The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-25
VICTORIA REGINA.

Victoria became Queen Victoria. She
was eighteen and it was in 1887. She
has been on the British throne sixty
sense. a shor time. A review Of the
changes wrought, the progress made,
the inventions and discoveries that
have come, the vast growth in the pop
ulation Of the world, in the progress Of
trade, in the multiplication Of conve-
rare productiveness in letters and the
advent Of SO many truly great and ia
NOUS men,-a review of all this and
many other factors and blessings would
present an engrossing, a most marvel
Ious picture, full of ~enchantment, sur
prises n promises.
Victoria has been more of a fashion,
able figure-head than a power. She
has preserved her name for purity and
womanIy virtues and attractions. She
has not winked at or favored scandals
at her court, although such things have
existed and will ever exist so long as
mankind remains unchanged and true
godliness liz not the heritage Of all.
She has had but very little if anything
to do with the splendor and greatness
of her country during the sixty years.
She does not rule save only through
the cabinet and the house Of
Her empire has widened and strength
ened because great men for the most
part have been prime ministers and
have had strong cabinets. She is a
constitutional ruler with really less pO-
gitical power han the president of the
United States has. No speaker of the
British house of m would dare
10 play the roll Of Tsar Tom Reed in
the present United States house of rep
resentatives. The queen would lose her
head if she were to attempt to play the
part Cleveland played. She has at
tended to her many social duties as
the acknowledged head OF British So
ciety, and has in no way attempted to
thwart the action of the parliament or
the will Of the people. Her able men
have accomplished great results and
she has been wise and prudent enough
not to interfere directly or 1T0lrectly-
She will go into history as a woman Of
not much special force-a rather mega
tive queen-by no means of the Eliza
bethan type, either intellectually, NOR
ally or ~politically-a safe, prudent
pueen-a faithful! wife. who about
adored her husband, Prince ALBERT the
Good" as Tennyson called him, a true,
pure omar a good mother, a true
friend of England, wishing her people
well if they did not presume too much
and encroach upon the prerogatives and
vested rights of throne, dominion, po-
tentate, nobility. She has been all
through a tory of tories, has been very
hostile to the illustrious Gladstone be-
cause of his many reforms in behalf
of the middle and lower classes. and
has watched with a cold, jealous, re-
~proachful eye the great successes that
have attended GladstOne's noble SER
vices in securing the ameliOration Of
the condition of her people. But born
in the purple, Of German toryism, it
was to be expected Ia the queen
would not be a reformer in fact and
only by acquiesence. She is an in
grained and dyed tory through and
through. Not great, not a potent fac
tor of reform, Victoria has been much
of a hOme-bOdy, loving domesticity, her
husband, her children, her church.
.of which she is the head. There have
been far greater women on the throne
before, but not n hardly so Wltely
and motherly. There have been scores
Of highly intellectual women during her
reign-Maria Edgeworth, Joanna Bal
lie, Harriet Martinou. Mrs. Somer-
VILE, Mary Ann Evans, C'George Ell
iot") Mrs. E. B.. Browning, Christina
Rossetti, Charlotte and Emily Bronte,
Mrs. Ward, Mrs. Trollope, Mrs. Gas
KEEL, Mrs. Lynton, Mrs. Oliphant, and a
hundred others who could be named
much her superior in natural endoW-
ments and accomplishments, who lave
more of lustre to her sixty years
the British throne. The world at
large without setting such store by
as the British people set, Will
wish the venerable queen still greater
length of days, and when she lays
down the barren sceptre" and the
Of royalty, when kingly
Death-no respecter of persons-comes
20 her bedside to summon her into an
Kingdom where o relgns, |
King of kings, and Lord of lords, that
she will be fully prepared for the
change-prepared by grace TO
meet her God.
Ayers Pills promote the natural mo-
ZION of the bowels without Which there ]