet one may well frankly ad-
nit the loss to history. One remembers
with downright admiration Queen Eliza
beth's lifelong subordination of many of
her strongest instincts and affections to
the supposed requirements of state. Rea-
sons of public policy proved stronger than
the persuasions of many lovers. Her min
listers and the affairs of her kingdom al
ways had the strongest hold upon her in
tellect. The Elizabethan age with Eliza
beth left out would be incomplete indeed.
So with all those Tudors, Plantagenets,
Stuarts and the rest of the kings who by
their wisdom or folly. their virtues their
vices. made themselves large place in
English history. 1t is perfectly true that
the nineteenth century has done much for
kings as well as their subjects. Victoria
has not only reigned longer than any of
her fifty predecessors, but she has expert
enced less Of the perils and vicissitudes of
power, if she has tasted less of its sweets
The one-man power is not good even for
the one man, unless hedged about as it
is now, by an all-controlling public opin-
ion. When our English cousins celebrate
the sixtieth anniversary Of their Queens
accession, as they will next June, if she
lives till then, the profoundest source of
Generalization will be that government by
public opinion has not only prolonged her
rule beyond all precedents of a thousand
years. but has at last almost completely
realized that ancient fiction of the British
Constitution, THE King can do no wrong"
J. O. DONNELL.