THE COLONIST. Published Daily-Mornings. Nelson, Monday, January 21, 1901. THE QUEEN.

Colonist, Volume XLIV, Issue 10011, 21 January 1901, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Daily-Mornings. Nelson, Monday, January 21, 1901. THE QUEEN.

The nefts we received through the j eablß last night concerning the health j of to Majesty the Queen is such as * to cause grave anxiety. From the latest papers to hand it appeared t that the Queen was busying herself t Aa usual, and interesting herself in the jj regular soldiers "and volunteers who J had been fighting in South Africa, sending kindly messages to some c and donations td certain of the £ aMicted. The London < Titties * of J the 7th December "mentioned that g the Queen had just sent a cpnfcriba- 1 tion to the widow of a trooper of the 1 Ist Life Guards, who died on board ship during the voyage home, and J whose widow only learned the 3ad 3 news when the detachment arrived at Windsor. A day or two before ( her Majesty had decorated Private < George Wise, who was servant to the ( late Prince Christian Victor. In addi- \ tion to attending to affairs of State, \ her Majesty was arranging for a large 1 gathering of the Royal Family at \ Windsor to attend the memorial : service in the f Frogmoie Mausoleum , on the 14th December, the anniver-j: sary of the death of the Prince Consort. ' Truth ' of the 6th December stated: "Her Majesty has suffered from a sharp attack bf rheumatism since her return to Windsor from Balmoral, but it was happily of brief duration. The change from the dry and highly-bracing air of Upper Deeside to the damp atmosphere of Windsor is very trying at this period of the year, and particularly to persons with a rheumatio tendency. The Queen has been in excellent health throughout the autumn, and iho is now well again, but h*s to be very careful to avoid all risk of cold or chill." We are now told that the great strain of the past year has rather told upon the Queen's nervous system, and that is hardly to be wondered at, bnt till now nothing has been made known that has been calculated to cause uneasiness. The news cabled from London a little! after five o'clock on Saturday evening tbat the Prince of Wales had gone to Osborne, where the Queen now is, and that the members of the Royal Family had been summoned thither, is rendered the more grave by the statement that the Emperor of Germany, a grandson of the Queen, had started for England. It cannot be overlooked that the Queen is in her eighty-second year, and a partial breakdown at that age naturally occasions concern, but throughout the Empire the earnest hope will go forth that her Majesty, in whom, as Macauley said, "her subjects have found; a wiser, gentler, happier Elizabeth," may yet be spared. Later cablegrams received last night bring our news up to a quarter to seven yesterday morning — equal to about six o'clock last night of our time, and, although one message was of a more hopeful nature, the later intelligence is increasingly grave in its nature, and it is reported at Portsmouth that the Duke of York's intended visit to Australia has been abandoned in consequence of the condition of the Queen's health. This report, however, lacks official confirmation, and at present we can only hope that an early improvement may take place.