The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-01-29
SKETCH OF HER LIFE.

SKETCH OF HER LIFE.
Victoria I, Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland and Empress of India,
the only child of Edward, Duke of
Kent, and Princess Victoria Mary
Louisa, daughter of the Duke of
Sake oburg, Saalfeld, widow Of
Leingen, and sister of King Leopold
of Belgium, was born at Kensington
Palace, May "a, 1919, being, there
fore, nearly 80 years of age.
Her father died January %, 1920,
and she became heiress presumptive
to the crown on the accession of
William ", in 1880, and the latter
dying without issue on June 30, 1887,
she assembled the throne of Great
Britain and Ireland, that of Hanover
falling by the Salic law to her uncle,
the Duke of Cumberland.
Victoria was crowned IN West
minister Abbey, London, on June
%, 1888, and on February 10, 1910,
married her cousin, Prince Albert of
sake Coburg-Gotha By this union
Victoria had nine children, the first
"a girl and the second the new King.
V~ictoria's mother died March 16,
1861, and her husband on December
IA, of the same year, a blow which
SO affected the Queen that she made
but few appearances in public for
years.
In 1875 Victoria assumed the title
of Empress of India. The jubilee of
her reign was celebrated in 1887. In
1897, commencing June 20, was cele-
brated for one week the diamond
jubilee. A remarkable feature of
the era of V~ictoria's reign has been
the rapid growth and extension of
the British colonies.
In Queen Victoria, according to
Macaulay, cher subjects found a
wiser, gentler, happier Elizabeth"
No former monarch, it is said, has
so thoroughly comprehended the
u L uU14 u14bD U1IO VI O44O
crown are held in trust for the PEG
pie, and are the means and not the
end of government. This enlight-
ened policy has entitled the Queen
to the glorious distinction Of having
been the most constitutional monarch
England ever saw. Not less impOr-
tant and beneficial has been the *
ample set by Her Majesty and her
late cOnsOrt in the practice Of every
domestic virtue. Their stainless
lives, their unobtrusive piety and
their endeavOr to educate the royal
children so as to be q pattern to
every other family in the kingdom
have borne rich fruit in the stability
of the throne, and have obtained for
the royal family Of England the re-
spect and admiration Of the civilized
world.
For many years Queen Victoria
had lived according to u few simple
rules laid down for her by the late
Sir William Jenner, M. D., her physi-
clan. A simple and careful diet,
regularity and plenty of open-air ex-
ercise-these have Teen her main
stays.
For a year, however, the Queen
has been steadily failing. Her all
ment was deeper than the most IA
nous physician could reach. 1t
started in her kindly sympathetic
heart. The Boer war was at the
bottom of it all. From the first the
aged sovereign besOught her advisers
to reconsider their determination to
make war upon the Beers. She poin
ted out that all Africa wasn't worth
the lives that it would cost to win
just ID little piece Of it. But she was
~overruled.
Then came the British ~reverseS.
No home in all merry England was
sadder than the royal home at Wind
sOr. She knew many of the officers
who had fallen and she knew the
widows and the orphans who ere