The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-06-21

On June 21, Victoria, queen of Great
Britain and Ireland and Empress of In
Gia, will have reigned sixty years. Only
two British sovereigns, as the Sun
points out, have had reigl1s approach
ing hers in length-Ueorge Ill, her
grandfather, whose reign, commonly
computed at sixty years, lacked nine
months of that period and Henry Ill,
who reigned fifty-six years. In the his
tory of Europe there is recorded only
one longer reign, that of Louis XIV,
who nominally reigned seventy-two
years. She has outlived all the peers
that held their titles when she ascend
ed the throne in 1887, except the Earl
of Darnley, who was then 10 years old,
and Earl Nelson, who was IA. Mr.. Glad
stone is one of the half dozen surviv-
ing members of parliament who sat in
that year She has seen five Dukes of
Norfolk succeed each other, and six
Archbishops of York, and has outlived
every Duke and Duchess and every
Marquis and Marchioness who bore the
title in 1887. She has seen France sue
cessively governed by one King, one
Emperor, and six Presidents, and she
has seen seventeen Presidents in office
in the United States.
The story of her life up to the time
of her marriage contains episodes per-
haps not generally known which are
more interesting in some respects than
more familiar subsequent events.
When she was born, in Kensington Pa =
lace on May "a, 1919, there seemed no
great probability that Victoria would
ever become Queen of England. Her
father, the Duke of Kent, was the
fourth son of George III. The second
son, the Duke of York, was still alive,
and the third son, the Duke of Clarence,
who succeeded George ", had a
daughter and was considered liable to
have other children, as his wife was
still young. This daughter died in in
fancy, and the death of the Duke of
York in 1927 without children made
Victoria the presumptive successor of
William ". Her nearness to the
throne was first made known to her
when she was about Il years old by
showing her the royal genealogical tab
| le She was warned at the same time
that her uncle William ", might yet
| have an heir. In the proclamation of
| her accession to the throne six years
later this contingency was provided for
| by a clause in which the rights of q
! posthumous child to William ". were
! protected.
BAPTIZED.
! The Queen was baptized Alexandria
| Victoria. She was so designated in the
| accession proclamation and contempor-
! aneCus state papers, but her signing
| herself simply Victoria caused the 9TH
! er name to be dropped almost imme-
| diately. The name of Alexandria, af-
| ter one of her sponsors, the Emperor
| Alexander of Russia, was given her by
| her uncle, George w, then Prince Re-
gent. She was named Victoria after
| her mother.
| She was the first member of the En-
| glish royal family to be Vaccinated.
No end of stories are told of her child
| hood which illustrate goodness Of heart
| if not brillancy. When told that her
succession to the throne would be
! barred If her Aunt Adelaide, William
Tvs wife, had children, she said: "If
SO l would not be disappointed, for
| l know by the love Aunt Adelaide bears
me how fond she is of children" AL
/ though proved by her after life not to
| be brilliant, the Queen is represented
as quite an infant phenomenon when
six years old She is said to have spok-
en- French as well as German and En-
glish. the tongues of her mother and
father, to have some knowledge of It.
allan, and 10 have been able to read
Virgil and Horace with ease She had
also begun Greek and knew something
of music and mathematics, as we'll as
! of dra wing.
BECOME QUEEN.
On the Duke Of Clarence becoming
King in 1880 the contingency of Vic
| tOria's accession to the throne before
she was eighteen. the epoch of her ma
iority, was provided for by the estab-
lishment of a regency, with her mother
as regent, assisted by a council drawn
from the royal family and the Minis
ters Of state. The sum of 10000 a
year was then voted for the Princess's
maintenance, i'm addition to an annual
grant of $4,000 made when she was
| four years old.
Victoria was less than a month more
than Is years of age when the death
of her uncle made her Queen. William
". died shortly after a. IN. on June
20. 1887, at Windsor, The archbishop OF
Canterbury (Dr. Howley) and the LORD
Chamberlain marquis Conyngham) sci
out about twenty minutes later for
| m inf form NiptOf.io Of the