THE HEALTH OF THE QUEEN.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10870, 21 January 1901, Page 4

THE HEALTH OF THE QUEEN.

The news which we publish this morning regarding the illness of the Queen will, we feel sure, be read with grave concern by her Majesty's loving subjects throughout the Empire. The Queen is now in her eightysecond year, and, as the telegrams intimate, she has had a great strain put upon her during the last year or so, net only by the Imperial cares of her high position, but also by domestic and personal troubles and affliction. What must add to the general anxiety felt at this moment is a knowledge of the fact, that in accordance with the etiquette of Courts, the illness of a sovereign is never officially announced unless it is considered sufficiently serious to tlireaten life. The fact that the Roy&L Family have been summoned to Osborae, and that the Kaiser has started for England, also sufficiently indicate the grave view of the position taken by those who are in immediate attendance on the Queen. Fortunately the later telegrams are a little more reassuring, and we must hope for the best. It would be a heavy blow at any time to loss so wise, so gracious, and so good a Oueen, but it would be a double calamity at the present moment, when the affairs of the Empire are in a condition involving so much responsibility on the part of those at the helm of State.