The times., 1897-05-16

| consulate grief amid the gorgeous surround
| ings of ROYALTY produced great effect
| upon the English people and gave to the
| Queen a hold upon the affections of her
| subjects which she could never have won
| through her personality alone.
And even now the Queen dslikes mach
| publicity, and so, when Manchester wanted
her to open its great ship Canal-she WAS
then to be on her way from Italy TO Scot
land-sbe wanted to beg off, 50 far as her
appearance in Manchester was concerned,
and TO participate outside few miRites
in her yacht But Manchester woui'ln' t
have it, and she therefore yielded, and
when she reached Balmoral, wired her
loyal Lancashire folk that she had not been
fatigued by her reception and had had tne
of the pleasantest experiences o. her
life.
II was consideration for others that in
tl,E,ed the Queen, at the age OF sxty-eight,
co undertake the task of learning Hindustani.
or course, she is, Is royal peIsonages gen
orally are, a fair liDguist, but she Is prob
ably the only royal parsonage in Europe
who has undertaken to learn an AsiaIic
language She had really become quite
proficient in her Hindustani She took il
up in order that she might converse in
their own tongue with the Indian royalties
who come fiom time to time TO pay their
respects to her
The Empress Eugenic used to ay: Queen
Victoria is great matchmaker. She has
certainly justified the title They say that
one of her recent efforts To make up an al
nance between lady and gentleman of the
court was not received by the lady chiefly
interested with the enthusiastic approval
which the Queen had been accustomed to-
expect. The contumacious damsel quoteSf
scripture: He who marries doeth wei,
but he who doth not marry doeth still bet
ter" "Well, my child" replied the Qneen.
lyon must be content with doing Well, and
let those who can do better y
The tradition that 1.-THE Queen never
smiles" is old in England-as old as her
reign. The hundreds of photographs of her
majesty sold in all parts OF the world in
variably show the one expression, the
heaviness of the face accentuated by the
pronounced dToop OF the long upper lip
But, nevertheless, the Queen does smile
number OF years ago Charles Knight, q
photographer at Newport, Isle of Wight, Sc
cured a likeness of her which shows her
majesty, not merely smiling, but broadly
laughing
How did it happen that such likeness
was obtained? In this way: The Queen
was visiting Newport The mayor of the
city was presenting in q verbose and full
some speech, magnificent bouquet He
had carefully committed the speech to
memory, but in his anxiety To make IA
vOrahle impression, with his courtIy man
nerS, his pomp and splendor of royal vel
vet and fur-trimmed robe, medals cooked
hat and cable chains Of gold, he lost mis-
place"
After Some stammering aad suffering,
he suddenly shouted. i've forgotten the
rest" and stood gazing at the Queen like
stupid schooiboy on visitors day. Then
her majesty laughed outright, and the
flustered and heartbToken mayor dropped
the bouquet and fled While the Queen
was laughing Knight, the photogra pher,
took the picture.
The folio wing story is told to illustrate
the conscientiouSness and merciful use
which the Queen has always made Of ber
pardoning power On one occasion she
was called upon to sign death warrant
that of a man who had been condemned to
death by court-Inartial The paper was
presented by the Iron Duke, Wellington.
''Is there nothing to say in behalf of this
man" asked the Queen, trying in vain to
restrain her emotion.
''lle is a deserter for the fourth time, an
swered the duke. sternly.
"oh, your grace, tryto recall llsomethingir
bis favor y
Your majesty answered the duke, 'he
is nota brave soldier, butts said TO bea good
man..
''Oh, thank you, thank you answered the
Queen, much relieved, and, dashing a tear
from her eyes, she wrote 'pardoned' acress
the warrant, and gave it again to the sur
prised Wellington.
Writing of the Queenin the Revie w of Re-
views last March, Mr.. w 7. Stead had this
Go say:
1T may at least be said for monarch Y, as
it has been said for the stage-it has given
woman an opportunity and career denied
her elsewhere. No system Of governmentas
yet devised b. man, save monarchy alone,
could have secured for d woman such an
innings as our Queen has had. All existing
republican systems have carefully provided
against the possibility of any woman ever
having any such chance, by denying to all
women any right even to stand as a candi- |
date for supreme office. And from M point |
OF view this alone, other things being equal, |
would turn the balance in favor of the |
crown