The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-06-09

One strange thing about all of this Is
that Victoria is not really an English
woman. She is one of the several gen.
erations of Germans who have ruled
over England, and she is about the
first of her family of whom it could be
said that the English was her native
tongue. In addition to this she mar
ried a German prince, Prince Albert
of Sax Coburg Gotha. But none of
these things effect her sovereignty, and
Englishmen have long ago got over
any chagriu they may have felt over
the fact that their rulers are not of
pure English blood This woman,
however, great as she is, is more oi a
figurehead than person Of positive
power, having really less authority
and less initiative in the conduct of the
government than the President of re-
publican America. She is subject to
the British constitution, which, unlike
that of the United States, is an unwrit-
ten one, and is made up of a great mass
of traditions and precedents, that has
grown up in the course of ages, but
which controls everything. She has,
like the President of the United States,
a veto power, but while every Presi-
dent exercises this power more or less,
il has become almost absolute in Great
Britain and has not been exercised for
several reigns.
AS the handspring of the govern
ment, n the fountain Of honor, n the
head of the great social machine, Us the
head of the church, and in other ways,
this old woman has vast power and in
fluences. The sentiment toward her
amounts to sort of idolatry. To kiss
her hand, to be spoken to by her, or
even to be in her presence, is consider
ed by many the crowning of n career,
thing worth the struggles of lifetime.
While all other women are denied the
ordinary rights of citizenship, it is con-
sidered no inconsistency that the
chiefest among the millions of British
people, and the one to whom all citi-
zenship owes allegiance and royalty,
should be woman.
And yet, in all that pertains to her
personality, she is only woman. She
loved and married her handsome cous-
in, she raised a family of nine children,
and she was Us much devoted to them as
any mother in her kingdom. She
mourned her husband when he died
with grief that refused to be comfort
ed, and she even had the ambition to
write q book which was as poorly
written, rs books go, and could have
been produced by any of her women
subjects She has hal little TO do with
the great progress which the empire
has made during her long reign. She
has simply contributed to it by having
sense enough to allow those who were
capable of its management to have
their way, and by yielding from time
to time to the voice of public opinion.
She has devoted herself to making
matches for her daughters the same as
any other mother, and to trying to re-
press the waywardness of her sons,
some of whom Were disposed to SOW an
undue quantity of wild oats, and
through all her life she has set an ex-
ample of piety and wonanly propriety.
She has been good wife, u good
mother and good woman, whatever
We may think about the principle or
hereditary rule, we cannot but think
that in this the year of her jubilee it is
fortunate for the world that for so long
a period such woman should have
been in place where here virtues
were so conspicuous and her example
so far-reaehing. Whatever honors may
be her due as aqueen, they are equaled
by those which should be paid to her as
woman.