Year: 1871




toria-A startling Announcement from


Benjamin DisraeIi.


A special cable despatch to the HERALD
from London conveys a singular and startling
piece of intelligence. The Right Hon. Benjamin
Dsraeli gave grand dinner at his seat
Hughenden Manor-yesterday, and delivered
a speech, in the course of which he referred
to the alarming condition of Queen Victoria's
health, and made the startling assertion that
the Queen is physically and morally incapable
of longer performing her public duties.
This announcement, coming from an ex-Prlme
Minister and acknowledged favorite at Court
and one of the shrewdest politicians in Eng
land, has naturally created an intense excite
ment throughout the country, amounting IN
reality to a national panic. Some OF the
London journals, following the ostrich-like
instinct which prompts them to bury their
heads in the earth in the belief that they are
thus secure from observation, suppress the
information, but others publish it, and It's
transmission through the cable shows that it
must be well known among the people.



unexpected in Mr.. Dsraels statement. The
common talk in England for three or four
years past has been to the same effect. The
secluded life chosen by the Queen; her per-
sistence in the grief which has clouded her
later days; her almost entire withdrawal
from the duties Of her position as well as from
its ordinary enjoyments, could not fail
to call forth comment and to excite
speculation. Rumor has not unfre-
quently whispered that the royal ladys
mind had become affected, and slauder has
constantly invented causes for ~. calamity
But now that the certainty ;;s hhcoGsht nome ne. to
the nrnblic, We might almost say officially, shat
change of rulers is imminent, the whole ma
ton stands aghast The terrified journals
may suppress the news; but the people, who
remember Mr.. Disraeli's relations to the
Court, the great favors he has been
unavailingly offered and those which
he has actually received, believe that
he has cause and meaning
for the announcement he b ! has made and re-
gard it only as the polite precursor Of the
more momentous intelligence of the abdica-
ton of their Queen. There must be something
more than the natural sympathy Of the
nation in the personal sufferings of beloved
Sovereign to account for this widespread
alarm at the impending crisis, and it may be
found in the general apprehension that the
accession Of the Prince of Wales to tho
throne will be the signal of dis
turbances and convulsions which all
men dread, and the result of which it is i'm
possible to foretell Upon the first announce
ment of the Queens serious indisposition, a
few weeks ago, the radicals Immediately COM
menced an organized agitation and put forth
their platform Of principles, looking to the
actual overthrow of the existing government.
At the meetings of Internationals, Communists
and other radical revolutionists in London
it has long been the custom to declare that
Queen Victoria must be the last of the British
monarchs, and the efforts of all the radical
organs have been persistently directed toward
exciting prejudice in the minds of the labor
ing masses against the heir-apparent to the
British throne. Circumstances have favored
their endeavors. The sovereign who expects
to rule over people in the present century
should possess at least an appearance
of that 'dvnity" which ''doth hedge
king" and divorce courts and police bars are
not conducive to that attribute. There is no
poverty, vice and crime underlying English
society, and of the dangerous use to which it
may be put by reckless political agitators, is
the immediate cause of the terror conjured up
before the minds CT Englishmen when the
idea of Queen Victoria's death or incapacity is
forced upon them.


We have said that the announcement com
ing from Mr.. Disraeli, is very significant.
Many, doubtless, will question the truth of the
report, and many will attribute the words Of
the ex-Premier to disappointed ambition or
political enmity toward the present Ministry.
Mr.. Disraeli is too old politi
clan, too cool and able states
man to imagine that he could make
capital against Mr.. Gladstone and his
friends by such statement if he had not
good authority for making it. We should
rather incline to the belief that it is quasi
official utterance, and that Mr.. Disraeli is
specially favored in high quarters in being
chosen as the instrument for breaking the
startling intelligence to the people of Eng
land.


The TRIAL of Paymaster Hodge was had
before court martial at Fort McHenry
yesterday, General Meade presiding. The
prisoner pleaded guilty and the trial there
upon ended. Under the military rule the plea
of guilty, we believe, debars any presentation
of evidence but it is to be regretted that in
this instance some testimony was not taken
which might show up all the influences and