New-York tribune., 1901-01-23
THE OTEEN.

The Oueen is dead. And with her death the
most illustrious reign in the history or the
worlds greatest empire is ended. We need not
particularize, calling her the Queen Of England.
In the last sixty-four years there have been
other queens in the world. but only one has
been pre-eminently The Queen. needing neither
her own name nor that of her kingdom for her
unfaiing Identification. For nearly twice the
lifetime of the average man Victoria has been
Queen. not only in name, but in fact and deed.
and every inch Queen. Her life and reign
have made a mark upon the pages of the
worlds history whose benefcent splendor can
never be Obscured dimmed; and her death
leaves a greater void and effects a greater
change in personal sovereignty than that OF
any other monarch within the memory or Nv
ing men. Happily for her kingdom and en-
pire and happily for the world, her works
will not and can not altogether follow her
In her life she moulded history and the
makers of history in a manner and 10 degree
that must remain impershable, and in her
death she leaves n legacy Of pure and righteous
influence whose riches will not be exhausted
when the century which is now young shall
have perished of old age. The Queen Is dead
The Victorian Age is ended But far on. in
summers that we shall not see,' something of
the Victorian Oueenship will yictoriously abide
as a still vital force wherever the British flag is
raised and indeed wherever the English tongue
is heard
We have called the reign of Victoria the most
iIlustrious in British history. 1t has been that,
as we'll as merely the longest. Others may have
been more sensational No other saw so great
progress made in the expansion of the Empire,
in the development Of political institutions ana
in the industrial, social. intellectual and spir-
itual advancement of the people. Under her
sway the British Empire has grown to comprise
one-ffth of the population and One-ffth of the
land area Of the globe including not only the
United Kingdom and the Indian Empire, but
also such great self-governing nations as the
Dominion of Canada and the Commonwealth OF
Australia. Her people have proceeded from the
status of a scarcely constitutional monarchy to
that of almost pure repubcanism, without a
revolution any violent upheaval, but with
something like the smoothness and continuity OF
the procession OF the equinOXes. The British
nation has been warlike and aggressive, of
old yet has led the world in the industrial and
commercial arts of peace, and, above all, has
attained IN intellectual and spiritual life the
highest standing which nineteen centuries OF
the Christian Era have made possible TO man.
There are few as fine chapters in the history OF
civilization as that which records the dOings OF
the elder branch of the Anglo-Saxon race in the
last two-thirds of a century There is not
comparable with it comprised within the limits
Of q single reign. And there is record of no
other sovereign who could truly say, with
respect 10 anything like comDarably great
achievements ''all Cf these things l saw, and
part Of them l was" If Victoria did not say
that of herself, it is but truth and justice that
the world should say it of her.
For this sovereign was n potent and master
full force albeit ii was so often said of her that
she reigned but did not rule. Ia fact she did
rule often most arbitrarily She did not meddle
with party politics. She did not aim at per
sonal government. The beginning of her reign
marked the complete establishment of consttu-
tionalism in the United Kingdom Neverthe-
less her viii felt in almost every depart
ment Of national existence. In more than one
great issue of State she was the personal factor
that turned the scale for peace and righteous
ness There was no statesman in her service
who paid more diligent attention to even the
details of government work than she, and there
was not who did not recognize in her a
quality and force of craftsmanship that must
be taken into account There were few phi
lanthropists and publicists who took so keen, so
intelligent and so effective interest in the
social welfare OF the people. There never was a
Puritan reformer who more inexOrably swept
out of court all the scandal and license and
odious, or who set and rigidIy enforced higher
standard of personal purity and integrity of life
The sovereign not lost in the woman, as
was unworthily the case in the reign of Anne
Neither the woman lost in the sovereign as
was too often the case amid the splendors OF the
EliZabethan era. And In these circumstances
we may perhaps find Victoria's highest title to
illustrious fame. II we may paraphrase the
words of Antony, her life was gentle and the
elements so mixed in her that the world must
proclaim her TO have been at once a great Queen
and a noble woman.
The end is come. After a reign extending
beyond most lifetimes, and after a life pro-
longed as few can ever hope theirs TO be- and
after enjoying these not like the sovereign
whose reign had before hers been the longest
''blind, mad, despised," but with clear vision.
mind unimpaired and affection unrivalled I'm the
hearts of the people. Victoria Regina has at last
become Victoria Victa conquered only nv the
inexorable conqueror Of all. To-day the meteor
flag is draped in mourning. To-day .'the morn
ling drum beat, following the SUM- and keeninq
company with the hours, circles the earth with
one continuous and unbroken strain nor ~
the martial airs of England which speak Of ,ov
denance and victory, but of that Dead March
which also is too sadly martial air and which
| to-day walls in the peoples ears with a nsthos
| and solemnity unknown before to British baor+s
NOT is III only TO British ears and hearts II
speaks. The royal standard on Windsor,s rov.I
tower has dropped at halfmast becau.e graa+
men of the United States have lain dead Tho
/ younger half of the Anglo-Saxon race TODAY &C.
kin with the elder in its incompatible bereave-
! ment The loss of the United Kingdom is In