Chapter XXX: The Jubilee (1)

The Fiftieth Year of the Queen’s Reign--Mr. W. H. Smith Leader
of the Commons--Sudden Death of Lord Iddesleigh--Opening of
Parliament--The Queen’s Speech--The Debate on the Address--New
Rules for Procedure--Closure Proposed by the Tories--Irish
Landlords and Evictions--“Pressure Within the Law”--Prosecution
of Mr. Dillon--The Round Table Conference--“Parnellism and
Crime”--Resignation of Sir M. Hicks-Beach--Appointment of Mr.
Balfour--The Coercion Bill--Resolute Government for Twenty
Years--Scenes in the House--Irish Land Bill--The Bankruptcy
Clauses--The National League Proclaimed--The Allotments Act--The
Margarine Act--Hamburg Spirit--Mr. Goschen’s Budget--The Jubilee
in India--The Modes of Celebration in England--Congratulatory
Addresses--The Queen’s Visit to Birmingham--The Laureate’s
Jubilee Ode--The Queen at Cannes and Aix--Her Visit to the
Grande Chartreuse--Colonial Addresses--Opening of the People’s
Palace--Jubilee Day--The Scene in the Streets--Preceding
Jubilees--The Royal Procession--The German Crown Prince--The
Decorations and the Onlookers--The Spectacle in Westminster
Abbey--The Procession--The Ceremony--The Illuminations--Royal
Banquet in Buckingham Palace--The Shower of Honours--Jubilee
Observances in the British Empire and the United States--The
Children’s Celebration in Hyde Park--The Queen’s Garden Party--Her
Majesty’s Letter to her People--The Imperial Institute--The
Victorian Age.

It was on the 20th of June, 1886, that the Queen entered on the fiftieth year of her reign. But her Majesty naturally refused to assume that she would live to the end of it, and she accordingly determined that the actual celebration of her Jubilee should be put off till the 20th of June, 1887. Thus it came to pass that 1887 will be known as the Jubilee Year of the Victorian period. It was a year that opened badly for the Government. The sudden resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill at the close of 1886 rendered a reconstruction of the Cabinet necessary. Efforts were made in vain to induce some of the Whig Peers to join the Ministry, but, as we have seen, at last Mr. Goschen was persuaded to accept the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The leadership of the Commons was given to Mr. W. H. Smith, who was made First Lord of the Treasury; whilst Lord Salisbury, who held that office, assumed the Secretaryship of State for Foreign Affairs. This involved the enforced retirement of Lord Iddesleigh in somewhat painful circumstances, which were further heightened by his sudden death from heart-disease on the 13th of January. The discreditable intrigue, which began by deposing him from the Leadership of the House of Commons, thus ended tragically. Some of the leaders of the Liberal and Liberal Unionist Parties were also endeavouring to discover some means of reconciling these now hostile factions. Parliament was opened on the 27th of January, and the Speech from the Throne plainly foreshadowed the introduction of a Coercion Bill for Ireland. It hinted at a Land Bill as a possible measure; indeed, had it not done so the alliance between the Government and the Liberal Unionists would have been weakened. Other measures promised were Bills for reforming local government in England, Scotland, and, “should circumstances render it possible,” in Ireland, for cheapening private Bill legislation, and land transfer. An Allotments Bill, a Tithe Bill, a Railway Rates and Merchandise Marks Bill, were also in the programme, which was large and varied. But the debate on the Address showed that no opposed Bills were likely to pass unless the House of Commons reformed its procedure, and to this task the Tory Party had most grudgingly to apply itself. Six sittings were spent on the Address as a general subject of discussion. After that amendments relating to the evacuation of Egypt and the Irish policy announced in the Queen’s Speech were debated. Three Scottish amendments were next brought forward, so that when, at the sixteenth sitting of the House, Mr. Dillon began to denounce jury-packing in Dublin, the Speaker ruled him out of order. A motion for an adjournment was defeated, and a motion to consider the condition of unemployed labourers in England was declared by the Speaker to have been sufficiently discussed after two speeches were delivered. The Closure, so dreaded by the Tories in former Parliaments, was then applied by Mr. Smith, a vote taken, and the Address disposed of on the 17th of February.

The Government lost no time in preparing to meet the obstruction with which their Coercion Bill was already threatened. They circulated their new rules for debates, and on the 21st of February Mr. W. H. Smith moved the adoption of the Closure, vesting the initiative in applying it not in the Speaker, which was the old rule, but in a bare majority of the House, provided always that at least 200 Members voted for it. The Liberal Leaders supported the proposal on principle, but complained that the new rule was still too weak, and that it ought to be applied unconditionally. Their view was confirmed in the following year, when Mr. W. H. Smith was forced to reduce the necessary quorum of 200 to 100. Meanwhile events had been moving apace in Ireland. The Chief Secretary, Sir M. Hicks-Beach, finding that the landlords were cruelly straining their rights against the poorer tenantry, urged them to be merciful for the sake of peace. He put upon them what he called “pressure within the law,” which practically meant that he hinted to them that he would refuse them the aid of the police in enforcing warrants of the Courts. In other words, he seemed to be exercising the “dispensing power” of the Executive, little more than a year after Mr. Morley had been forced to apologise for even suggesting its exercise. In Ireland evictions were resisted by force, and lurid pictures of the state of the country were drawn by the supporters of the Government. The prosecution of Mr. Dillon and other Irish leaders for a conspiracy to defeat the law, because they advocated the Plan of Campaign, broke down through the disagreement of a Dublin jury. The negotiations between the Liberal Unionists and Liberals at the “Round Table Conference” were said to be producing happy results, and it was soon noised abroad that the Government not only hesitated to demand a Coercion Bill, but that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was ruling the Irish with a hand so light that they were lapsing into lawlessness. The _Times_ published a series of articles designed to prove that Mr. Parnell and the Irish Home Rule Members were secretly in league with the Party of Assassination. Mutterings of mutiny were heard from the Irish Tories, and at this crisis Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, against whom these complaints were directed, suddenly resigned. This step, however, had been rendered necessary in consequence of his failing eyesight rather than from considerations of a political character. To his post Lord Salisbury appointed his nephew, Mr. Arthur James Balfour, pledged to carry out an unflinching policy of Coercion. Sir George Trevelyan, one of the secessionists from the Liberal Party, about this time showed by his public utterances that he had now returned to Mr. Gladstone’s party.

On the 23rd of March Mr. Smith moved that the Crimes Bill have precedence over all other orders--and then the battle began. It was not till the 28th that Mr. Balfour was able to move for leave to introduce the measure, in a speech which seemed to show either that his case was exceptionally weak, or that he had not been able to master it.[236] The Bill gave magistrates power to inquire into crimes where no person was charged. It gave two resident magistrates summary jurisdiction and power to inflict imprisonment up to six months in cases of criminal conspiracy, boycotting, rioting, assaults on the police, and in cases of inciting to these offences. It gave the Lord-Lieutenant power to “proclaim” certain associations as dangerous, and to subject to the penal clauses of the Bill any one who after that took part in them. The Bill was to be a permanent measure, and not like former Coercion Bills, merely passed for a fixed period of time. Violent scenes occurred during the debates which led up to the Second Reading of the measure on the 28th of April, and the House was in an irritable mood because it had been forced to sacrifice most of its Easter holiday. In spite of the frequent use of the Closure, the first clause, which was scarcely a contentious one, was not carried in Committee till the 17th of May. When the fourth clause was reached, on the 10th of June, Mr. W. H. Smith moved a resolution that if the Bill were not reported at 10 p.m. on the 17th, the remaining clauses should be put to the vote without debate. When that hour struck Sir Charles Russell was speaking on the sixth clause. The Chairman stopped the debate, and put the question, the Irish Members leaving the House in a body. After the division the Liberal Members also left, and the rest of the Bill passed without any more opposition. It was read a third time on the 8th of July, and having been adopted by the Peers, it received the Queen’s assent on the 19th of July. The determination of the Government to carry the Coercion Bill was natural. It had been admitted by all clear thinkers that, unless Home Rule were granted to Ireland, she could only be governed under Coercion. Moreover, the introduction of the Bill before the Liberal Unionists and Liberals had been reconciled, forced the former to vote for Coercion, which rendered the gulf between them and the old Liberal Party practically impassable. But ere the Liberal Unionists thus burned their boats, they had induced the Ministry to bring in a conciliatory Irish Land Bill in the House of Lords. The Peers sent it down to the Commons on the 4th of July, when the Second Reading was moved on the 12th. The Bill adopted Mr. Parnell’s proposal of the previous year, to admit leaseholders to the benefit of the Land Act of 1881; it gave notice of eviction the same effect as the actual service of an ejectment writ, and gave the Courts power to stay execution, and arrange for payment of rent on easy terms when the tenants were in distress. But when insolvent, it provided for them relief from rent and all other debts by a process of bankruptcy, allowing them, however, to retain their farms. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman attacked the bankruptcy clauses, and demanded a revision of all Irish rents in terms of the fall in prices. To a general revision of rents the Government would on no account assent. But the revolt of one of the Liberal Unionists, Mr. T. W. Russell, compelled them to reconsider the bankruptcy clauses. The Tories argued that it was unjust to ask the landlord to accept a composition for rent from the farmer, when the tradesmen to whom he owed money were not expected to abate their claims. Mr. Parnell and Mr. T. W. Russell contended that no analogy could be drawn between rent and trade debts. The latter had never been disputed by the debtor. The former had been disputed. The tenant who owed money to his grocer or seed-merchant never denied that he had got value for it. But he did deny that he had got value for the money his landlord claimed as rent, and he was able to prove this in court when the rent was cut down. To insist, as did Mr. Chamberlain, on relief from just and unjust claims being given with equal ease under a process of gentle bankruptcy, at which the State was asked to connive, was to make an attack on property and on credit from which even the leaders of the Paris Commune might have shrunk. It was tantamount to asserting that whenever a man was able to show that one creditor had overcharged him 30 per cent. he was entitled to refuse payment of his just debts to all creditors who had not overcharged him, unless they too took 30 per cent. off their bills. When this was made clear not even Mr. Chamberlain’s advocacy sufficed to save the bankruptcy clauses, which were accordingly dropped. But by way of conciliating the landlords the Government insisted on applying the vicious principle to arrears of rent. No relief from unjust arrears was to be given unless they were to be dealt with in bankruptcy alongside just and undisputed trade debts. The result was that when the Bill passed it had a fatal defect in it. It prohibited landlords from evicting for unjust rents, but by this clause it left them free to evict for the arrears which had accumulated under rents which the Courts decided to be unjust. On the 19th of August the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland “proclaimed” the National League as a dangerous association, thereby enabling Mr. A. J. Balfour to suppress any branch of it he thought fit under the Crimes Act.

The Government were now compelled to abandon the bulk of their legislative programme. They, therefore, made no attempt to proceed with any measures unless they were so democratic that the Liberals could not with decency oppose them. Hence they passed a Coal Mines Regulation Bill, an Allotments Bill--disfigured, however, by the obstacles in procedure which it put in the way of labourers who applied for allotments--and a Bill to prevent substitutes for butter known as “Margarine,” from being sold as butter. The success of this measure led to a demand for a similar Bill to prevent publicans from selling poisonous Hamburg spirit as “Fine Old” Cognac, or Scotch or Irish whisky. Baron de Worms, as representative of the Board of Trade, however, though eager to prohibit shopkeepers from selling a wholesome animal fat as butter, was shy of prohibiting the publicans--whose votes were of some value to the Tory Party--from selling poisonous Hamburg alcohol as old brandy. Mr. Goschen’s Budget was introduced on the 21st of April. He described it himself as a “humdrum” Budget--though as a matter of fact, as Lord Randolph Churchill said, if _he_ had proposed it the country would have denounced it as a scheme full of financial depravity. The Estimates had been taken to show a revenue of £89,689,000, and an expenditure of £89,610,000. The actual receipts, however, for the past year had been £90,772,000, and the actual expenditure £88,738,000. In spite of supplementary estimates, amounting to £1,129,000, there was a surplus on the year’s accounts of £776,000. Mr. Goschen’s general statement showed that not only were the taxes yielding less than they ever did, but that, though the rich and the poor had suffered much from commercial and agricultural depression, the profits of the middleman had not been reduced. For the coming year he took the revenue to amount, on the existing lines of taxation, to £91,155,000, and the expenditure he set down at £90,180,000, leaving a surplus of £975,000. To this he added £100,000 by increasing the duty on the transfer of Debenture Stocks, and by minor changes in the Stamp Duty. He then added to it a further sum of £1,704,000, by reducing the charges for the public debt. His surplus was thus inflated to £2,779,000, of which he spent £600,000 in reducing the Tobacco Duty, £1,560,000 in taking a penny off the Income Tax, £280,000 in relieving Local Taxation, £50,000 in aid of Arterial Drainage in Ireland, leaving him a probable surplus of £289,000. To manufacture a surplus by the simple process of ceasing to pay off debt, would certainly not have secured for any other Chancellor of the Exchequer, except Mr. Goschen, the reputation of a financial puritan. Mr. Gladstone and Lord Randolph Churchill demonstrated by unanswerable arguments the unwholesomeness of the financial policy which reduced the payments for the National Debt by cutting down the Income Tax instead of by cutting down departmental expenditure. But Mr. Goschen’s Budget gave everybody a little relief all round, and was accepted quite irrespective of the unsound principles on which it was based. It was, in fact, the first illustration afforded by a Household Suffrage Parliament of the deteriorating influence of democracy on the financial policy of the nation. Parliament was prorogued on the 16th of September.

But public interest in politics faded as the Session grew old. Indeed, from the beginning of the year, the attention of the country was more and more concentrated on the movements of the Queen. It was known that she had nerved herself to emerge from her seclusion, and, in some degree, discard the mourning weeds she had worn so long. The first note of the Jubilee was struck in India, where the great Imperial festival was celebrated on the 16th of February. In presidency towns, inland cities, the capitals of Protected States--even in Mandalay, the capital of the newly-conquered State of Upper Burmah, natives and Europeans vied with each other in acclaiming the event. Announcements of clemency, banquets, plays, the distribution of honours, reviews, illuminations, were not the only methods adopted for celebrating the Jubilee. At Gwalior all arrears of land-tax--amounting to £1,000,000--were remitted. Libraries, colleges, schools, waterworks, hospitals, and dispensaries were opened in honour of the Empress.

“These are Imperial works and worthy thee,”

might well be the comment of the chronicler on such celebrations. All over England preparations were now being made for the great anniversary. In every town meetings were held to decide as to the mode of its observance, and it was curious to notice that everywhere the people desired to localise their rejoicings. Public parks, libraries, town-halls, museums, hospitals--in a word, the foundation of works and institutions of public usefulness in each locality was universally regarded as the best means of honouring the occasion. There was only one Jubilee institution of national grandeur that won public favour--the Imperial Institute. It was originated, as has been noted, by the Prince of Wales, and it was to his energy and skill in appealing for public support that the enormous funds needed for its endowment were now collected. In March the congratulatory addresses began to come in--the Convocation of Canterbury, whose deputation headed by the Primate was received by the Queen at Windsor on the 8th of March, leading the way.

On the 23rd of March Birmingham, in spite of the boisterous weather, was _en fête_ to receive her Majesty who arrived to open the new Law Courts in that town, and few who were present will ever forget the mighty shout of enthusiasm that rose up from the swarming throng, when the Queen’s procession turned into New Street. Never was Royalty more loyally received than in the Radical capital of the Midlands. The Democratic demonstration at Birmingham gave point to the passage in the Laureate’s Jubilee Ode, in which he wrote:--

“Are there thunders moaning in the distance?
Are there spectres moving in the darkness?
Trust the Lord of Light to guide her people,
Till the thunders pass, the spectres vanish,
And the Light is victor, and the darkness
Dawns into the Jubilee of the Ages.”

On the 29th of March her Majesty, accompanied by the Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, left Windsor for Portsmouth, where they embarked in the Royal yacht for Cannes. On the 5th the Royal party went to Aix-les-Bains, where the Queen occupied her old rooms at the Villa Mottet. Aix was wonderfully free from visitors, and she, therefore, enjoyed almost complete privacy during her stay. By the special sanction of the Pope her Majesty, on the 23rd of April, was allowed to visit the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse, within whose precincts no woman’s foot is permitted to tread. She returned to Windsor on the 29th of April. On the 4th of May she received at the Castle the representatives of the Colonial Governments, who presented her with addresses congratulating her on having witnessed during her reign her Colonial subjects increase from fewer than 2,000,000 to upwards of 9,000,000 souls, her Indian subjects from 96,000,000 to 254,000,000, and her subjects in minor dependencies from 2,000,000 to 7,000,000. On the 9th her Majesty held a court at Buckingham Palace, at which the Maharajah and Maharanee of Kutch Behar and the Maharajah Sir Pertab Sing were presented to her. On the 10th she held a Drawing Room, and afterwards visited a private performance of the feats of the American cowboys, and Indians, and prairie-hunters at the “Wild West Show” at Earl’s Court. On the 14th she opened the People’s Palace at Whitechapel, an institution which had grown out of a suggestion in Mr. Walter Besant’s romance of “All Sorts and Conditions of Men.” The route of procession from Paddington was seven miles long, and it was thronged with people, who gave the Queen as warm a welcome as she had received in Birmingham. On her return her Majesty visited the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House. This was a remarkable event, for her Majesty had not entered the Municipal Palace since she had visited it with her mother two years before her accession. Her Majesty partook of tea and strawberries with her Civic hosts, with whom she spent fully half-an-hour, charming the company with her affability. On the 20th the Court removed to Balmoral, where the Queen found her mountain retreat covered with snow. On the 17th of June the Court returned to Windsor, and on the 18th her Majesty received at the Castle the Maharajah Holkar of Indore, and several Indian princes and deputations from Native States.

The Jubilee itself was celebrated on the 21st of June. The chief streets of London were given over to carpenters and upholsterers, gasmen, and floral decorators, who transformed them beyond all possibility of recognition. On the night of the 20th the town was swarming with people, who had come out in the hope of seeing some of the illuminations tried. As the day dawned crowds began to stream into the metropolis, and in the forenoon every face wore a festal aspect. Fabulous prices had been paid for seats along the line of procession, and those who had secured places were in possession of them early in the morning. Everybody was in good humour, and the police were exceptionally amiable. At the point of departure--Buckingham Palace--there were no decorations, but the presence of the Guards and of the seamen of the Fleet, who were on duty within the gates, gave animation to the scene. As eleven o’clock--the hour of starting--approached, a strange silence seemed to fall over the noisy, gossiping crowd, as if men and women felt awed and touched at the sight of their aged Sovereign proceeding in State from her Palace to the old Abbey to thank God for permitting her to see the fiftieth year of her reign. Only thrice in the history of England had a Jubilee been celebrated, and in none of these cases was there, as now, ground for unalloyed joy. But for the founding of our Parliamentary System, none would care to recall the distracted reign of Henry III. That of Edward III., glorious as it was at its beginning, was clouded with disaster at its end. That of George III. cost the dynasty, not a Crown, but a continent. On the Jubilee Day of Queen Victoria there was, however, no room for any feeling save that of gratitude and pride that, under her gentle sway, the English people had gained and not lost dominion upon earth. It was not till the head of the procession moved along, and the Royal carriages came in sight, that the pent-up feeling of the dense masses of spectators found utterance in volley after volley of cheers. The Queen’s face was tremulous with emotion, and yet there was triumph as well as grateful courtesy in her bearing as she bowed her acknowledgments to her subjects. Beside her were the Princess of Wales and the German Crown Princess, the latter beaming with happiness and delight to find that her countrymen still held her dear. The loyal tumult all along the line literally drowned the blare of bands and trumpets.

The first part of the procession consisted of carriages in which were seated the sumptuously apparelled Indian Princes, in robes of cloth of gold, and with turbans blazing with diamonds and precious gems, who had come from the far East to celebrate the Jubilee of their Empress. Following them came carriages with the Duchess of Teck, the Persian and Siamese guests of the Queen, the Queen of Hawaii, the Kings of Saxony, Belgium, and Greece, and the Austrian Crown Prince. Life Guards followed, and behind them came two mounted lacqueys of the Court. To them succeeded escorts of Hussars and Life Guards, followed by outriders in scarlet. In the first part of the procession were eleven carriages. Of these, five conveyed the Ladies-in-Waiting and the Great Officers of the Household. The sixth conveyed the Princess Victoria of Sleswig-Holstein, Princess Margaret of Prussia, and Prince Alfred of Edinburgh. In the seventh were seated the Princesses Victoria and Sophie of Prussia, Princess Louis of Battenberg, and Princess Irene of Hesse. The eighth conveyed the Princesses Maud, Victoria, and Louise of Wales. In the ninth were the Duchess of Connaught and the Duchess of Albany. In the tenth were the Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Beatrice, Princess Louise, and Princess Christian. Between the eleventh carriage and the Queen’s rode the brilliant procession of Princes, whose appearance all along the route gave the signal for an outbreak of cheering. In the first rank rode the Queen’s grandsons--Prince Albert Victor and Prince William of Prussia being among the most conspicuous. Following them came the Queen’s sons-in-law, the German Crown Prince, Prince Christian, the Grand Duke of Hesse, and Prince Henry of Battenberg. The Marquis of Lorne had started with the procession, but his horse took fright and threw him, about 300 yards from the Palace, whereupon he returned on foot, and, borrowing a charger from an Artillery officer, rode by himself to the Abbey by Birdcage Walk. Of this group, the central figure was that of the German Crown Prince, whose white uniform and plumed silver helmet attracted general admiration. Covered with medals and decorations, most of which he had won by his prowess in battle, he sat his charger as proudly as a mediæval knight, in whom the spirit of old-world German chivalry lived again. His fair, frank face became radiant with delight, when he found that peal after peal of applause greeted him whenever he appeared. Partly owing to his picturesque figure, partly to his manly and heroic character, and partly, no doubt, to honest sympathy with his sufferings under the disease that had suddenly smitten him in the very prime of life, the German Crown Prince received an ovation more effusive even than that bestowed on the ever-popular Prince of Wales, and almost equal to that which greeted the Queen herself. After her sons-in-law came her sons, the Duke of Connaught, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Edinburgh. They, too, were hailed with cheering that was prolonged, and that deepened in volume till her Majesty’s carriage passed. A gorgeous cavalcade of Indians brought the splendid procession to a close. Along the route, from the Palace up Constitution Hill, round Hyde Park Corner, on through Piccadilly, down Waterloo Place, past Trafalgar Square, along Whitehall to Westminster Abbey, every house was glowing with many-tinted draperies, with bunting, and with floral decorations, and every balcony and window were crowded with bright and happy faces framed in festoons of roses and laurel.

The scene in the Abbey was impressive. Municipal dignitaries, representatives of the Universities, civic functionaries of the higher order, representatives of the Church and the Law, Lords-Lieutenant and their deputies, High Sheriffs, Officers of the Auxiliary Forces, Diplomatists, Ministers of State in Windsor uniforms, Officers of the Household, Foreign Princes and Potentates, and their suites--in fact every invited guest privileged to wear robe or uniform, contributed to the mass of varied colour that, after a time, almost tired the eye. Among the earliest arrivals were the Princess Feodore of Saxe-Meiningen, the Prince Albert, and the Princess Louise of Sleswig-Holstein, the Princess Alice of Hesse, the Princesses Mary, Victoria, and Alexandra of Edinburgh, the Princess Frederica, Baroness Pawel von Rammingen, Baron Pawel von Rammingen, Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Prince and Princess of Leiningen, Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe, with the Countesses Feodora and Victoria Gleichen, and Count Edward Gleichen. Then entered the swarthy Chiefs and Princes of India, among whom the stately and resplendent Holkar was very prominent. The Queen of Hawaii followed, and after her came the Princess Victoria of Teck, and the Princes Adolphus, Francis, and Alexander of Teck, Prince Frederick of Anhalt, Prince Ernest of Saxe-Meiningen, the Duke and Duchess of Teck, the Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenberg, Prince Ludwig of Baden, Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, G.C.B., Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, the Duke of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, the Infante Don Antonio of Spain, the Infanta Donna Eulalia of Spain, the Duc d’Aosta, the Crown Prince of Sweden, the Crown Prince and Princess of Portugal, the Austrian Crown Prince, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the King of Saxony, the King and Queen of the Belgians, Prince George of Greece, the Crown Prince of Greece, the King of Greece, and the King of Denmark.

Half-an-hour after the appointed time the silver trumpets announced the coming of the Queen’s procession, headed by the six minor and the six residentiary canons of Westminster, the Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, the Dean of Westminster,[237] the Primate, all attired in sumptuous canonicals. They were followed by heralds and other functionaries, who were followed by the members of the Royal procession walking in ranks of three, in the inverse order of precedence always enforced at Royal ceremonials. These were--

The Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Meiningen.

Prince Henry of Prussia.

The Grand Duke Serge of Russia.

Prince Henry of Battenberg.

Prince Christian of Sleswig-Holstein.

The Duke of Connaught.

Prince Christian Victor of Sleswig-Holstein.

Prince George of Wales.

Prince Albert Victor of Wales.

The German Crown Prince.

The Prince of Wales.

Prince Louis of Battenberg.

The Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse.

Prince William of Prussia.

The Marquis of Lorne.

The Grand Duke of Hesse.

The Duke of Edinburgh.

The Queen, clad in black, but with a bonnet of white Spanish lace glittering with diamonds, and wearing the Orders of the Garter and Star of India, entered, escorted by the Lord Chamberlain, as the organ pealed forth the strains of the march from Handel’s “Occasional Oratorio.” The solemnity of the spectacle, and the reflection that the Queen-Empress is about to give thanks to God for the crowning triumph of her life, surrounded by the ashes of her predecessors, repress all manifestations of feeling. Reverently does her Majesty take her place on the Royal daïs, and, when the Princes and Princesses in her train arrange themselves, the picture is one of imposing magnificence. Surrounding this shining group of Princes a vast throng, representing the genius, the rank, the wealth, and the chivalry of Britain, filled every nook of the sacred fane in which the Queen celebrated her golden wedding with her people. Towering high above all his peers the Imperial form of the German Crown Prince, clad in the white uniform of the Cuirassiers, stood forth as the most majestic figure in that magnificent pageant.

(_From a Photograph by Reichard and Lindner, Berlin._)]

The Thanksgiving Service was brief and simple. The Primate and the Dean of Westminster officiated, and the music was largely selected from the compositions of the Prince Consort. Prayers and responses invoking a blessing on the Queen were intoned. The Prince Consort’s _Te Deum_ was given. Three special prayers were offered up by the Archbishop of Canterbury,

(_From a Photograph by Reichard and Lindner, Berlin._)]

after which the people’s prayer--_Exaudiat te Dominus_--was intoned. The lesson (1 Pet. ii. 6-18) was next read by the Dean, and Dr. Bridge’s Jubilee anthem, “Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on the throne to be king for the Lord thy God,” a piece in which the theme of the National Anthem is suggested, was sung. Two simple prayers were then offered up, and the ceremony, impressive from the grandeur of the surroundings, and yet thrilling and pathetic by reason of its devotional earnestness and simplicity, ended with the Benediction. Here the Queen, who was several times overcome with emotion, is seen by the spectators to make a movement as if she would rise from her seat on the sacred Coronation Stone of Scone and kneel on the _prie-dieu_ in front of her. But she cannot reach so far, and she sinks back into her place, veiling her bowed face with her hands. She then glances round, and her eyes fill with tears when they rest on her sons and her daughters, and her sons-in-law and their children. The pent-up feeling of that dazzling group of Princes and Princesses can no longer be restrained, and the solemn pageant of State suddenly assumes the aspect of a family festival. The Prince of Wales bends forward and kisses the Queen’s hand, but her Majesty raises his face and salutes him affectionately on the cheek. The German Crown Prince pays his homage with chivalrous grace and stately courtesy, and the Grand Duke of Hesse follows him. But the emotion of the moment is too strong for Court ceremonial. The Queen with an impulsive gesture discards the Lord Chamberlain’s etiquette, and embraces the Princes and Princesses of her house with honest and unreserved motherly affection. Then she turns to the German Crown Prince with a loving smile, and as he comes forward she kisses him warmly on the cheek. The Grand Duke of Hesse is also saluted, and her Majesty, making a profound bow to her Foreign guests, which they return, quits the scene as the “March of the Priests” in _Athalie_ peals forth from the organ. The procession was now formed again, and as the Sovereign returned to Buckingham Palace, it was noticed that the reception which was given to her was even more enthusiastic than that which greeted her on her way to the Abbey. It is, perhaps, only once in a generation that it falls to the lot of a monarch to be hailed in the streets of her capital with such passionate demonstrations of loyalty, and the Queen seemed to be filled with the emotion of the hour.

The rest of the day was kept as a public holiday by the people, and when the shades of night fell on the metropolis its streets were ablaze with light. The art of the illuminator was indeed exhausted in providing novel and varied designs, and gas jets and electric lamps, arranged so as to display every conceivable device expressive of loyalty, turned night into day. Nor were gas and electricity the only agents employed to give splendour to the festivity of the evening. In many places festoons of Chinese lanterns shed their soft and mellow radiance over a scene not unworthy of fairyland. The Queen, who had borne the fatigue and excitement of the Thanksgiving pageant wonderfully well, rested a little while after her return to Buckingham Palace, and there, as a special compliment to the “Senior Service,” she came out and held a review of the 500 seamen of the Fleet who had formed her guard of honour at the Palace doors. In the evening she gave a grand banquet, at which sixty-four royal personages were present.

All over England and in the North of Ireland the Jubilee was also celebrated as enthusiastically as in London. The illumination of the city of Edinburgh was said to be even more effective as a brilliant spectacle than that presented by the metropolis. It was only in Cork and Dublin that riotous demonstrations of disloyalty took place. Eight peerages, thirteen baronetcies, and thirty-three knighthoods were conferred in honour of the event. A Royal amnesty to deserters from the army was also proclaimed. In the Colonies the day was celebrated even more joyously than in England. In foreign lands the British residents also held Jubilee festivals. But in the United States the citizens of the Republic freely joined the British residents, honouring the occasion as if it were one of as much interest to them as to their kith and kin in the old home of their race. The most glowing of all the Jubilee orations was in fact spoken by Mr. Hewitt, Mayor of New York, at the grand Thanksgiving Festival in the Opera House of that city, in the course of which he elicited the passionate enthusiasm of his countrymen by recalling the events of the Civil War. “In the hour of our trial,” he exclaimed, “when the flag under whose broad folds I was born was trailing in the dust, it was my fortune to journey to another land on matters of great moment. There I learnt--and I know whereof I speak--that we owed to the Queen of England the non-intervention policy which characterised the Great Powers of the world during our struggle for life and death. I had no purpose to open my lips here, but when you call on me for a testimony to her who was our friend, as she is your Queen, my lips ought to be palsied if I were such a coward as not to give it.” A speech so simple and unexpected, received as it was by a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm from the American citizens in the audience, it need hardly be said produced a profound sensation.

But of all the Jubilee celebrations perhaps the most charming and novel was one which was held in Hyde Park. A few weeks before Jubilee Day it occurred to a kindly and generous gentleman, Mr. Edward Lawson, well known in society as the editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, that there was a fatal omission in the Jubilee programme. Elaborate arrangements had been made to interest all classes in the festival save one--the school-children of London--the boys and girls who must form the men and women of the next generation. Mr. Lawson contended that this defect should be remedied, and the whole town was immediately taken with his idea. Everybody wondered that nobody had put forward the suggestion before, and Mr. Lawson soon found himself honorary treasurer of the Children’s Jubilee Fund, to which he himself was one of the most prominent subscribers. Foolish efforts were made to check the movement, and people were warned that it was impossible to entertain 30,000 children in Hyde Park, as Mr. Lawson proposed, without accidents to life and limb. It was, however, in vain that he was denounced as the organiser of a juvenile Juggernaut. The fund was raised with ease, and Mr. Lawson, by skilful organisation, not only got 27,000 children into Hyde Park from all parts of London on the 22nd of June, but sent them back unhurt and happy to their homes. Great ladies of fashion helped him to carry out his arrangements. The little ones were entertained with the sports and shows dear to boys and girls of their age, and the Queen not only came out and greeted them in person, but she was received with a delight that touched her profoundly. The Princes and Princesses and many of the foreign visitors also witnessed this strange but interesting incident in the Jubilee celebrations.[238]

On the 24th of June, an evening party was given at Buckingham Palace, which was attended by nearly all the members of the Queen’s family, by the foreign sovereigns and Princes then in London, and by a gay throng of distinguished persons. On the 25th of June, a singularly beautiful and touching letter, evidently straight from the Queen’s own pen, to the Home Secretary, thanking the nation for their display of loyalty and love, appeared in the _London Gazette_. In this communication it almost seems as if the Queen laid her heart open to the people with a frank and simple confidence rare in the relations that subsist between sovereigns and their subjects. On the 27th her Majesty received at Windsor Castle congratulatory deputations from municipalities, friendly societies, professional associations, and public bodies, representing almost every phase of English life, and thought, and enterprise. Her Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on the following Wednesday was a brilliant reunion at which were present several thousands of guests. On the 2nd of July the Queen from Buckingham Palace reviewed 28,000 Metropolitan Volunteers, and military men were amazed at the skill with which the troops were handled by their officers in the narrow and confined space. It was, however, unfortunate that at this review a slight was cast on the Royal Navy. As is natural in a seafaring nation, the naval forces of the Crown always take precedence of the land forces. Hence, the phrase “Senior Service” used to distinguish the Navy from the Army. But at this review the claim of the Royal Naval Volunteers for precedence over the grotesque and motley body known as the Honourable Artillery Company of London, a force which belongs neither to the Army, the Militia, nor the Volunteers, and which has been permitted even to repudiate the authority of the War Office, was disallowed.

On the 4th of July the crowning event of the Jubilee Festival occurred. On that day the Queen laid the foundation stone of the Imperial Institute in the Albert Hall. Noting the growing Imperialism which the Jubilee evoked, the Prince of Wales determined to fix it by embodying it in some permanent institution. In spite of distracted counsels, inter-Colonial jealousy, and much anti-monarchical opposition, the necessary funds for the purpose were raised, but it was universally admitted that had not the Prince toiled without ceasing the scheme must have collapsed. The Institute was and is meant to stand as an outward and visible sign of the essential unity of the British

Empire. It was to be a rallying-point for all Colonial movements, a centre of instruction for those who desire information as to Colonial trade and Colonial resources. In a word, what the Queen “inaugurated” on the 4th of July, at Kensington, as the culminating function of her Jubilee, was a vast and ubiquitous Intelligence Department for her far-stretching dominions. The decoration of the building in which the ceremony took place was chiefly floral, and, indeed, the scene suggested sylvan freshness and beauty. Eleven thousand people were seated in the chief pavilion.

When the Queen entered, preceded by the officers of her household and escorted by her family, she took her seat on the draped daïs, and found herself again surrounded by a majestic throng of Kings and Princes. The Prince of Wales read aloud to her Majesty the Address of the organising Committee of the Institute, describing its aims and its prospects. The ode, written for the occasion by Mr. Lewis Morris,[239] and set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, was performed by the Albert Hall Choral Society, aided by a full orchestra. After it was finished, the Queen, assisted by the Prince of Wales and the architect, Mr. Colcutt, laid the first solid block of the building--a piece of granite three tons in weight. Prayers, read by the Primate, followed, after which the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851 presented an Address, congratulating the Queen on the celebration of her Jubilee. Her Majesty then, leaning on the arm of the Prince of Wales, left the hall, while the band struck up “Rule Britannia.” The ceremonial differed from that which took place in the Abbey in one respect. The Thanksgiving Service threw the minds of Sovereign and subject back on the past, with all its trials and all its triumphs. But the function in the Royal Albert Hall invited speculation as to the future, and as to the part which the Monarchy must inevitably play in the evolution of the English-speaking race, and the development of their spreading dominion over strange lands and under strange stars. The Institute typified the inheritance of Empire which Englishmen had won during the reign by their toil and their enterprise. As Mr. Morris sang,

“To-day we would make free
The millions of their glorious heritage.
Here, Labour crowds in hopeless misery;
There, is unbounded work and ready wage.
The salt breeze calling, stirs our Northern blood,
Lead we the toilers to their certain goal;
Guide we their feet to where
Is spread, for those who dare,
A happier Britain ’neath an ampler air.

* * * * *

First Lady of our British Race,
’Tis well that with thy peaceful Jubilee
This glorious dream begins to be.”

With this great function of State the record of the Queen’s career through half a century, and of the public affairs which her life influenced and which influenced it, may close for the present. A retrospective glance over that record suggests curious reflections.

Only seventeen years elapsed between the death of George III. and the accession of the Queen to the sovereignty of a people who had let a virgin continent slip from their grasp, and who were not only exhausted by wars, but whose wars had also exhausted the nations that trafficked with them. England had then but one hope of recovery. It was to bind the forces of Nature to the tarrying chariot-wheels of her Industry. To this end she bent the energies of her highest intellect and genius. For this reason, perhaps, the Victorian period, in which the Queen, stands out as the central figure, represents the triumph of the applied Sciences, rather than the apotheosis of the Arts and the Humanities. “The true founders of modern England,” says Mr. Spencer Walpole, “are its inventors and engineers.”[240] The mighty power which the British Empire now represents has therefore been built up under the Queen’s sceptre, not on the red fields of war, but in the laboratory, the workshop, and the mine. Three facts alone will serve to give the distinctive character of the Victorian age. When the Queen was crowned railway travelling was almost unknown; steam navigation had hardly emerged from the region of experiment; the telegraph was but a toy of the physicists. As we reflect on what the railway, the steamship, and the telegraph have done for England, we can measure the extent and discern the nature of the peaceful revolution in affairs over which the Queen has presided. The national resolve arrived at after the death of George IV. to recover the power and wealth which seemed to have vanished during the last years of his reign, and to recover it by gaining fresh dominion over the forces of Nature, naturally shaped the whole course of public policy. If England was to be resuscitated in the laboratory, the workshop, and the mine, the Sciences, rather than the Arts and Humanities, must be fostered. Capital must be set free. The dignity of Labour must be recognised. Commerce must be unshackled, and perfect freedom, combined with unbroken order, established in the land. The swift decay of privilege that marks the course of political reform during the last half century, the spread of popular education, the wide distribution of political power, the wise revision of the penal laws, the humane legislation designed to better and brighten the lot of Toil, the subjection of authority to opinion, the subjugation of Art to Industry, the absorption of literature by the Press, are but natural results of a struggle on the part of a masculine race to build up its power on the achievements of the inventor, the experimentalist, and the pioneer.

Nor can the harvest of its toil be deemed altogether unsatisfactory. The poor we have still with us, but their condition has been vastly improved since the reign of William IV. Save in one respect, that of house rent in large towns, the necessaries of life have been cheapened, while the purchasing capacity of the people has been increased. As for the upper and middle classes, their wealth in comparison with their numbers has been multiplied twofold since the Queen ascended the throne.

So far as the public life of the Queen has affected her House, these pages prove that it has done so in one way. At her Accession the Crown had almost entirely lost its authority as a governing order in the State. At her Jubilee the Crown held a position of authority higher than any to which it has attained since the time of William of Orange. According to Mr. Gladstone, the success of the Queen’s dynastic policy has been due to her determination to acquire influence rather than power for the Monarchy. _Imperium facile iis artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum est._ But if the Roman historian be right in holding that power can be most surely kept by the means whereby it has been acquired, he who runs may read the lesson of the Queen’s life. Its record, showing how her influence has been won, must also show those who will some day take her place, how alone it can be retained and strengthened.

INDEX.

Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Turkey, Visit of, to England, II. 293;
received at Windsor Castle, _ib._;
entertainments in his honour, 294;
made Knight of the Garter, _ib._

Aberdeen, Lord (Fourth Earl), appointed Foreign Secretary, I. 97;
his ready confidence in foreign powers, 199;
his opinion of Free Trade, 208, 209;
his adroit diplomacy with the United States, 231;
the high esteem in which he was held by the Queen, 238;
his attack on the foreign policy of the Russell Government, 394;
his wish to drive Palmerston from office, 395;
appointed Premier, 518;
his sympathy with Russia, 546;
three mistakes on the part of his Cabinet, 551;
his desire for peace before the Crimean War, 555;
confidence of the Queen in his policy, 563;
speech on the Prince Consort’s position, 576;
accusations against his Russian policy, 600, 617, 638;
letter from the Queen regarding his Russian policy, 601;
Prince Albert’s opinion of his war policy, 620;
defeat of his Ministry, 627;
his efforts to improve the condition of the army, 631;
his death, II. 72;
his character, _ib._

Aberdeen, Lord (Seventh Earl), appointed Viceroy of Ireland, II. 727

Aberdeen, inauguration of a statue to the Prince Consort by
the Queen, II. 182;
statue of the Queen unveiled by the Prince of Wales, 266;
opening of water-works by the Queen, 267

Abergeldie, The bridge over the Dee at, II. 720

Abu Hamed, Gordon at, II. 711;
the River Column at, 717

Abu Klea, Battle of, II. 713

Abu Kru, Battle of, II. 714

Abyssinia, the English expedition against King Theodore, II. 300, 312;
envoys to the Queen, II. 695;
the Treaty of Adowah, _ib._

“Acres and a Cow, Three,” II. 726

Act, Bank Charter, its favourable effect, I. 182

Act, Corporation, Repeal of the, I. 23

Act, Test, The repeal of the, I. 23

Acts, Criminal Law Consolidation, The, I. 28

Adam, The Right Hon. W. P., appointed First Commissioner of Works, II. 594

Adelaide, Queen, her ball to the Princess Victoria, I. 14

Aden, its occupation by the British, I. 52;
the appearance of the town, _ib._

Admiralty, The construction of ironclad ships for
the British navy proposed by, II. 126;
reduction of its expenditure, 441;
issue of the Fugitive Slave Circular, 489;
violent popular agitation against, 704;
errors in the accounts of, 710

Adowah, Treaty of, II. 695

Adullamites, The, II. 256

Affirmation Bill brought in by the Attorney-General, II. 658;
efforts of the Tories to prevent it from coming into force, _ib._;
defeated by a majority of three, _ib._

Afghanistan, war declared by England on Shere Ali, II. 555;
Lord Lytton’s disagreement with Shere Ali, 556;
success of the British invasion, 567;
the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari, 573;
unpopularity of Lord Lytton’s policy, 574;
capture of Cabul by General Roberts, _ib._;
the affairs of the country in 1880, 598;
Mr. Gladstone’s policy, 599;
defeat of General Burrows, _ib._;
splendid generalship of Sir Frederick Roberts, _ib._;
rescue of Candahar, _ib._;
Lord Beaconsfield’s policy impossible, 610;
dispute in Parliament as to the occupation of Candahar, 615;
controversy between England and Russia about the frontier of, 719

Africa, South, outbreak of the Caffre War, I. 254;
attack on the policy of the English Government in, II. 662;
contention between Liberals and Conservatives regarding, _ib._

Agricultural Holdings Bill, the strong opposition to, II. 659;
its terms, _ib._;
Mr. A. J. Balfour’s amendment, _ib._;
Mr. Clare Sewell Read’s remark on, _ib._;
Mr. Balfour’s amendment struck out on the Report, _ib._;
attempt of the House of Lords to mutilate the Bill, _ib._;
the amendments of the House of Lords rejected by the Commons, _ib._;
the measure passed, _ib._;
Lord Salisbury’s failure to hold his party firm
to the policy of resistance, _ib._

Aix-les-Bains, The Queen’s visit to, II. 719, 740

Akbar Khan, Treachery of, I. 118;
defeated, 121

_Alabama_ Claims, The, II. 342;
settled by arbitration, 390;
discussion on the matter in the House of Commons, 421;
the story of the controversy, 422;
the award of the arbitrators, _ib._;
Lord Chief Justice Cockburn’s opinion, 423

Albany, Duke of, the title conferred on Prince Leopold, II. 626;
a title of evil omen, _ib._;
_see_ also Leopold, Prince