Queen Victoria (24 page)

In March of the following year the Queen was much alarmed by the news from New South Wales that an attempt to assassinate the Duke of Edinburgh had been made at Port Jackson. Succeeding telegrams fortunately confirmed the news that the Duke’s condition was favourable and that no danger was anticipated. This dastardly attack caused universal horror and indignation throughout Australia. Opening the new buildings of St. Thomas’s Hospital on the banks of the Thames opposite to the Houses of Parliament, on the 13th of May, Her Majesty feelingly acknowledged the sympathy shown to her by the nation in her distress. In June, 1868, 27,000 Volunteers were reviewed in the Great Park at Windsor; and on the 5th of August Her Majesty, travelling as the Countess of Kent, left Osborne for Cherbourg, passing through Paris to Lucerne, where she remained with Prince Leopold and the Princesses Louise and Beatrice for a month. Returning through Paris, the happy memories of earlier days were recalled by a short visit to St. Cloud. Windsor was reached on the nth of September, and three days afterwards the Court left for Balmoral. During this visit the Glassalt Shiel, so well known as a favourite resort of the Queen, was occupied for the first time.

It was about this time widely rumoured that the Queen intended to take her former place in social life. In order to contradict this unfounded report a special notice was published in
The
Times
: “An erroneous impression seems generally to prevail, and has lately found frequent expression in the newspapers, that the Queen is about to resume the place in society which she occupied before her great affliction; that is, that she is about to hold
levies
and drawing-rooms in person, and to appear as before at Court balls, concerts,
etc.
This idea cannot be too explicitly contradicted.

“The Queen appreciates the desire of her subjects to see her, and whatever she can do to gratify them in this loyal and affectionate wish she will do. Whenever any real object is to be obtained by her appearing on public occasions, any national interest to be promoted, or anything to be encouraged which is for the good of the people, Her Majesty will not shrink, as she has not shrunk, from any personal sacrifice or exertion, however painful.

“But there are other and higher duties than those of mere representation which are now thrown upon the Queen, alone and unassisted - duties which she cannot neglect without injury to the public service - which weigh unceasingly upon her, overwhelming her with work and anxiety. The Queen has laboured conscientiously to discharge these duties till her health and strength, already shaken by the bitter and abiding desolation which has taken the place of her former happiness, have been impaired.

“To call upon her to undergo, in addition, the fatigue of those mere State ceremonies, which can be equally well performed by other members of her family, is to ask her to run the risk of entirely disabling herself for the discharge of those other duties, which cannot be neglected without serious injury to the public interests. The Queen will, however, do what she can - in the manner least trying to her health, strength, and spirits - to meet the loyal wishes of her subjects; to afford that support and countenance to society, and to give that encouragement to trade, which is desired of her. More the Queen cannot do; and more the kindness and good feeling of her people will surely not exact of her.”

Her Majesty has more than redeemed this promise, though, as years have passed, the mass of business which she alone can transact has almost daily increased in volume. This necessary work could only be mastered by the strictest economy of time. Wherever the Queen is residing, whether at home or abroad, the same method and regularity are maintained. Nor has she failed to answer those special demands which have been made by the ceremonies attached to the commencement or completion of works of public importance. Holborn Viaduct, the buildings of the London University, the new wing of the London Hospital, the new Law Courts, the People’s Palace at Mile End, the Imperial Institute, were opened by Her Majesty in person. In her presence Epping Forest was dedicated to the use of the public for all time. By her hand was laid the foundation stone of the new Medical Hall of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons on the Thames Embankment.

By opening the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at South Kensington the Queen showed how great was her interest in the welfare of these branches of her Empire, and her desire that they should be better known to her subjects at home. In the provinces the Queen has also endeavoured to promote the same spirit of public activity. At Birmingham she laid the foundation stone of the new Law Courts, and at Derby of the Infirmary; at Manchester she opened the Ship Canal; at Glasgow and at Sheffield the new municipal buildings; at Liverpool the International Exhibition; at Southampton the deep docks.

These instances illustrate the many-sided sympathies of the Queen in national life as a whole. Her Majesty has also, at all times, proved her warm appreciation of the loyalty of her subjects who have entered into her own service. Her interest in the navy has been great and exhibited wherever a suitable opportunity has presented itself. Thus, in 1878, and again in 1887 on the occasion of the Jubilee, when 134 ships of various descriptions were collected at Spithead, she reviewed the fleet, and in 1891 she visited Portsmouth to christen and launch the
Royal
Sovereign
, the largest ironclad afloat, and the
Royal
Arthur
, a new and powerful cruiser. For reviews of troops opportunities have more frequently occurred. Aldershot and its garrison has been many times honoured by the presence of the Queen; at Windsor also the Queen has reviewed her regular troops, taking advantage of the visit of the Shah of Persia to assemble there some 10,000 men, and in July, 1881, Her Majesty reviewed the English volunteers, then celebrating their majority, when upwards of 50,000 marched past. This review was followed by another at Edinburgh in the following month, when 40,000 volunteers of the North paraded before the Queen. The 79th Cameron Highlanders and the 2nd Battalion of the Berkshire Regiment received new colours from the Queen’s hands in the Isle of Wight, and at Windsor the 4th Regiment was similarly honoured.

In 1876 the Queen was able, for the second time since her widowhood, to open Parliament in person on the 8th of February. In the Speech from the Throne occurred the following passage: “At the time that the direct government of my Indian Empire was transferred to the Crown, no formal addition was made to the style and titles of the Sovereign. I have deemed the present a fitting opportunity for supplying this omission, and a Bill upon the subject will be presented to you.” This Bill was introduced in the House of Commons by Mr. Disraeli on the 17th of February. The title selected by the Queen was “Empress of India.” The Bill was resisted with some show of vigour by the Opposition, but was eventually passed, and received the Royal assent. The proclamation of the new title was made on the 1st of May by the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, and also at Edinburgh. The formal proclamation of the Empire in India took place on New Year’s Day, 1877, at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and Delhi. At the last-named place the Viceroy, Lord Lytton, presided at a magnificent Durbar, when sixty-three ruling chiefs were assembled.

At the opening of Parliament by Her Majesty in person on the 8th of February, the Queen’s Speech contained this paragraph: “My assumption of the Imperial title at Delhi was welcomed by the chiefs and people of India with professions of affection and loyalty most grateful to my feelings.” In commemoration of the event a large gold medal was struck, copies of which were presented to the native chiefs and the principal officials of the new Empire. An illustration of this medal is on page 159. At the same time, the Queen founded the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, in addition to the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, which had been instituted by Her Majesty in 1865 after the termination of the Indian Mutiny, and to the Order of the Crown of India for ladies, and especially for ladies connected with the Indian Empire. The insignia of the two first of these orders are also represented in the illustration on page 159.

Among other Orders instituted or enlarged during the Queen’s reign, mention should be made of the Order of “Victoria and Albert,” originally worn as a badge by Royal Ladies and Princesses of the Queen’s family, but created an Order in 1862. Another Order is the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George. Originally instituted in 1818 in connection with the Ionian Islands, it was enlarged in 1868, and again in 1877, for subjects of the Crown who had held high and confidential offices within Her Majesty’s Colonial possessions, or for service in relation to the Foreign affairs of the Empire. In 1886 the Queen created a new naval and military order for the reward of individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in the field or before the enemy; this is called “the Distinguished Service Order.” Mention has been made earlier of the institution in 1856 of the Victoria Cross for rewarding individual acts of heroism in war. Ten years afterwards the Queen instituted the Albert Medal for the purpose of rewarding by Royal favour the many daring and heroic actions performed by mariners and others in saving life at sea. By another warrant a year later, in 1877, this decoration was extended to cases of gallantry in preventing loss of life from accidents in mines, at fires, and other perils on shore. These are illustrated on page 73. On the 21st of April, 1896, the Queen instituted the Royal Victorian Order (illustrated on page 195), to be conferred as a mark of high distinction upon those who have rendered personal service to Her Majesty.

In the long course of years, uniformly occupied with the laborious discharge of the complicated business of the State, and marked by special efforts to encourage national movements, or to promote the efficiency of the public services, the Queen has witnessed many changes, some happy, some painful, in the expanding circle of her domestic life.

In the autumn of the year 1870 the Queen in Council gave her consent to the marriage of Princess Louise with the Marquis of Lome, eldest son of the Duke of Argyll. The engagement had taken place at Balmoral in October, and the marriage ceremony was solemnized, on the 21st of March, 1871, in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, the Queen herself giving away the bride.

The next marriage of one of Her Majesty’s children was that of the Duke of Edinburgh, who on the 23rd of January, 1874, was united at St. Petersburg to the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, only daughter of the Emperor Alexander II. This was the first alliance ever formed between the Royal houses of England and Russia, and the Princess was received, on her arrival in England, with the warmest welcome. It was the first time also that, since the Act of Settlement, a British Prince had taken a wife not belonging to the Protestant communion; but in that Act the Greek Church was not mentioned, so no objection was made to the daughter of the Emperor of Russia retaining her allegiance to her own faith when she became Duchess of Edinburgh.

Five years later, the Queen saw the marriage of another son. On the 13th of March, 1879, the Duke of Connaught was married, at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, to the Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, well known as “the Red Prince.” In this same year, on the 12th of May, the Queen’s first great-grandchild, a daughter of the Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen, daughter of the Princess Royal, was born.

On the 27th of April, 1882, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest, and only unmarried, son of the Queen, was married at St. George’s Chapel to the Princess Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont. Only a few days before the ceremony, a man named Maclean had been tried and convicted for the cowardly outrage of firing at Her Majesty, as she with Princess Beatrice was leaving Windsor Station.

One only of the Queen’s children was now unmarried, the youngest Princess. Since her father’s death, Princess Beatrice, who was then four years old, had been the daily companion of her mother, and the knowledge of the dutiful manner in which she had watched by Her Majesty, and done her utmost to cheer and lighten the solitude of her life, had given her a strong hold on the affection of the nation. It was therefore with no little interest that, in 1885, at the beginning of the year, the announcement was received that the Queen had approved of her marriage with Prince Henry of Batten berg. The Prince was no stranger to the family, as his eldest brother, Prince Louis, had already married the Princess Victoria of Hesse, eldest daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice, and was a distinguished officer in Her Majesty’s Navy. The marriage was performed at Whippingham Church on the 23rd of July, 1885; but, unlike the marriages of the Queen’s other children, it entailed no separation from her daughter, who with her husband continued to live with Her Majesty wherever she resided.

Although in these additions to her family the Queen has found much happiness and consolation, yet sorrow and suffering have rarely been long absent, and successive losses have left gaps in the circle never to be filled, and memories never to be forgotten. The Queen passed through a time of terrible trial and anxious suspense when the Prince of Wales, on the 23rd of November, 1871, was attacked by typhoid fever. So grave were the symptoms that the Queen on the 29th, having just returned from Balmoral, determined to go to Sandringham, where the Prince was lying. The Princess Louis of Hesse was there also on a visit to her brother, and it was fresh in the memories of a sympathizing nation how assiduous her attentions had been, just ten years before, when her lamented father lay dying from a fever of the same nature. The intensity of public feeling was allayed for a time by reports of the normal course of the disease; but it was deepened on the 8th of December, when a serious relapse occurred, and the Queen, who had returned to Windsor on the 1st, hurried back to Sandringham to watch over her son. On the 10th, by Her Majesty’s desire, forms of prayer for the recovery of the Heir to the Throne were issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and religious communities of all kinds throughout the Empire joined in the universal intercession. It was not till December the 14th, the anniversary of the Prince Consort’s death, that the illness took a favourable turn, and from that day the Prince slowly but surely recovered. The loyalty and sympathy shown to the Queen by her subjects in this time of trial were acknowledged in the following letter: -