The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-07-10
THE GIRL QUEEN.

The following account in The Forum
of eighteen.year-od Victoria's corona.
ton day, by Sir Edwin Arnold, gives
charming picture of the beginning of the
young Queens reign:
"One of my earliest and most distinct
recollections," Sir Edwin Arnold says,
lis of the proclamation of Her Gracious
Majesty as Queen Victoria l was a
child about four or five years old, and
was being led by my nurse through the
streets of a provincial town where we
lived, when suddenly a troop of yeoman-
ry cavalry in what aeemed to my young
eyes most gorgeous and dazzling military
array, came loudly and grandly riding
along the causeway.
"At the corner of the road they halted,
the trumpeters blew martial fanfare,
the officers drew their swords, which
shone gallant and bright in the sun of
that glad day of June; and next some
imposing parsonage in the cavalcade-
an elderly officer-recited from a paper
certain sonorous words. of which 1 then
understood but few, although l know
now that what the silver-headed colonel
said was approximately this: Whereas
it has pleased Almighty God to call to
his mercy our late Sovereign Lord. King
William the Fourth. of blessed and glor-
ious memory, by whose decease the i'm
perial crown of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland is solely and
rightfully come to the high and mighty
Princess Alexandria Victoria, it is,
therefore. here published and proclaimed
that the high and mighty Princess Alex
andrina Victoria is now. by the death of
the late Sovereign of happy memory. be-
come our only lawful and rightful liege
Lady Victoria by the Grace of God,
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. Defender of the
Faith. To whom let all, therefore, &C.
knowledge faith and constant obedience,
with all hearty and humble affection,
beseeching God, by whom kings and
queens do reign, to bless the Royal Prin-
cess Victoria with lovely and happy
years to reign over US. God save the
Queen!'
"Such were the historical sentences,
only portion of which found their way
to my childish mind that June morning
in the year 1887, nightly emphasized to
the small boys wandering thoughts by
the echo of big guns fred from the ships
and the forts on the river. or the IA
nous doings in London on that great
occasion. little or no echo reached our
quiet town at that time. 1 did not know
and probably could not have under.
stood-how the young Queen came out
into the balcony from the window of the
Presence Chamber at st. James Palace,
between Lords Melbourne and Lans-
downe, and was hailed with thunderous
cheers by vast crowds of her people; and
how she was observed to shed tender
and wistful tears at the moment of that
great spectacle. When she retired to
her mothers apartment. being pro-
claimed Sovereign. she held that con-
versation and made that request of
which the world afterward heard with
so much sympathy.
Il can scarcely believe, mamma, that
l am really Queen of England; can it
indeed be so?'
"'You are really Queen, my child re-
piled the Duchess of Kent. Listen how
your subjects still cheer your name in
the streets, and cry to God to bless
you.
sin time said Her Majesty, Il shall,
perhaps, become accustomed to this too
great and splendid state. But, since l
am Sovereign, let me. as your Queen,
have today my first wish-let me be
quite alone, dear mother, for a long
time;' and that day Victoria passed the
first hours of her reign on her knees,
praying to heaven for herself and her
people, with supplicatiops innocent and
noble, which surely have been heard.
at was not wonderful, indeed; that
reign 80 commenced has been followed
by happy and famous years.