The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-04-29
TWILL Be A GREAT DAY
The Sixtieth Anniversary Of Queen Vic.
tOriaS Reign at Hand.
A WONDERFUL CHANGE IN ENGLAND
VIII Albert Edward be Crowned
King in JuneT Statesmen who
Have Passed Away During Her
Occupancy of the Throne.

Preparations are being made on a mag
nlticent scale for the celebration of the
siXtieth anniversary of Queen victoria's
reign, which will occur on the Goth OF
next June, II the queen shall live until
that date-less than two months hence
she will have sat upon the English throne
for the greatest period of rule in all its
history of nearly nine centuries since
William the Conqueror. Indeed, she
may be said to have welded an unds-
turbed sceptre for longer time than any
other of all England's thirty.five royal
sovereigns. Her grandfather, George the
Third snuffy old drone from the Ger.
man hive"-was king for a period of
nearly sixty years, dying only few
months short OF the sixtieth ascension
anniversary; but he had shown signs OF
mental alteration only five years after
his accession, revealed insanity indublt-
ably twenty three years later than that,
and after the death of his beloved daugh-
ter--the Princess Amelia-broke down
completely and passed the last nine years
of his life in the double darkness of in
sanity and blindness. George the Third
may be said to have actually reigned
only tifty-one years.
1t ls quite generally believed that the
queen will celebrate the sixtieth ami
versary OF her accession to the throne by
abdicating it, and permitting the Prince
OF Wales to assume the crown for which
he has waited until now he is almost an
old man. Nothing could better demon
strate the change which Great Britain
has undergone politically than the feeling
with which the English people now look
to his elevation to the throne. A few
generations ago the accession of new
sovereign was anticipated with grave
forebodings. To-day it is regarded with
perfect tranquility. The cause for this
lies on the surface. The sovereign Of
Great Britain is no longer sovereign in
fact. The forms and trapping of royalty,
crown, sceptre, throne and robes are
still maintained, but they serve chiefly as
reminders of what royalty once was. OF
the imperial authority welded by the
Plantagenets and the Tudors scarcely Il
vestige remains to the house Of Hanover.
1t is true the queen is still permitted to
speak of the English people as "my sub
jects," and to use the word command"
instead of request" but none knows
the hollowness of these words better than
Victoria. Parliament is annually RECALLED
with the polite fiction called Speech
from the throne" but everyone knows
that it is either written or dictated by the
British premier. The English sovereign
retains the semblance and the English
people the substance of power. Brit
aims real monarch at the present time is
the "uncrowned king" Robert Arthur
Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, who rules
by the divine right of popular will, and
even his tenure depends upon the major
ity in the house of commons. Except
for the house of lords, England today il
to all intents and purposes a republic.
But it should not be inferred on this
account that Victoria is destitute of in-
tiuence or that she has not stamped her
self upon her age. While only queen
nominally, in civil sense she has been
literally queen in broad social sense,
and few monarchs have ever exercised a
more gracious SWAY. The embodiment
of the womanly virtues herself, she has
been enabled by the commanding station
she filled to set an example of true WON.
anhood whose influence has been felt in
every quarter of the globe. Every good
cause, religion, education, philanthropy,
literature, art, science, has found in her
a firm patron and friend. During her
reign the British court has been singu-
larly free from scandal. London society
might occasionally be furnished, but not
the slightest stain ever darkened Vic
tOria's name. Not her least claim to dis
tinction is that in spite Of her royal posi-
ton she did not deem it beneath her
dignity to be pattern of domestic virtue,
model of wifehood and of motherhood.
Ii is interesting to recall that OF all the
brilliant galaxy of English statesmen
and warriors who Witnessed the magnif.
cent pageant Of Victoria's coronation only
one now survives, the great liberal leader
who, amid the shades Of Howarden,
awaits the final summons. Peel, Wei
lington, Melbourne, Palmerston, Macau-
ley, Russell, all forceiul political factors
Of that period, have gone over to the
majority" In the year that Victoria
assembled the throne BeaconsiieId first
entered parliament, and Gladstone,
then young man OF %, was the "rising
hope OF the stern and unbendng tories. D."
The Marquis Of Salisbury was lad Of 8,
Joseph amberlain was in his cradle,
Louis PHILIPPE was in the midst OF his
stormy career as citizen king, and Martin
VanBuren had been installed as president
OF the United States. These reflections
serve to show how vast a span OF politi-
cal trsnsmutation is covered by the
reign of England's venerable and yener-
atrI