Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1901 — VICTORIA IS DEAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

VICTORIA IS DEAD.

Britain’s.Be'oved Queen Passes Peacefully Away. EMPIRE LN MOURNING Prince of Wales Now Ascends the Throne as Edward Vil. Members of the Royal Fa mi jr Were at the Bedside When the Final Summons Cain j — Career of the Noble Woman Who Governs 1 the Destinies of More than Three Hundred Million Subjects —Her Reign Wes the Longest in the History of the English People. Queen Victoria is dead. She passed away. Tiu'sday, surrounded by her physicians an i the members of her family. The Prince of Wales is now King of Great Britain au.l Ireland and Emperor of India. The Queen's death places him on the throne as her legal successor. He will reign as Edward VII. The long and beneficent reign of Queen Victoria is at an end. After occupying the throne of England for more'than sixty-three years the venerable woman whose name is so closely identified with England’s greatest is no more, and her subjects have awakened with profound sorrow to the consciousness that her rule is over. Not only in Great Britain and its dependencies, but throughout the civilized world, the news has been received with a keen sense of the greatness with which she has played her part both ns woman and as queen. It has been the especial merit of the Queen so to till the functions of rulership as to exer-

vise a positive influence. By precept and example, by her eminent qualities of good sonsy and kindliness, by her strength of character and her love of peace, she has done much to make the nation great and to secure the advancement of the world at large. It is a noteworthy fact that whHe the changing conditions since she was crowned in 1831 have tended to reduce greatly the specific powers of sovereignty she has accepted the natural trend of events with equanimity, steadily gaining in esteem and affection as the years passed. Never has she been more sincerely revered and loved than during the decade just closed; never has the quiet foroe of her influence been more generally recognized. The whole period embraced in the Victorian era has lieen the period of Great Britain's greatest imperial development. The statesmen who were her advisers when she came to the throne, a girl of 18, seem now to have belonged to nn entirely different epoch, so great has been the change in the political world and in the currents and tendencies of intellectual life, In all this process of growth Victoria has exercised a wholesome, if passive, influence. She has met new burdens and honors with dignity; 41ie has kept before the British public high ideals of principle and conduct; and if the political growth and material prosperity of England are not directly traceable to her, her essential goodness nnd her well-poised character have at least done much to mniiltain the sentiments of confidence and patriotism which tend most to make for a nation’s happiness. The change of rulers necessitated by the death of the Queen comes at a time when the empire is beset with dangers and difficulties. After nn era which is destined to be us distinctive in British ■liistory ns the era of Eliznladh, it was Vietoiia’s fate to see the British empire embarrassed by war and apparently losing its primacy among the nations of the earth. Whether it has not actually passed the climax of its greatness and is now on the point of a retrograde movement isji question yet to be determined. Tha circumstances under which Albert Edward assumes the sovereign power as iug Edward VII. are therefore peculiarly trying, but thoughtful observers will be slow to conclude that ns king he will fail to satisfy the needs nnd expectations of the British people. However England may huve looked upon its heir apparent twenty years ago, in the recent years during which he has been called upon to perform most, of the public and I'eremoaiii) functions of the monarch, acting ns Victoria’s representative, he has shown dignity nnd discretion. His reign in all probability will be comparatively brief, but there is good reason to believe that he will be guided by safe nnd sober conservatism and will be a popular monarch. Nobody will ever speak of "Victoria the Great,” but her virtues have given her a right to a better title—“ Victoria the Well-Beloved.” And in earning that name she bus rendered the best possible service to the English monarch) 1 . Iu a stronger grasp the frail scepter might have snapped—her soft hand held it safe. A ictoria saw England become in nil essentials a republic. It was because the monarch, had ceased to govern that she continued to reign, and that her people watched nt her deathbed with a sorrow as keen as If a personal 'bereavement were impending over every family?

VICTORIA AT HER CORONATION.