The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-03
STUDY OF THE QUEEN.
OUT OF AN INTIM1TE KNOWL-
 EDGE.

. OUT OF AN INTIMATE KNOWL
 The Quarterly Rovteyy's RemarlsabI
 Article, Whose Authorship is Con
 cenIei.
 The Quarterly Review, under tht
 editorship of Mir. Protheroe, has re
 gained it's old-time prestige as the
 highest literary authorship in the Uni.
 ted Kingdom. The first article in the
 current number issued day will
 probably be more widely read and
 commented upon than anything which
 has ever appeared between its covers
 It is the first character study of Queen Victoria which has ever been made
 from personal Knowledge of her daily
 life during protracted period of fifty
 years, and it has throughout strong
 note of personality. As I have ex- plained in cable letter, the author
 ship of the article is q literary secret | jealously guarded but 1t Is written
 with tone of authority which inn l presses the reader with the value of
 the Independent and even critical | judgments, expressed with outspolSen
 candor No other writer has ventured
 to paint the queen from life. Current 1 biographies, when not official, have i been made up of second hand anec-
 dotes of doubtful authenticity, and in-
 dependence of judgment was impossi-
 ble in the records of her career sub mitted for her revision and approval In this article the queens character is subjected for the first time to critical processes by writer who knew her
 as she was, how she talked and con-
 duc.ed herself in daily life at court, and what were her convictions and
 motives in the exercise of the supreme
 functions of sovereignty.
 The author Of this article begins
 with the generalization that while the
 queens character has been very wide
 ly dfvined it cannot with truth be said
 to have been very precisely known
 Tie fierce light beating upon the
 throne threw tip into brilliant promi-
 nepce certain features of her charac- ter, but none the less produced a dag element, glare of glory, in the flood or which it was not easy to analiza With exactitude the component traits. Alter the death of sovereign so idol lzed and so almost superstitiously ad- nlired. the blaze of reverence has con- tinued. It takes some time for the bewiderment radiance to die down and to leave the queen in the conn mon light How much of the wor- ship" the writer asks, was paid to a woman, and how much to fetish? It appears to us that the time has come to begin to abandon the note of purely indiscriminate praise and to put even this ravered parsonage into the crucible of criticsm-to endeavor, in other words, ttaonote, without any blind or sycophantic laudation, what were the clements and what was the evolution of her character The wri- ter proceeds to maintain that theories of heredity are not encouraged by any study of the queens temperament: that little of her father or of her mother could be discerned in the con- stitution of her mind; that she offered few or none of the characteristics of her Hanoverian forbears; that as a sovereign she was made rather than | born; that there was no irresistible | arena toward personal greatness; that l she was a rather ordinary mortal, with fine instincts, considerable men | tai capacity, ad a certain vital persis- tence which was to serve her well; | and that qualities not in themselves were trained by circum- stances so as to provide a basis upon which excellence not innate could be built up.
 The quean's character is described by this writer as a composite one, pre- senting amosaic of little pieces very harmonized into an artifi- ,ial surface. Her originality lay in ner very lack or originality--in the ab- sence of salient eccentricity. Ele- nents usually antagonistic were so [ nicely balanced that they held one an- other in check and facilitated that di- 'ectness of purpose and instinct for going straight which were indispensa- ,le in her sovereign career. Her dis shrewdness was at once ln invaluable gift and dangerous It had more than anything lse to do with her prolonged success IS a politician. It might have proved
 peril to her if her ingrained inabili- y to drop an idea had been developed nto- obstinacy The habit of suspend ng her judgment prevented her from yer resting too absolutely on one or er of ideas. Her will usually kept er on a high plane of action where ne was directed by singleness of pur- l pse; but in moments of moral relax l tion she was exposed to the danger T f vie16inp tO Draiudice If one of her l minister's was not thoughtful in spar V lg her unnecessary work, she would T aspect him of trying to overwork her | Ter prejudice against MT. Gladstone a sally started in her consciousness that | he was as she put it. dead beat" q I his eagerness MT. Gladstone tried n press her to do what she knew with t CT greater experience, to be not her u ork so much as his, and she resented D le effort He did it again, and she ls ,rmed one of her pertinacious preju- D ices. The surface of her mind had " ,ceived an impression unfavorable to W ,e approach of this particular minis e F. and nothing could ever in future tt ake her really pleased to welcome O nI. II The writer proceeds in this critical Il amer to analyze the queens traits. il herent obstinacy, net checked by the Il oh instinct of public duty, often made St