THE COMMEMORATION
A RECORD OF RECORD DAYS
By Charles Palmer
“O you that hold
A nobler office upon earth,
Than arms, or power of brain, or birth
Could give the warrior kings of old.”
Tennyson.
All the national pride and the power, the love of country, the growth of Empire, the loyalty, and the kinship which has characterised the reign of Queen Victoria, was exemplified or expressed in the memorable events that marked the Sixtieth Anniversary of Her Majesty’s Accession to the Throne. To tell the story of those days of joyous enthusiasm, which culminated in the triumphal progress of the Sovereign to London’s Cathedral of St. Paul’s on 22nd June 1897, is to write the record of a time of unexampled rejoicing throughout the Empire, and of scenes of pomp and splendour in the British Capital such as perhaps the world, and certainly England, had never before witnessed.
To attempt to trace the inception of so unique and historic a celebration would be impossible. It had no discernible beginning. The spirit of loyalty to the Throne, of love and devotion towards its illustrious occupant, had grown with advancing years, keeping pace with the artistic, the material, and the moral development of the Victorian Era.
On 23rd September 1896 Her Majesty’s reign had exceeded that of any other English monarch, George III., whose fourth son, Edward Duke of Kent, was the father of the Queen, having died in the fifty-ninth year of his occupancy of the throne. It was the Queen’s expressed desire, however, that the national rejoicing which would naturally signalise so auspicious a day should be postponed until the sixtieth anniversary of her accession. As soon as the Royal wish in this regard was made known, spontaneous preparations commenced over all her vast Empire with a view to celebrating in a manner worthy the nation and the nation’s Sovereign so great and glorious a reign. Side by side with extension of Empire there had been the growth of Imperial sentiment among the masses of the English people, and of love for the mother-country on the part of her Colonial sons. The invitation to the Premiers of Australia, Canada, the Cape, New Zealand, and Newfoundland to visit England and take a personal share in the national celebration was one which consequently met with a ready and hearty response. They were to bring with them representatives of the fighting forces of the Colonies and Dependencies—of the brave fellows who were helping to maintain that Greater Britain beyond the seas—and were to come as guests of the nation. They came, and they brought with them something else more valuable than all—the desire for closer union and for a united defence. Canada, through its Premier, Mr. Laurier, unfolded a scheme of preferential tariffs for the commerce of the mother-country; and Sir Gordon Sprigg carried with him the request that Cape Colony should be permitted to contribute towards the maintenance of the Imperial Navy—proofs of practical loyalty which none could mistake.
THE ROYAL PROCESSION—THE QUEEN’S CARRIAGE LEAVING BUCKINGHAM PALACE