The Portland daily press., 1897-06-10
VICTORIA'S EARLY YEARS.
The Throne Not Deemed Near When
She Was Born.

Been Able to Read Virgil and Horace
With Ease When Years Old-she
Knew Some Italian.
On June 81, Victoria, Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland and Empress of In
dia, will have reigned sixty years. Only
| two British sovereigns have had reigns
approaching hers in length-George I'LL,
her grandfather, whose reign, commonly
computed at sixty years, lacked nine
months of that period, and Henry Ill,
who reigned fifty-six years. In the his
tory of Europe there is recorded only one
longer reign, that of Louis XIV, who
nominally reigned seyenty-two years.
She has outlived all the peers that held
their titles when she assembled the throne
III 1887, except the Earl of Darnley, who
was then 10 years old, and Earl Nelson,
who was then IA. Mr.. Gladstone is one
OF the half dozen surviving members of
Parliament who sat in that year. She
has seen five Dukes of Norfolk succeed
each other, and SIX Archbishops of York,
and has outlived every Duke and Duchess
and every Marquis and Marchioness who
bore the title in 1887. She has seen
france successfully governed by one
King, one Emperor and six Presidents,
and she has seen seventeen Presidents in
office in the United States.
The story of her life up to the time of
her marriage contains episodes perhaps
not generally known which are more in
teresting in some respects than more IA
mll1ar subsequent events. When she was
born, in Kensington Palace on May "a,
1919, there seemed no great probability
that Victoria would ever become Queen
of England. Her father, the Duke of
Kent, was the fourth son of George III.
The second son, the Duke of York, was
still alive, and the third son, the Duke of
Clarence, who succeeded George w.,
had daughter and was considered liable
to have other children, as his wife was
still young. This daughter died in in
fancy and the death of the Duke of York
in 1897 without children made Victoria
the presumptive successor of William ".
Her nearness to the throne was first
made known to her when she was about
II years old by showing her the royal gen.
ealogical table. She was warned at the
same time that her uncle, William w.,
might yet have an heir. In the procla-
nation of her accession to the throne six
years later this contingency was provided
for by clause in which the rights of a
posthumous child to William ". were
protected.
The Queen was baptized Alexandria
Victoria. She was so designated in the
accession proclamation and contempt
raneous papers, but her signing herself
simply Victoria caused the other name
to be dropped almost Immediately The
name Alexandrina, after one of her spon-
sors, the Emperor Alexander of Russia,
was given her by her uncle, George ",
then Prince Regent. She was named Vic
toria after her mother.
She was the first member of the English
royal family to be vaccin ated. No end
of stories are told of her childhood which
illustrate goodness of heart, If not bril-
liancy. When told that her succession to
the throne would be barred if her Aunt
Adelaide, William w. wife, had chill
dren, she said:
eff so l would not be disappointed, for
1 know by the love Aunt Adelaide bears
me how fond she is of children
Although proved by her after life not
to be brilliant, the Queen is represented
as quite an infant phenomenon when six
years old. She is said to have spoken
French as well as German and English
the tongues of her mother and father, to
have had some knowledge of Italian, and
to have been able to read Virgil and Hor-
ace with ease. She had also begun Greek
and knew something of music and math-
ematics, as well as of drawing.
On the Duke of Clarence becoming
King in 1880 the contingency of Vic
toria's accession to the throne before she
was eighteen, the epoch Of her majority
was provided for by the establishment of
a regency, with her mother as regent, as
sisted by a council drawn from the royal
family and the Ministers of State The
sum OF 41O, 600 year was then voted for
the Princess's maintenance, in addition
to an annual grant of &c, 600 made when
she was four years old. The Duchess of
Kent, who had entire control of her
daughter after the death of the Duke in
1920, made herself obnoxious to William
", apparently, by secluding Victoria
from royal functions, and Greville tells of
which took place at the celebration of the
Kings birthday at Windsor Castle on
Aug. p, 1885. The Duchess of Kent sat
at the Kings side at the dinner in honor
of the occasion. When his health was
drunk he is said to have made this speech
in reply
II trust in God that my life may be
spared for nine months longer, after
which period, in the event of my death
no regency would take place. 1 should
then have the satisfaction of leaving the
royal authority to the personal exercise of
that young lady pointing to the Prin-
cess the heiress presumptive of the
crown, and not in the hands of q person
now near me, who is surrounded by evil
advisers, and who is herself incompetent
to act with propriety in the station in
which she would be placed.
II have no hesitation in saying that I
have been insulted-grossly and continu-
ally insulted-by that person; but 1 am
determined to endure no longer course
of behavior so disrespectful to me.
Among other things L have particularly
to complain of the manner in which that
young lady has been kept away from my
court; she has been repeatedly kept away