The Portland daily press., 1896-11-05
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA.
WhatIt Has Been And What it Has
Seen.
(London Times. }

has discharged her public functions in a
spirit of the most conscientious devotion.
How great is the debt the nation owes
to her this generation perhaps will never
learn, but enough is known or guessed to
give her an enduring claim upon the
loyal and grateful affection of her sub
jeots. Glen prime ministers-some OF
them statesmen of the highest order. all
of them men of capacity and character
have enjoyed her confidence. Mel
| bourne, Peel, Russell, Derby. Aberdeen,
Palmerston and Disraeli have long since
passed away. Mr.. Gladstone is surviv-
ing link with an earlier world. Lord
| Salisbury and Lord RosebeTy represent
more recent tendencies and com binations.
| In working with these ministers, one and
all, the queen has displayed an undeviat-
ing 10y atty to she spirit as we'll as to the
letter of the constitution.
In other respects, too, tie queens long
reign stands out in marked contrast to
those of her predecessors who have most
nearly equalled the duration of her
sovereignty. 1t has never been paralleled
for m aterial progress, for intellectual ac-
tiviJy, and for moral development. The
reigns of Henry III and of Henry vi
were wasted by civil strife and popular
misery, though it is true that in the
former the foundations of our parlia-
mentary constitution were laid, WILHELM
the latter the suicide of the feudal no.
bility, recklessly involved in an inJer-
necine conflict, cleared the ground for
| the Religious and intellectual awakening
of the sixteenth century and the political
advances of the seventeenth. The SIP len
did illusions Of the reign of Edward III,
the imperishable names of Greasy and
Poitiers, did but mask the deadly drain
of she Black Death, and the economic
evils which broke out in the rebellion OF
a maddsned peasantry under Edward IS
of George III one that the historian can
contemplate without mingled feelings OF
pride and shame. Its days of gloom and
it's days of glory were closely interviewer.
II the loss of the American colonies was
the greatest and the most humiliating
blow that the British empire had suff4
cred since imperial ami ition began to
be infused into commercial enterprise,
the struggle In which England confront-
ed and conquered the passions of revo-
llutionarv France and the warlike genius
of Napoleon was worthy to be ranked
with the victory of Roman frmness over
Carthage and Hannibal. These periods
of agitation were the seed-time of great
thoughtsfand many virtues, though the
shadows in the picture are often dark
px,td nj, ho on Of
Victoria we have to register steady
PROCESS of advance in every department.
of human energy. cheokered by no signal
oalamities, inspired by ever widening
ideals, and adding increasingly to the
sum of national happiness. If we look
back for more than ffty-nine years to
the date of the queens accession, we
cannot fail to be struck with the vast
changes thai have been accomplished,
all of them without sthe wrench or the
risks of a revolution. When her majesty g
reign began, railways and even steam
ahips were in their infancy; the electric
telegraph was unknown; four-ffths of
the discoveries and inventions which
science has since applied to the purposes
of peace and war were still i'll the WON b
of the future. The lot of the masses was
cruelty hard; their discomfort was the
gravest problem of the hour when Car
lyle published his "Past and Present. -
Trade was crippled by protective du ties,
and the food of the poor was made artif-
cially dear. The state declined all re-
sponsibility for the moral and intellectual
culture of the people. The nobility, the
gentry, and, in fact, all the upper ranks
ofssociety were scarcely stirred by those
questionings of conscience which are
now the motive power of so many varied
reforms, enforced by law or still more by
a quickened sense of public duty. The
colonies we're only half developed; some,
which are now among the more rapidly
progressive Of civilized communities,
were scaTcely explored; none had OBJ
tanned the rights of self-government.
What is now our Indian Empire was
then formally under the rule OF a trading
company, and was governed In its name.
Nor were our relations with foreign
countries less different from those famil-
iarsto us in recent times. The Tsal
NicholasyI. was'the impersonation OF
| European conservatism. Austria was
a torpid 1espotism in the hands of Met
ternich. Hungary was a subjecJ state.
The German nation was paralyzed by
the rivalries Of the two great powers
that oversh allowed it, and by the jealous
intrigues of its multitudinous princes.
Italy was a geographical Repression.
France was governed by the "Citizen
King - resting on the support Of a mar
slavery was the sheet-anchor of The
dominant party in the United States.
All this has bef8 transformed, as if by
magic, since TIE queen came to the
throne In 1887. Abroad the change has
hsensaccomplished by foreign conquest,
by civil war, by social and political revo-
buttons, by new groupings of govern
ments, and by the definition Of national
objects and aspirations unknown and
inoomprehensib generation ago. AT
home the transmutati0n, though not less
remarkable ard complete, has been
effected by a quiet, gradual, orderly,
and organic growth. The rule OF the
middle GLASSES, which may be said tc
have lasted through the earlier half OF
the queens reign, and which consistent
~ worked out the policy of Individuals
liberalism, freeing the national. energy
from letters in every direction, and .thui
increasing the volume of the nationa
prosperity, has given way to successive
advances Of the tide of democracy. This
new force has made itself felt in the aug
mented activity of the state. How fal
| the two streams of tendency can be per
manently reconciled is one of the graves
political problems Of the future. But
1 20 tN1w =.