New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-24
VICTORIA AT EIGHTY YEARS.

tits as a woman, rather than as Queen, that
the world thinks Of Victoria today. Two years
ago her queenly and imperial Jubilee was held.
It's pomp and circumstance were unparalleled,
as was betting an event unprecedented She
then surpassed all other British soverelgns In
length as well as In benefcence and splendor OF
her reign. To-day she surpasses IN her years OF
life the Psalmist's utmost span. 1t is as
woman that she is eighty years Of age. 1t is as
a woman that she makes appeal to human SYM
pathy. That appeal Of her womanhood always
has been strong. For more than generations
span 1t has been strengthened by the pathetic
loneliness Of widowhood, more lonely on
throne than In a cottage There comes to II now
the accession Of intensity which venerable years
afford. At eighteen she was to be loved; at
eighty she is to be revered
1t Is not easy for any one who Is young or
middle-aged to realize the feelings OF any one
who has reached the age of eighty years The
heightened memories, the swiftly shortening
prospect, the isolation Of sympathes and the cir
transcription Of activities are such as must be
nersonally experienced to be understood. SIill
more is such the case when the octogenarlan IS
n great sovereign, at present the greatest SOW
ereign In the world The memories that crowd
unon Victoria's mind to-day are such as no other
mortal can know Others may remember all
the world-shaping incidents Of her unrivalled
reign She alone can say with truth, All OF
these things j saw, and great part OF them
1T was" And yet we shall not greatly err II
we believe that her most grateful memories go
hack to two seemingly minor incidents In the
dingy old brick palace at Kensington: one wnen
as a child first learning Of her destiny, she said
10 her governess, 81 will be good!' and one
when, in the gray of the early dawn OF the nrst
| day of her reign, she bowed her head as with
| the new-felt weight Of her crown, and said TO
the Primate Of All England, II ask Your Grace
| to pray for mer'
| For II Is In her answering fidelity to those
| early ideals and aspirations that the greatest
glory of her career is to be found 1t Is great to
have been sixty-two years Queen and to have
| done no unqueenly act. 1t is greater, 1t is more
difficult, and it is Of higher significance not
only to her subjects but to all her race, to have
been eighty years a woman and to have done nc
act unworthy of her womanhood. Three Of the
most glorious reigns in English history have
been those of three of the FIVE queens. Yet the
world remembers one Of those three queens as
most unwomanly and another as the meres
| third to be at once every inch queen and every
| inch q woman Vast as has been her influence
as Queen and Empress in affairs of State, and
| benefcent as it has been upon the trend of the
whole worlds progress, at least commensurate!
great and beneicent has been her personal in
fuence as a woman, for purity and truth. Th'
Victorian Empire exceeds the Georgian King
dom In no greater ratio than that in which thu
Victorian Court surpasses the Georgian In vr
tue of character and in sweetness Of life.
Upon these abiding circumstances the worlt
congratulates Victoria to-day, and wishes her
from Its heart Of hearts, many return OF th
anniversary for herself, and an everlasting main
tenance of her reign In those essential principle
which have been its chiefest glory. Happy i
the aged sovereign today in that she can recall
without regret her childish promise. Il will b.
| good" she said. II have been good" may wei
be now the assurance Of her greatest comfor