THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1508, 24 January 1901, Page 37

THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN

"She wrought her people lasting good: Her Court was pure; her life serene; God gave her peace; her land reposed; A thousand craims to reverence closed In lier as Mother, Wife and Queen/' —Tenn3 r son. The first year of the new century is but in its infancy when the British nation is plunged into grief most poignant and well nigh inexpressible in mere words by the death of its official head, its good and gracious Sovereign, wisest of monarchs, noblest minded of rulers, best of true womanly women, Queen Victoria. The blow, though always imminent when over ten years in excess of the allotted three score and ten have been recorded, has none the less fallen upon victim and mourners with awful suddenness. Some slight rumours there had been, some wJ ispers, reaching back as far as four months ago, of weakened nerve and bodily decrepitude in one whose wiL was ever strong, and whose constitution had withstood more than one severe trial; but the grim Reaper whose stern fiat neither proudest monarch nor humblest peasant can defy swung his dread scythe at the last with scantiest warning. Within, comparatively speaking, a few short hours, the nation has learnt of its Ruler’s illness and death. The shock has been severe exactly how severe it is impossible ac this moment to say; but as to the universal, the awe-inspiring national g / ief — tlle grief which to-day is welding Britons the wide v. arid over in one great outpouring of lamentation most poignant and profound as to that there can be no question. The heart of the Empire is to-day permeated by an all-dominating sorrow and the deepest of sympathy for those near and specially dear’ to the dead Queen. When time allows reflection as to the probable results upon the future of the sad event which every Briton is to-day deploring, there may arise some feeling of' anxiety for the Empire’s welfare, but momentarily at least grief is uppermost. Her Majesty was to the British nation much more than merely an official head, a ruler, a monarch. She stood to all Britons as the embodiment of national motherhood. She was the object of a personal devotion on the part of her subjects, whether in the home of the nation, or iti India, Africa, Canada or Australasia, the like of which has been recorded of no other monarch the civilised world has yet known. For this peculiarly tender and touching sentiment of personal attachment, a devotion which was love itself, there existed reasons the full setting forth of which would be a lengthy and superfluous task. ' Suffice it tc-day to say that the Queen’s loim and irreproachable private life, the low mg care and tenderest affection she lavished as a mother upon her family, the ioss at a comparatively early age of her amiable and accomplished Consoit, fitting mate for one whose first and foremost thought was for the welfare of her people, her undying interest in. all charitable and philanthropic enterprises, her earnest personal efforts to bring about bonds of peace and amity between the British and other nations, her private family afflictions, and the sympathy she ever displayed with even the humblest of her subjects when encompassed by trouble and sorrow—all these have surely been potent factors in the creation of that great personal affection and devotion which the nation has ever exhibited towards he good and noble woman wl*o has DcVSSGcI IWQv tTah "i\ r " .

many sorrows in. lier life, but Chiistian | fortitude enabled her to meet misfortune with, quiet resignation. • Sorrows though, she had, her happiness as ; a wife and as a mother was a qompiensatipxii for .which, as a truly religious woman,. she was doubtless grateful. One of ner daughters and two of her sons followed tlieir father into the mysterious haven of Eternity, but Her Majesty lived to see her children's children and her children's grandchildren clustering round her august figure in all those joys which happy domesticity brings to rich and poor alike. She lived to see the Empire over which, when a mere maiden, she had been called to rule, become the greatest, most widespread most powerful, most generally peaceful and prosperous that the world lias yet witnessed. She enjoyed the wise counsel of representatives of the people who ever placed patriotism before party, and devoted lives of arduous, unremitting toil to improving the social condition of her people. Other rewards she had for her own self-sacrificing, patient care of those over whom she . mued. Bat we have said enough to snow that Her Majesty had her joys as well as her sorrows. To-day she is no more, and another rules in her stead. That bis Kingly life may result in as much good to his subjects as did the long and beneficent sway of his august mother is what every Briton must trust and pray. He has had a noble example ; • may he follow it with unfailing remembrance of her who has gone to ‘Musty death,” but whose memory shall be sweet through all time, because of the wisdom, love and graciousness with which she filled a position of the greatest opportunities for good or evil.