THE JUBILEE PAGEANTS.

Evening Star, Issue 10391, 12 August 1897, Page 3

THE JUBILEE PAGEANTS.

WHAT THE FOREIGN PRESS TfiODGHT. " If the British nation owed its incredible good fortune to the brutal hafcarda of war, that immense display of its power would have been a provocation to the human conscience, and its proud challenge would have been an odious act. But seeing that it has reached its present degree of prosperity by the exercise of the rarest qualities, the most practical and the most loyal intelligence; the most unremitting energy, and the most resotirceful and, at the same time, moat deliberate activity of which history gives an example, it would bo ahsurd to be offended by it. If one examines the course followed respectively by France and Great Britain one is compelled to admit the superiority of the British character. The Imperial fete is more the glorification of individual energy than the celebration of a date in British history, and it is a priceless lesson for the world."—' Paris Matin.'

The ' Gaulois' oonveyed in a few pregnant words its impressions :—" The English have reason to feel proud of such a day, which will Burvive as one of the most glorious pages in the history of the United Kingdom, as one of the most unspeakable, grand and splendid manifestations of the nineteenth century. Not.one inoident ocourred to dim its splendor, and with my eyes still dazzled with the pomp of the procession, lighted by radiant sunshine, ana with my ears still deafened by the acclamations of eight millions of human beings, I feel quite unequal to convey an adequate idea of this ever memorable spectacle." The sympathetic welcome elicited by the sight of the French uniforms in the procession was noted by most of the Paris papers with satisfaction.

The 'Journal des Debats' concluded its article as follows:—"The homage which the Republicans of France offer to Queen Victoria on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of her reign is the purest and most disinterested of any she will receive. It is addressed to the Queen who has in her own country and in her own time restored virtue and founded liberty, thus honcring the two greatest things in the world—to the Sovereign who has so long been the loyal and indefatigable servant of modern progress." The 'Temps' had an article of singular power and eloquence. It is to be questioned, says the ' Standard,' whether even at Home, where so many able pens are celebrating the great anniversary, a more just and feeling tribute has been paid to our Sovereign, to her public worth and her private virtues. The writer says :—" Such a spectable presents a grandeur calculated deeply to move every soul susceptible of generous emotion. But there are other virtues besides those she displays as the head of the State which have won for Queen Victoria these sincere marks of affection. The whole domestic life of the Queen, so simply, so profoundly pure, her great affections, her great jnys, her great sorrows, so unaffectedly disclosed to the public eye that indescribable element at once patriarchal and somewhat austere and, perhaps, a little unbending, which has marked the life of tho Sovereign —all this was of a nature to win the heart and flatter the instincts of moral England. It is with justice that her subjects offer up to her the incense of their homage, and in this great fete of British patriotism we must not forget her who is its heroine, and to whom belongs the credit of tho great achievements that constitute what our neighbors across the Channel emphatically describe as the Victorian age." Mijny of the German papers made similar references to the event. The ' Kolnische Zsitnng' said:—"The thanksgiving day of the British nation has passed off splendidly. The whole civilised world -will rejoice at this, for it was a festival of civilisation. The British celebrated, not their Queen only, but also their own achievements, and nothing expressed this feeling better than the short prayer which the Bishop of Loudon offered up in the presence ot the Queen. The Queen herself, however, formed the centre of all the honors of the diamond festival, the most tremendous the world has ever seen, and the like of which it is not likely to see again in this generation."

The ' Strassburger Post' wrote: —" After the petty quarrels with foreign Governments, which seemed to shake the British colonial possessions to their foundations, the presence of the eleven Premiers of the distant British colonies is an evident proof of the solidity of the bond that unites tho Mother Country with the colonies and protectorates. The pride of belonging to Old England will be strengthened, not only in the breasts of the leading colonial men, but also in those of the simple folks who have come in small deputations from the colonial troops to do homage to the Queen in London. The route which the procession followed was admirably ohoson. It lay through streeta the names of which have had a homely and familiar sound from childhood, even to the ears of men burnt by tho tropioal sunBritons Sod a new home abroad, and ha\o their own political system and Parliaments, bnt in their hearts tbey remain true to their original Fatherland." Representing the party in Germany who view the Imperial policy of England with the greatest jealousy and suspicion, the | Kreuz Zeitung' admitted that' the Empire is practically unassailable owing to the strength of the fleet, and added that an attack on India " is one of tho3e undertakings which are far easier to plan than to execute."

The semi-official« Nord Deutsche' said : "The London festival of Tuesday was really, in vastness and richness, the most magnificent ever seen, and the spirit expressed in it was essentially British. We recognise without envy itß significance in the history of the world." The Vienna ' Fremdenblatt,' in its third article on the subject, wrote: —"Even a non-Englishman cannot help being impressed by this procession of nations, and one must dwell with admiration on this display of the gigantic organism of which Great Britain is the centre. Beyond all possible doubt the British Empire is one of the grandest phenomena in the history of ihe world, and in the struggle for existence in this century the Anglo-Saxons have decidedly achieved the record. It is they who rule also in tho great North American Republic,, which, like England and her colonies, bears essentially an Anglo-Saxon stamp." After referring to the growth of the colonies, the writer went on to say : "It is the colonial greatness of England which now invites imitation, and, though the hope is futile of ever overtaking England, her example is too tempting not to be followed. Each single colony has been developed by England's teeming sons, and each of them has a character of its own. Conservative Canada promises to become a State of great agriculturists ; South Australia and New Zealand will solve many of the social questions ; and in South Africa the problem of a free black population employed by the whites is nearing solution. All the3e totally different and variously organised parts of one great community have proved their cohesion during the present Jubilee festivities. They all profess loyalty to. one other country in which they see their supreme protector, and thus the British Empire appears, in fact, a community of nations, dependencies, and dominions which together form a whole of unparalleled greatness. The Queen is the moral power which holds everytning together. She is the representative of all traditions, all ambitions, and, at certain decisive moments, the watchword for them all is awaited from the Throne. The English world-empire, with its ten Parliaments, is after all a monarchy, and not without good reason do insular Britons, as well as the Canadians, Australians, Afrikanders, etc., call themselves Her Majesty's most loyal subjeots. The Jubilee was a festival of deep inner meaning. It showed a giant tree which extends its healthy branches to all parts of the world, and of which tho old roots are firmly embedded in the native soil of the Old Country." The chief American papers devoted pageß to recording the events of the Jubilee. Mr Chauncey JVJ. Depew wrote a special account of the celebrations for the American Associated Press, in which he said:—" The Diamond Jubilee protfesaion has passeTJ/ It has left a lasting impression. Its preparation required sixty years. It was over in sixty minutes. Pride, power, and adoration were its characteristics. Pride in the Imperial portion of Great Britain in the

world, aa exhibition of the power which inspires this.national exaltation and fervid loyalty in action, expression, and thought for the Queen. As a pageant it was dramatic and historic. ... We Americans glory in pur country and its marvellous developments in a hundred years, and we duly assert ourselves on the 4ch of July. The celebration by the Germans of the twentyfifth anniversary of, Sedan and the founding of the German Empire, which I saw, was a wonderful exhibition of race and national feeling. But the concentrated and irrepressible joy and pride whioh preceded, accompanied, and followed the Queen, like a resistless torrent, surpassed anything ever witnessed before. Though many races and many tongues participated, the dominant and absorbing expression was English, arid the glory was England's. Peers and Commoners, masters and workmen, millionaires and the multitude, were welded by the tremendous force of this concentration of loyalty from the remotest corners of the earth into one wild and frautie mass of patriotic enthusiasm."

The ' Standard's' New York correspondent wrote :—" It puzzles even veterans to recall any»historical inoident whioh has so caught and held the popular attention towards the Eoglish nation and people, and their ouaraoter, achievements, and institutions. There is no note to be heard of disparagement or jealousy of the British people; while towards their Queen there is an outburst of admiring affection which permits no other nation to be seoond to England in this expression of reverential love." The ' New York Herald,' in an eloquent leading article, had the following passage : "The colonies are, next after the Queen herself, the central and vital figure of this solemnity. They bring with them pledges from the great daughter States tc the mother of them all—pledges of affeotion, of fidelity, of political loyalty, of such an Imperial solidarity as has been unknown before. It is England's answer to the taunt of splended isolation—a phrase which her Prime Minister uttered with pride, and her enemies have ever since echoed as a foreboding of disaster. England, witli her colonies and dependencies all over tho globe stretching out their hands to the little island they look to as the fountain of life to these great States and Commonwealths, is an empire in something more than name, in something more than military strength. There is between them all—to borrow the words of Mr Gladstone, which he never made good—' a union of hearts.' That, as we take it, is the true meaning and significance of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee." The New York ♦ Sun,' with all its hatred to England, perceiving that all its readers were not Fenians, treated them to nine columns of description, the more remarkable since it received nothing from the Associated Press. Some of the New York papers enlisted eminent men, belonging to both countries in their service. Dean Farrar discussed the proceedings at St. Paul's with his usual rhetorical effusiveness, and Mark Twain, to whom the Jubilee was "an allegorical suggestion," called it a "stunning show." But Mark thought the QueenEmpress herself wa3 the real procession ; all the rest wero embroidery. Mr H. W. Lucy, like most of the other "specials," considered that the colonial and Indian troops carried off the honors of the day "save for the affectionate homage personally paid to the Queen." General Miles, commanding the United States army, poured out unstinted eulogies on the troops of all arms and nations.