AN INDUSTRIOUS QUEEN.

Evening Star, Issue 14003, 9 March 1909, Page 1

AN INDUSTRIOUS QUEEN.

It is only since the publication in the fall of 1907 of the late Queen Victoria 5 * letters that the majority of the people of the British Empire hare come to know how truly great as a woman, wile, mother and Queen Bhe was. There are many in this community who can recall the slighting and contemptuous references which at one time it was usual for a section of the Press and public to level at Queen Victoria. The current conception among the thoughtless and ignorant as to the life and habits of crowned heads is that they have what Americans term "a real good time." Thoy are supposed to enjoy the physical and material, they eat and drink and dress luxuriously, and their life generally is one perpetual holiday. However true or false this view may be of the Kings and Queens of the long ago. it is not an accurate presentation of the lives and doiugs of modern Royalty, and it certainly was a cruel libel upon' the name and fame of the late Queen Victoria. There was no harder-worked woman in tho whole of her vast Empire. She took her high estate seriously, she regarded herself as the trustee of her people, she had the loftiest ideals of her duty, and she sought to realise her own exalted principles in her daily life and conduct. Queen. Victoria was no petted darling of a select- and adoring circle, who devoted her days and nights to the witcheries of dress and the perfecting of her personal charms. Not the humblest maiden in the land made a more sanely romantic love match than site; not- the most anxious and careful of plain mothers more tenderly watched over her children: and not a wife in all England Wiis more regardful of and submissive to her "love, lord, and husband." How many wives could write, after twenty-ono years of married life, what Queen Victoria wrote to her uncle, King Leopold? "On "Sunday we celebrated, with feelings of "deep gratitude and love, the twenty-first " anniversary of our blessed marriage—a "day which lias brought us, and I may say "the world at large, incalculable blessings. "Very few can say with me that their "husband at the end of twenty-one years "is not only full of the friendship, kind"ness, and affection which a truly happy "marriage brings with it, but the same "tender love of the very first days of our "marriage." It has long been ti»o fashion of the lesser novelists and writers to sneer at what they term early or midVictorian furnitm-e and dress and morals. Possibly we have improved on some of thesß, but the high thinking and high teaching that once were ours arc hard to find. Intellectually, spiritually, and morally there is much to regret. We have changed, but we are not convinced that we have advanced. On the contrary, it would not be impossible t» discover distinct indications of moral looseness and mental debauchery. That the Victorian era will bo ranked in history with that of Anne and Elizabeth is due in no mere complimentary sense to the living example set by one who, with her passionatelyloved husband, .wore ... the white flower of a blameless life Before a thousand peering littlenesses, In that fierce light which beats npon a. throne. And blackens every blot. Readers-of the Queen's letters, which, thanks to His Majesty the King, have been issued by "The Times' at a most reasonable cost,-and of Sir Theodore Martin's publications will not be surprised to learn that Qneen Victoria left behind her 1,250 large volumes of oorrcspoivdence and journals and a daily reoord written by herself of her own life tliat is represented by 100 manuscript volumes. How much does this make plain ? At- the very time when portion of the English Press was snapping and grrd-ing at- Queen Vkitoria for loading a secluded life and shirking her public duties the grief-stricken woman lrad to take to her bed, borne down by the triple burden of grief. woTry, and work. Six wrote piteous!}' to Mt (now Sir) Theodore Martin, asking whether something could not be done to cheek the stream of dishonorable talk, and proceeded : If Mrs Martin will look a-1 the Queen's room she can tell Mr .Martin what surrounds her. From the hour she gets out of bed till she gets into it again there is work, worlt. work—letter-boxes, quesetc., which are dreadfully exhausting—and if she had not comparative rest and quiet in the evening she wonld most likely not be alive. Her brain is constantly overtaxed. Could this trnth not be openly put before people ? So much has been told Ibem. thev should

know this very important fact, for some day she may quite break down. Sir Theodore, commenting on this, says i It was not tni a subsequent visit thai 1 had a.n opportunity of "seeing, in Hei Majesty's working room, the huge piiee of despatch boxes, arriving daily from every department of the Government, by which she was surrounded. Lady Martin wrote to a friend :—"Her Majesty took me into her own room one morning to show me the piles of despatch boxes, all of them full of work for her, and all requiring immediate attention,, and this goes on from day to. day. It is the Quoen's great aim to follow the Prince's plan, which was to sign nothing until he had read and made notes npon what he signed." Never, surely, were Shakespeare's words "uneasy lies the head that weans a crown" more closely realised. The glamor of romance, the dreams of inexperienced youth, and the slandere of the unworthy alike vanish before the sober truth. Xo superb being clad in jewelbedecked l-obes of royal purple and sill;, surrounded by the glittering pomp and pageantry of a Court, is here. What the world * shown is a frail, disttaugirfc woman, prematurely aged, sick with physical pain and heartache, lying on her bed in a room that is littered with papere and disordered with despatch boxes. It is more than probable, however, that thiis faithful picture of one who was Queen of the greatest Empire in history will do more to cherish her memory in the hearts of loyal men and women everywhere than would one such as imagination and fancy commonly associate with Kings and Queens.