Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1901-01-30

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became engaged to Prince Albert. u
young man rs ideal in thought and
character as the Queen whom ne we'd
ded, and whose transformations and
lofty influence was exerted alike for
good over Victoria and her subjects.
The romance of the royal lovers is a
theme the attraction of which never
wanes, and the match which had
been so srdently desired by those
nearest concerned became one of the
deepest and truest love.
The opening of the year 1910
brought great happiness TO the Queen;
it is true she had had to suffer many
annoysnces from those rho would not
grant her natural womanly wish to
let her husband rank next to her, and
who had struggled against allowing
him grant suitable for his position.
but otherwise the course of true love
had run very smooth, and on Febru.
ry 10, 1910, this union of love was
ratified.
A few months later the Queen was
the victim of one of those attempts
on her life, which have occurred
from time TO time. the mlscreaut be.
ing Edward Oxford, a potboy of Il,
who fired Mt the Queen AS she drove
with the Prince up Constitution Hill
in an open carriage. Oxford was
seized, and belnA subsequently, judg-
ed guilty and insane, WAS duly pun
ished.
The royal pair were still more
closely knit by the birth of their
first born, November 2lst.
\ second sou, the Prince Alfred.
was born in the next year to increase
the happy family, but death had
meantime chastened the loving cir.
Gle, for on January 29th Prince AL
bert, to bis great grief, learned the
death of his father.
On January %. Peel explained, in
an eloquent speech, why be gave up
protection and proposed to bring in
free trade, and on June 25th the
bill passed the House of Lords, and
the corn laws were repealed, in which
movement Richard Golden and John
Bright were the chief agents, their
energetic and untiring zeal in this
very necessary reform being the
principal means of passing the bill
This was Peeps last great work in
the House.
The reign brought to q close by
the death of Queen Victoria, though
the shadow of q war now hangs ever
the empire, has been one, both in
length and in peace and prosperity,
uneXampled in the annals of Eng
land. Under the successive admin
istratiOns of Lord Melbourne, Sir
Robert Peel, Lord John Russell,
Earl Derby, Earl Aberdeen, Lord
Palmerstown, Benjamin Disraeli,
W. Z. Gladstone, Marquis of Sails
bury and the Earl of ROseberry, the
British Empire has increased in
peace and prosperity at home and in
dignity and influence abroad. The
ties Of affection that bind the colo
MES to the mother country have been
strengthened, and the measure of
freedom and self government allowed
them has been increased. The Boer
war has furnished q notable proof
Of the loyalty and devotion that the
colonies, though separated by oceans
and continents, bear to the mother
country, of which they speak as
"home."
Among the important events Of
Queen VictoriA's reign have been the
repeal of the corn laws; the Irish
famine and emigration to the Unit
ed States; the Chsrtist AgitAt,on; the
Crimean war; the Indian mutiny; the
assumption of the direct government
of India; the "cotton famine" and
the delicate relations with the Amer.
loan beligerents during the civil
war; the Mexican Intervention and
its rupture; the reform bill of 1866
the confederation of British North
America; the disestablishment of the
Irish Church; the abolition of re.
ligious tests at the Universities and
Of the system of purchase in the Ar.
my; the Alabama claims treaty; tn.
1 49, r