Toward the end of 1861 Prince Albert’s strength began to fail, and on December 14 he passed away. His death was a severe blow to the queen and to the nation. Two years afterwards she wrote in a letter to Dean Stanley, “I can never be sufficiently thankful that I passed safely through those two years [the two first years of her reign] to my marriage. Then I was in a safe haven, and there I remained for twenty years. Now, that is over, and I am again at sea, always wishing to consult one who is not here, groping by myself, with a constant sense of desolation.”
In 1863 the Prince of Wales was married. For several years the government had serious trouble with the Fenian uprisings in Ireland and America. In 1867 the Dominion of Canada was constituted. 1868 witnessed a cabinet change from Derby to Disraeli, and from him to Gladstone; and the passage of a reform act for Scotland and Ireland. In 1874 Disraeli succeeded Gladstone as premier. In 1875 Great Britain acquired control of the Suez canal, and in 1876 the queen was proclaimed Empress of India. In 1879 Great Britain was carrying on war in India against revolting tribes, and in South Africa against the Zulus. Two years later (1881) she attacked the Boers of the Transvaal, but met with defeat. In 1885 there was a further loss of military prestige by withdrawal from the Soudan campaign. In 1887 the queen celebrated her semi-centennial jubilee, and ten years later (1897) her diamond jubilee. In 1900 she witnessed the consolidation of her Australasian colonies, and in 1901 the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia. The closing years of her life were clouded by the attitude of her country in South Africa, and the losses of life and treasure entailed by the war with the Boers. It was said by many that her anxiety and grief over this situation hastened her death. Her last illness was brief and painless, and her death took place at Osborne, Isle of Wight, surrounded by her family, at 6.55 P.M. on January 22, 1901, in the eighty-second year of her age, and sixty-fourth of her reign.
Her death occasioned sincere mourning throughout the civilized world. She was succeeded by her oldest son, the Prince of Wales, who ascended the throne on January 23, 1901, and assumed the title of Edward VII. The queen and Prince Consort were ever anxious as to the education of their children. They were trained to industry and economy. The daughters were taught accomplishments as well as sewing and cooking, and were given to understand that they were not to marry without affection, nor for mere money or reasons of state. Victoria was herself a careful manager in pecuniary affairs. By thirty she had saved enough from her income to provide for the whole expense of her new place at Osborne, where she died,—about $1,000,000,—while for the Prince she had already saved from the revenues of her Cornwall estate, $500,000. The Prince left her a valuable estate which at her death had come to be estimated at $25,000,000. This, added to her own judicious investments through the sixty-four years of her reign, gave her rank as one of the wealthiest of sovereigns, as well as of the world’s persons.
Already the “Victorian era” is being celebrated as the greatest period of progress that Britain ever knew, as the golden age of England. And this with much propriety and truth, for her reign teemed with instances of the exercise of power in the form of moral influence, with results important and far reaching. Some of these instances showed statesmanship of a high order. She never took sides in partisan politics, nor antagonized the policy of her responsible ministers, though often advising them and even at times correcting their serious mistakes, never cheapening her advice by offering it in affairs of little moment, always straightforward, self-reliant, vigilant for the rights of the people, yet strenuous of law, neither misled by flattery, nor coerced by fear, a hater of evil, a maker of peace. More than once, in hours of crisis, did she exercise a moral influence whose weight turned the course of events in both Europe and America. As an instance of this, the modification of Lord Palmerston’s action in the Trent affair, already mentioned, may be referred to. And when Bismarck, surprised at the rapid recovery of France from the effects of the Franco-Prussian War, had resolved on a second invasion and humiliation, it was through Victoria’s intervention that the aged German emperor was influenced to refuse a renewal of hostilities.
If her reign pass into history as the “Victorian Era,” then it will truly have many interesting chapters, some grandly inspiring, others—for such there must be—widely open to the criticism and judgment of posterity. It witnessed the greatest achievement in invention, the greatest advancement in science and art, and the most remarkable evolution in the relations of capital and labor that the world has ever seen. No equal period of world-history has seen such unparalleled growth of a people, and such unexampled expansion of national territory. At the beginning of her reign the population of the Empire was 127,000,000. At her death it embraced 11,334,000 square miles and 384,000,000 people. The United Kingdom itself grew from 16,000,000 to 40,000,000 besides sending out its swarms of emigrants to people continents and isles. Commerce kept even pace with this advancement. British ships sailed every sea. England’s flag was known in every port of the world. During Victoria’s reign the foreign trade of Great Britain increased 420 per cent. The great cloud on the Victorian era was England’s wars,—the questionable Crimean War of 1853–55; the Indian mutiny of 1857, which ran a frightful course of rapine and bloodshed; the Soudanese campaign; the Boer War in South Africa.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.
Many of the original illustrations were grainy and faded. In this eBook, the graininess has been reduced, when possible, and the contrast has been increased, when necessary.