Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Queen Victorias personal dislike for
all the Liberal statesmen OF Great
Queen Victoria amusing and at
and the Liberals. atoms atom p at London
so years ago. The Star of April %,
1880, thus mentions the matter:
Queen Victoria is highly displeased
because Of the Liberal victory in Great
Britain and she manifestS her dis
pleasure by snubbing the Liberal leaders.
She summoned Lord Harrington to
Windsor Castle and then refused to
show him the attention that common
politeneSs required. Instead OF sending
a carriage to the railway station for
him, as is usual, she left him to find
his way to her on foot, and at the
castle he was treated more like an In
truder than one of the first men of the
kingdom summoned by the express
order of the Queen upon important state
business. The admirable tact and good
Judgment which had hitherto marked
the Queens course in regard to the
affairs of the kingdom seem to have de-
serted her in her old age. The repre-
Sentatives of the party which has just
swept the kingdom in a popular cleo
ton cannot be put down even by a
Queens frowns and her display OF Ill
humor will not add to her popularity
She permits her personal feelings
toward Mr.. Gladstone to outweigh the
popular demand that he shall become
the head of the new government. All
arguments have failed to move her
from the determination that Gladstone
shall not have the premiership, but in
spite of her opposition the public wish
in this regard will probably be asserted
in the end"
Visitors to the Library of Congress
who pay their respects to the shrine
A Plea to Preserve the Declaration Of
the Declaration. mo pGouetit,t an
of the United States will be interested
to know that so years ago there was
great anxiety as to the preservation OF
the former of these two immortal pa
pers. The Star of April "a, 1880, con-
tains the following letter from reader:
1.-THE presentation to Congress yeSter-
day of the desk upon which Thomas
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of In
dependence leads me to call attention
to what is of infinitely more impor-
lance, the revered instrument itself,
which is bodily fading away, and with
out something is soon done its very ex-
istence will become a tradition and our
great-great-grandchil will muddle
their intellects over discussing its
mythical place in history as much as
the confreres of Mrs. Camp designed
the veritable personality of the vexa-
tious and oft-referred-to Mrs. Harris
There is perhaps a remedy to be
found for this frightful thought In a
law drawn by the writer OF these lines,
approved by the President, August 8,
1876, in the following words:
"Resolved, ETC.. etc, That commits
sion consisting of the Secretary OF the
Interior and the secretary of the Smith
solian Institution and the Librarian of
Congress be empowered to have resort
to such means as will most effectually
restore the writing of the original man
uscript of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, with the signatures appended
thereto, now in the United States Pat
ent Office, and the expense attending
the same be betrayed out of the con-
tingent fund of the Interior Depart
ment.'
"Soon after the passage of this act the
late Prof. Henry had an informal con-
versation with the Secretary of the In
terror as to the means to be employed
to carry out the design of the law and
exactly there the whole matter has
been dropped and no effort whatever
has been made to preserve from the
ravageS of time the living evidence of
this sacred birthright of every Ameri-
can and the towering beacon of the
oppressed of all nations.
There is authority for stating that
the British Museum is continually re-
storing old MS. and certainly our sci
entific knowledge should not be less
than theirs. Be this as it may, an
earnest effort to comply with the law i
surely imperative and the attention
spectfully called to their duty in the
preniSpS -