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.
[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J], [K], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [Q], [R], [S], [T], [U], [V], [W], [Y], [Z]