The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-06-15
Her Majesty, the Queen.

'JNStC1 thS NlSSD.
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Victoria was Il girl only eighteen
years old when she became Queen :;
but she had been most carefully and
religiously reared, for since her early
childhood she had been the heir pre-
sumptive to the throne. Her reign,
already the longest in English his
tory, has been cast III an age of in
vention, of discovery, of charging
liberty, of colonization, not to be
matched in all preceding centuries.
She was happy in her welded life of
twenty-one years, Prince Albert. the
Royal Consort, demeaning himself
in his delicate and difficult relations
and duties as a man of well-poised
Judgment, of singular tact, of sturdy
patriotism,
"Whosc glory was, rcdrcssing human
wrong;
Who spakc no SANDER, no, nor listened
to it;
How modest, kindly, all-accomplishcd,
wise,
Wearing the white flower of Il blamclcss
life
Before a thousand pccring li~ttlcncsscs,
In that fierce light which beats upon a
throne,
And blaCkens every blot
Her devotion to her home, and the
s~tringency of the rules which she
has kept IN force in her Court con
corning the domestic virtues, as well
us the condign social penalties which
she has inflicted upon any within
the reach of royal displeasure who
have forgotten their marriage vows,
have put the throne of England in
these respects on a plane of fidelity
and honor which it did not occupy
in other days. 1t will not be easy
to measure the influence which the
Queen has thus exerted for the
growth of those virtues and eraces
which form the buttresses of pure,
peaceful and happy homes.
Queen Victoria, in part at first
through the judicious help of Prince
Albert, in part because of the wise
counsellors whom she has called to
her aud, and in part through the
careful preliminary political train
ing which she enjoyed in her plastic
childhood years, has always recog-
nl%ed-to a greater extent perhaps
than any other British sovereign
the constitutional rights and priv
leges of the English people. She
has never apparently even for a mo
ment forgotten that the people are
the actual rulers in Great Britain.
and that she has held the crown on
ly in trust for their benefit. This
quality is in part due, of course. to
the age in which she has lived,-an
age III which her subjects have gain
ed many recognitions of the rights of
the common people not known in
the last century, but it Is to her
credit that she has studied her age,
and has responded to it's demands.
instead of holding fast with despotjc
hand to the royal prerogativts as
many OF her predecessors on the
English throne used to do.
~ ileeus not 10 be SAID that the
Queen is admired and honored by
other nations almost as much as she
Is by her own people. Good wishes
were spoken on her birthday in many
tongues and in many lands. Some,
while they bid her God-speed, will
recall the good wishes spoken by
Iennyson in March, 1851, soon after
his appointment as Poet Laureate,
wishes which could not have been
better phrased had he known that
time would fully justify them:
May you rule us long,
And leave us rulers Of your blood
As noble till the latest dayl
May children of our children saw,
She wrought her people lasting good;
Her court was pure, her life serene:
GOD gave her peace, her land rcpascd:
a thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother Wife, and Queen.
central Christian 1dg0cof..