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currency, even it if were not founded on fact, illustrates the potency and charm of a woman on the Throne.

Upon this side of the subject I prefer to quote the remarks of Mr. Brett in his admirable and suggestive little book, "The Yoke of Empire." Speaking of this phase of the Queen's character, he says:

"Among the various parties and factions, schools of thought and of behaviour, into which modern England is divided, the most cohesive is the Puritan middle class. For two centuries from the rise of Cromwell, this body has slowly gained ground, and absorbed a more unvarying share of political power than can be ascribed to any other in the State; and in the eyes of the Puritan middle classes the Queen has become a model Sovereign. If from the Reform Bill of 1832 to the retirement of Mr. Gladstone in 1894, the Puritan middle classes have governed England, they have certainly no cause to complain of the sympathetic response of the Sovereign to their views and demands. . . . . The character and rule of Queen Victoria have set a high standard, below which it will be impossible for a monarch to fall without personal disaster. What wonder is it then that the Puritans have learned to regard the Queen with an admiration and a gratitude heretofore extended to Oliver Cromwell alone?"

It may, at least, be said for Monarchy as it has been said for the Stage-it has given woman an oportunity and a career, denied her elsewhere. No system of Government as yet devised by man, save Monarchy alone, could have secured for a woman such an innings as our Queen has had. All existing Republican systems have carefully provided against the possibility of any woman ever having any such chance, by denying to all women any right even to stand as candidate for supreme office. And from my point of view, this alone, other things being equal, would turn the balance in favour of the Crown.

But other things are not equal. The balance of advantage in such an Empire as ours in favour of the Monarchy is unmistakable. Every year the proportion of English-speaking folk outside these islands increases. And with every such increase the political or Imperial value of the Royal Family rises. For the tie which unites our world-scattered commonwealths is not primarily political, neither is it kept up by politics. It is a tie in its nature domestic. It is the English-speaking family rather than an Empire. And the nexus is the Royal Family rather than the House of Commons. Every Colony has its own legislative assembly. None of them has a Queen and Royal Family. The Crown, like the Abbey, is one of the heirlooms of the whole race, which cannot be distributed. It must be localised, and the Mother Country keeps both. But if either the Crown or the Abbey disappeared the sense of loss would be felt as keenly in Winnipeg, in New Zealand, in Cape Colony, and in Queensland. To the eyes of the English-speaking men who have made their homes at the Antipodes, English politicians have not the importance that they have at home. Colonists have their own politicians, and, as far away as England is, the differences between our politicians, even when seen through the opera glass of the press telegrams, are apt to seem too infinitesimal to be noticed. They might as well get up sweepstakes about a race of mites across a cheese. But high above all political people there rises ever before the eyes of every English-speaking man, whether Republican or Colonial or native to these islands, the majestic fabric of the Hereditary Monarchy. It rises above the vast democratic steppe as the Round Tower of Windsor shows high

* I venture to quote here an extract from Admiral Maxse, to whom I had written under the mistaken belief that he, like Mr. Chamberlain, at one time had made public profession of Republican sentiments. Admiral Maxse, after correcting this misconception, wrote: "I am by nature Republican in sentiment; my reverence goes much more easily to character than to show. I have no enthusiasm for royalty—so much so, that I have kept out of its presence as much as possible during all my life. I never attend a Drawing Room or go to a Levee. There are such shoals of people eager to do reverence that I feel my absence is unnoticed. Nevertheless, I support the Monarchy because I care immensely for the British Empire, or Dominion or Union of the British-speaking race. As human nature is constituted, the Royal Emblem is necessary to crown the Empire. Republicanism is, in itself, disintegrating. Then I observe that the best elements do not rise to the surface under Republican government."

over the Berkshire plain. Its prominence is an element in its favour that is too often forgotten. Men may come and men may go, Cabinets emerge like foambells in the wave and disappear, but the Queen is always there. And when we have to do with many millions, scattered over many continents, it is impossible to make any impression on the general mind by the fleeting phantoms of evanescent Ministries. To borrow an illustration from photography, their exposure is not long enough. The plate is not sensitive enough for rapid photography. But the immobility, the massive grandeur, and the fierce light that beats around the Throne, all facilitate the production of a clear, well defined image on the mind of our kin beyond the sea. Familiarity is of the essence of home. And our progeny would feel themselves strangers in a strange land if they were to return to the Old Country, which they call their Motherland, only to find, in place of the Queen upon the throne, Mr. Chamberlain or Sir William Harcourt or Mr. Tittlebat Tomkins sitting in the Presidential Chair of the British Republic.*

In many other ways the Monarchy, especially in the reign of the present Sovereign, has contributed to the stability of the realm and to the peace and contentment of the people. Pre-eminent above all other qualities which Her Majesty has displayed, is the supreme divine grace of sympathy. The Queen having suffered much has sympathised the more. Every great national disaster has evoked her warm-hearted succour. If her Prime Minister has been the head, Her Majesty has ever been the heart of the realm. It was somewhat touchingly remarked the other day that from her earliest childhood the Queen had hardly ever been out of mourning. Her life has been passed in the shadow of the tomb, which has opened to receive in slow succession almost all her contemporaries, and not a few of her own children and children's children. But still from the unfailing depths of her womanly sympathy she draws consolation for the bereaved and comfort for the sorrowing. Thus the proudest Empire the world has ever seen has installed as its Sovereign the incarnate Genius of Womanly Compassion.

Nor can it be said that the influence of the Queen has only been indirect, or that she has not again and again interfered to divert State policy from perilous paths, and to secure her Empire's peace. Of this the nation is somewhat dimly conscious, and our people at home and over the sea go about their daily labour in the comfortable assurance that in addition to all the visible and tangible apparatus on which they can count for the purpose of preserving the peace of the realm and the defence of its rights and interests, they can also confidently rely upon the unceasing vigilance and incomparable experience of an Invisible Helper, who, though her action is unseen, hovers like a Guardian Angel over the peace of the nations that call her Queen.

The last occasion on which I saw Her Majesty was on that high and solemn festival when the Queen summoned to the Abbey the representatives of all the nations, principalities, and powers that own her sway, in order to join with her in rendering thanks to Almighty God for the marvellous loving-kindness and manifold mercies He had graciously vouchsafed to this land of ours during the reign of fifty years. The memory of that stately pageant is still with me. The grey old Abbey, with all its associations of genius and of glory, never enclosed within its walls a scene more

* Of this, as these pages are passing through the press, an interview, published in the British Weekly, with the Rev. Dr. Bevan, one of the most eminent Colonial divines, affords apt confirmation. The average Australian, said Dr. Bevan, knows little or nothing about English politics. "I doubt," he added, "whether he could name more than four or five English statesmen. But that is the case in all countries in relation to the politics of other lands. The other day I was in a bookseller's shop in Bâle, and the man was showing me a group of the leading politicians of Germany. He was surprised to find that many were quite unfamiliar to me. Tell me,' I said, how many English politicians do you know? Well,' he said, 'there is Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury, and-and, well, surely there is a Joseph something.' Now, do you know," continued Dr. Bevan, "that that man's position is not so entirely different from ours in Victoria. For myself, I must confess that I have no idea who is the present Home Secretary."

splendid and inspiring. Every nook and corner in the vast edifice was crowded with a great multitude of the picked men of the Realm and of the Empire. No department of the State, no colony, no dependency, was unrepresented in that brilliant throng. Ambassadors and governors, princes and potentates, dusky Oriental rajahs blazing in jewels, English nobles, and the great notables of the democracy mustered in troops to the great Thanksgiving. When all were assembled beneath the storied roof of the ancient Abbey, and the long aisles framed a marvellous picture of life and colour, the Queen entered. The whole assemblage rose to their feet as the familiar figure of the

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Mother of her People slowly passed down the nave to take her place before the altar, where, in the midst of her children, she offered thanks. And as the Queen-the Highest on Earth-knelt before the Lord God of Heaven, all thought of Her Majesty and her might, or of her Empire over land and sea, disappeared, and we saw only the plain little loving-hearted woman, who as maid, wife, and widow had for fifty years. shared, more than any, all the joys, the sorrows, the hopes and fears, the trying vicissitudes and glowing aspirations which make up the sum of the private and public life of her people. And as she joined in the jubilant anthem of praise to Him who alone is the Giver of all good gifts, it was as if I saw a new and more glorious rendering of the old painting I had seen in my youth. For that which was then declared to be the secret of England's greatness was now in the fulness of the years proclaimed to be also the secret, the open secret, of the greatness and the glory of the Reign.

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II. THE QUEEN AND THE EMPIRE.

"HAPPILY for England a monarch was, at an eventful period, on the throne who stands distinguished in history for the rare discernment she evinced in promoting the welfare of her people and the glory of her country. Elizabeth clearly foresaw that England could neither obtain nor maintain a prominent position among the nations of Europe except by means of her maritime power, which could be insured only by the possession of Colonies. Encouragement was, therefore, offered to facilitate the discovery of hitherto unknown regions, and for the planting of new settlements.”—Martin's British Colonies, Vol. I.

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ROBABLY the English of the seventeenth century never realised how much they owed to Elizabeth until the throne was occupied by the Stuarts. It is to be hoped that we shall not have to wait for similar reigns of foils before discovering our indebtedness to Victoria.

The record of her reign is one long almost unbroken record of Imperial expansion. The heritage which she received at her coronation she will pass on to her successor multiplied many times. Of all the jewels in her diadem of Empire she has lost none— save and except the rabbit-warren of Heligoland-an exception which makes all the more conspicuous the uniform record of the reign. Our disputed titles to Delagoa Bay and South Africa and to the island of San Juan in North-West America were maintained until the decision of an International Arbitration conveyed these vantage points to the other claimants. The Orange Free State and the Transvaal were not in existence in 1837. If we have lost them during the reign of Victoria, it was during her reign that they came under our flag. Neither would have been lost to us if Her Majesty had been permitted to overrule the veto which Downing Street placed upon South African federation. The Ionian Islands, which we occupied rather than possessed, we handed over to the kingdom of Greece. But with these inconsiderable exceptions, wherever the British flag flew on June 20th, 1837, it is flying to-day. Our heritage she has kept intact, and great military empires, hungry for the spoil of the Queen of the Seas, have risen up in the last sixty years; but of the colonies and possessions with which the Queen was invested in the grey old Abbey on that June day, she has lost none.

The additions to the British Empire during the Victorian reign began with the occupation of Aden in 1839, and from that date down to the occupation of Nupe, in the Niger Protectorate, in January, 1897, the record is one of continuous expansion.

Immense as have been the territorial extensions of the Victorian era, they are less significant than the rapid development of the self-governed Colonies. When the Queen came to the throne the whole population of Greater Britain outside the United States did not exceed one million souls. There were under 800,000 in Upper and Lower Canada, less than 100,000 in all Australia, and not a quarter of a million in the Cape. New South Wales was, on the Christmas before the Queen's accession, the only self-governed Colony in the Eastern hemisphere. South Australia dates from December 28, 1836; New Zealand from 1840; Victoria from 1851; Queensland from 1859. In the Western hemisphere a great belt of self-governing commonwealths span the continent. Manitoba was constituted in 1870. British Columbia came in a year later.

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