VICTORIA.
—♦—
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
"Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know:—
The mind attains beneath her happy reign
The growth that Nature meant she should attain;
The varied fields of Science, ever new.
Opening and wider opening on her view.
***
Let Discipline employ her wholesome arts;
Let magistrates alert perform their parts,
Not skulk or put on a prudential mask,
As if their duty were a desperate task;
Let active laws apply the needful curb,
To guard the peace that riot would disturb;
And Liberty, preserved from wild excess,
Shall raise no feuds for armies to suppress."
THOUGH many works, and some of considerable repute, have appeared before the public, relating to Victoria, there still remains such a vast field for further exertion, abounding in information interesting and instructive, and fraught with incidents deep and perilous, that it cannot be said the subject
