The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-06-27
WHAT VICTORIA HAS SEEN.
Fresh Suggestions Of Tho Worlds MausIeus Prog
rsss During RN Life.

Crowned heads hold low place In
the scale of longevity" II the French
author OF this expression had foreseen
Victoria his Assertion would not have
been quite so sweeping. Englsnd's
Queen. born eighty years ago. has long
passed the Psalmist's span OF years.
She has gone much farther beyond the
average official life OF the worlds
crown-wearers. says Leslie's Weekly.
sixty-two years have passed on
June 20 since she ascended the throne.
This exceeds In duracon by over two
years the reign OF her grandfather.
George ILL.,, hitherto unexampled in
British annals. No hotter monarch OF a
great nation I'm the worlds history has
been on the throne as long except Louis
XIV. of France, seventy-two years. and
he was only five years OF age when
he became titular King and during his
minority his mother ruled in his stead
as regent. Victoria. however, was eight
cen at the time her predecessor died,
and she has exerted sway ever since.
Victoria during her lifetime has seen
the entire world transformed. on the
day OF her birth, May "A, 1919, the first
steamboat which ever crossed the At
lantic or any other ocean started from
Savannah for liverpool, making the
voyage in twenty-six days. The same
distance is now made in less than six.
She was six years of age when the first
railway train in the world started To
carry passengers. She was Is years of
age, and had just ascended the throne,
when the Morse system of telegraphy
and that OF Cooke and Wheatstone
were first patented. Thirty-nine years
OF her life had passed when HE lrsl-
cable was laid under the Atlantic. and
Il fa1t
operate. Fifty-six years OF IL expired
before the first telephone went into
practical operation.
Scott and Byron were In their prime
when Victoria first began to read the
printed page. None OF the great writ
ers-Thackeray. Dickens. Bulwer-Lyt-
ton. Tennyson. George Eliot, the
Brownings and the others whose names
have east glory over her country dur
ing the past half or two-thirds OF "A
century-had yet begun 10 work. Dar-
win whose labOrs have reyolutioniZed
science and have profoundly affected
the thought OF morallsts and theolo-
CLANS. was yet unheard Of
AT the time of Nictoria's birth the
tramp of Bonaparte's armies had just
ceased To shake the world. and Bona
parte himself was prisoner on a Brit
ish island In the South Atlantic. She
has seen every throne I'm Europe vaca-
ted many times. She has seen her own
country transformed politically from
an oligarchy. in which only one out OF
50 OF the population was permitted TO
vote, into a democracy in which the
voters number one out of six of the in
habitants. France has changed it's
form of government four times since
her early girlhood days. Italy. then
only geographical expression" 10 use
Metternich's phrase. has since become
one OF the great powers of Europe.
while the empire OF Germany was still
far i'm the future.
The United States was i'm the midst
OF the EZRA OF good feeling when Vic
tor.a was born. Monroe has had nine
teen successors in the Presidency since
that tinae.-This- country had only g.
900, 900 population then. Buffalo and
Pittsburg were frontier towns, and not
a house existed on the site Of the mag
nificant metropolis of the West Chi
cago. The annexation Of Florida.
Texas New Mexico. California and
Alaska. to say nothing OF the more re-
cent accessions Of territory, all came
since Nictora's birth. The worlds map
has been changed in many places, the
worlds ideals have been altered I'm
many respects and the whole face OF
human society has been transformed
in the four score OF years which have
elapsed since Britain sQueen first saw
the light