The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-05-23
Thurs d a. next, May
%, is election day for
county officers through
out Virginia.

OUT virginia.
On tomorrow the 24th of May, that
most gracious sovereign, the Queen OF
England, will attain her eightieth year.
More than three founths Of that long
period has been passed upon the throne.
Her sway has been over an empire more
spacious and more powerful than any
in the annals of authentic history, not
excepting imperial Rome II the era Of
her utmost grandeur. The records of
all these eighty years, public and pri-
vate, domestic and political, attest a
true and trustful character; an honest,
open disposition instinct with that
nobility which is the gift Of nature.
ard not of rank or heraldry. and crowned
with the warm and womanly sym.
pathies that distinguish her sex We
Americans may on this anniversary fit
tingly recall that these womauly SYM
pathies were stjkilgiy displayed on
the occasion Of two Of our national
- oatastrophies. Where Garfield was
stricken down by the hand of an assassin
Queen Victoria instantly on hearing of
the tragedy cabled message of sorrow
and sympathy and when he died the
bell in the tower of st. Paul's, in Lon
don, which is only tolled on the death
of an English sovereign, at the COM
mand of Queen Victoria, lent its wall
of sorrow to 1.-THE uncrowned monarch
beyond the sea. 4" And when Grant
was heroically passing through the
ordeal Of lingering death at Mount Nc
Oregon more than one message of con-
dolence came from the sympathetic
heart of the noble Queen of the mother
country.
In the field of politics and diplomacy
also, she has shown her friendship for
our country. When President Oleve-
land, fresh from duck shooting at
Whitewater, on the Potomac, startled
the civilized world with his Venezue-
Ian pronunciamento, it is said, that
Victoria interposed her kindly offices Of
nmity in that anxious hour of strained
relation between England and Ameri-
ca, and exerted salutary influence in
accomplishing peaceful solution Of
the exciting and ominous incident.
There is no castle there is no cottage.
in all her realm, that holds more adj
mirable model of good. true, pure
woman, in all the relations of life. Her
attractive traits are largely due to the
wise and watchful care of her mother,
the Duchess of Kent, during the years
of infancy and maidenhood. She never
slept a night out of the adjoining room
of her mothers until she assembled the
throne. From that room she was awak-
ened, in the night, to hear that the
king was dead and with shawl hast
lily thrown over her white wrapper and
slippers on her feet, she was led into
the presence Of the Prime Minister,
who thus urgently summoned her to
assume her new and momentous state.
She carried into her exalted station
the discreet and virtuous life for which
she had received this timely training.
The two preceding courts of her I'M
cles, George the Fourth and William
the Fourth, had both been proiigate
and corrupt. Nothing that in the re-
hottest degree savored of improperly,
much less indecency, has ever been
tolerated at the court of st. James,
since the coronation Of Victoria.
How very suggestive to the rejecting
mind is this reign Of Victoria from
many points Of contemplation. She has
sat longest on the English throne dur
ing the thousand years that carry us
back TO Alfred the Great. from whom
she traces her ancestry. The longest
reign next to hers was that Of her grand
father. George the Third. who occupied
tina throne for SO years 8 months and 4
days. There have been very few long
occupations of the English throne
Henry the Third reigned little over
30 years, and Elizabeth, the only other