The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-12
THE LONGEST ENGLISH REIGN.
QUEEN VICTORIA HAS BEEN NEAR
LY 60 YEARS ON THE THRONE.

UAance into the Past-SOme of the
Things Accomplished During Her
RuIe-How Things Looked in 1897
and Their Status TO-day-Her
First Appearance in Parliament.
Her Marriage In 1s4O-Events of
Her Reign.
From the Philadelphia Ledger
1t was no light achievement for Queen
Victoria to break the records of English
reigning longevity, for Henry III fixed it
at tifty-six years and George III. raised 1t
TO nearly sixty. Victoria came to the
throne on June 90 1887, and has, there
fore, reigned ffty-nine years, three months
and four days. he is now four months old
er than George II. was when he died, and
he was the oldest sovereign England ever
had, with the exception of George III,
who lived to be 50. She is the oldest reign
ing sovereign in Europe, with the excep-
tion of the King of Denmark, who is about
a year older.
1t was when the horse chestnut trees,
for which Kensington Gardens are IA
nous, were in full snowy bloom that there
was born in the old red brick, Dutch-look-
ing abode of Kensington Palace the in
FAINT whom her German relatives loved to
call the May Blossom"
There was some trouble in finding a
name for the baby The father wished to
call her Elizabeth, thinking that from it's
glorious tradition it would prove a name
to please the people should she occupy the
throne. But the prince regent, who was
godfather, together with the Emperor of
Russia, gave only the name of AleXan-
drina to the clergy. The father pleaded
that another name be added, and propos-
ed the feminine form of the regents own
name, Georgina. But the regent said that
his name could not come in the second
place, and, as the emperors must take
| precedence, if the baby had to have an
other name, give her her mothers" So
the princess came to be called Alexandra
ma Victoria, and in infancy was known as
the Princess 'Drina, a name she dropped
after her accession.
When Victoria's blue eyes first opened
to the light of day Napoleon was on the
rock of st. Helena, the reigning King of
England was old, blind and crazy, the
regent an elderly prohigate. Since June
%, 1897, the date Of her accession, the
| queen has seen many changes. 1t has
| been historical epoch.
I'm the year 1884," to quote Walter
| Besant, I'VE were still, to all intents and
| purposes, in the eighteenth century. AS
| yet the country was untouched by that
| American influence which is now filling
| all peoples with new ideas. Rank was
! still held in ancient reverence; religion
! was still that of the eighteenth century
! church; the rights of labor We're not yet
| recognized; there were no trades unions;
| there were no railways to speak of; ev-
erybody Travelled except the rich; their
own country was unknown to the peo-
! pie; the majority of country people could
! not read or write; the good old disci-
pline of Father Stick and his children,
| Cato MINERALS, Ropes End, Strap,
! Birch, Ferrule and Cane, was whole
| somey maintained; landlords, manufac-
turers and employers of all kinds did
| what they pleased with their own; cleo
| lions We're carried by open briberyI the
civil service was full of great mems nom
| inees the church was devoured by plu-
| ralists; the perpetual pensions were many
and fat: for the younger sons and their
! progeny the state was provided with any
| number of sinecures The country was
| crammed full of abuses, and the ship of
state to outsiders seemed as If she were
| about to capsize and founder"
The popula ton of the great towns has
| for the most part doubled itself in the
| last fifty years London had then 10000
Liverpool, 100000; Manchester, $4,000;
Glasgow, 100000; Birmingham, 10000;
Penal settlements were still fourishing.
Between 1925 and 1910, when they were
| suppressed, As, III convicts were sent out
| to Sydney. AS regards travelling, the fast
est rate along the high roads was ten
miles and hour. There were fifty-four
four-horse mail coaches in England, and
forty-nine two-horse mails. In Ireland
there were thirty four-horse coaches, and
| ten in Scotland. There were 3,026 stage
coaches in the country, of which 1907
started from London. The great rail-
ways were all begun, but not one of them
was completed.
! The middle class was a class apart. In
no sense did it belong to society. Men
in professions of any kind, except the
naval and military services, could belong
to society only by right of birth and fam
| lily connections; men in trade-bankers
were accounted tradesmen-could not pos
sibly belong to society. That is to say, IL
they went to live in the country they
were not called upon by the county fam
flies and in town they were not admitted
by the men into their clubs or by ladies
into their houses. Those circles, of which
there are now many, artistic, athletic,
literary all of them considering them
| selves to belong to society, were then out
of society altogether, nor did they overlap
and intersect each other. The middle
class knew it's own place, respected itself,
made its own society for itself and cheer
fully accorded to ranks its reverence due.
The annals of the poor are meager; only
here and there one gets a glimpse into
their lives. But the middle class is much
better known, because IL has had pro-
phets, nearly all the poets, novelists, es-
saysts journalists and artists have
sprung from It, Those who adorned the
thirties and forties-Hood, Hook, Gait,
Dickens, Albert Smith, Thackery-all be-
longed to it; George Eliot, whose country
towns are those Of the forties, was es-
sentially a woman of the middle class,
on the Goth Of November 1887, the young
queen opened her first parliament in per-
SON. In the House of Lords the most
promising figures were those of Lord
Brougham and the Duke of Wellington
Among the members Of the lower house
we're many who have left behind them
memories which are not likely to be soon
forgotten. Sir Robert Peel, Lord Stan
leys. Thomas Macauley, Cobbett, Lord
Russell, Sir John Cam Hobhouse, Lord
Palmerstoh, Sir Francis Burdett, Hume
Roebuck. O'Connell, Lytton Bulwer. Ben
jamin D'Isreali, and last, sole survivor
william Ewart Gladstone were all In the
parliaments Immediately before or imme-
diately after the queens accession.