millions besides her own subjects—not so much because she is the Sovereign of Great Britain (though that in itself is a unique distinction), but because she unites in herself political, moral, and intellectual qualities of the highest order, granted by Providence only to the chosen few. That the Republic of the United States, which is no lover of crowned heads, and which is supposed to worship no other altar than that of genius, should hold in the highest possible veneration the name of our Queen is, in my opinion, the greatest testimony to her sterling merits.
Of the political talent of the Queen, it may only be said that she is the greatest authority living on the practical politics of Europe, and particularly on the intricate Constitutional questions of this country. She has spoken politics, acted politics, and lived politics all her life. The ablest of her Prime Ministers often owed the solution of many grave political difficulties to the knowledge of the Queen. A Radical journalist of renown has the following: "Broadly speaking, it may be fairly said by all her Ministers, Liberal or Conservative, that she has more knowledge of the business of governing nations than any of her Prime Ministers; more experience of the mysteries and intricacies of foreign affairs than any of her Foreign Secretaries; as loyal and willing a subservience to the declared will of the nation as any democrat in Parliament; and as keen and passionate an Imperial patriotism as ever beat in any human breast." The administrative ability of the Queen was formally acknowledged by the Society of Arts, the most impartial and learned association in the kingdom, when they conferred the "Albert Medal" on his noble consort, in 1887, for fifty years' wise and most Constitutional administration.
That Her Majesty is one of the greatest and most practical moral leaders of England will scarcely be denied by any wise and thoughtful body of men. The Court of England has never been purer throughout its history. Mr. Depew, in his Columbian oration in Chicago, styled her "the wisest of Sovereigns and best of women." John Bright said: "She is the most perfectly truthful person I ever met." A model wife, a model mother, a pattern to womankind!
But the quality which would endear her most to posterity is her intellectual eminence. A mind so deep, a will so strong, an imagination so rich could not have failed to give the world a philosophical work of lasting fame or a sensational novel of a high reputation. Even now her wide and fruitful excursions over the domains of literature and science are such as to reflect the highest credit on her mental powers. All who have read her "Journals in the Highlands" and her letters given to the public in the Life of the Prince Consort cannot fail to find a strong literary tendency in the Imperial mind. Nothing surprises one more than her wide information, her sweet and modest expression, and her logical and learned remarks in the course of conversation. But the latest display of her mental activity, which eclipses all past achievements in her literary pursuits, will come as an agreeable surprise upon all lovers of learning in every part of the world. Her Majesty the Queen, with all the duties and responsibilities incident to the possession of the Imperial sceptre, finds time to learn an Oriental language, and has actually made so great a progress during the last three years as to be able to write a separate diary in the Hindustani language.
The preservation of all mental faculties by distinguished men of letters in an advanced old age is the peculiar characteristic of the Victorian Era. Among many others, four personages in the Queen's reign have preserved their mental abilities without any perceptible decay to a patriarchal age. These are the late Lord Tennyson, the late Cardinal Manning, the present Prime Minister, and, last but not least, Her Majesty herself.
If it is interesting to hear that Mr. Gladstone can deliver lectures, write articles and review novels at his age, it is much more so to know that his Sovereign Lady, at her age, can master a new language entirely alien to the people of Europe, acquaint herself with the philosophy of the East, read the sentiments of her Eastern subjects in their vernacular, and keep a daily account of her work in her new language. It is all the more interesting because the Queen does it with a sincere desire to know the wants, manners and customs, ways and thoughts of the people, and particularly of the women, of India.
The fact of the Queen's studies has reacted in the most sympathetic manner in India. The princes and people of that country recognise in this Imperial act of further mark tender care and parental attention towards her subjects in the East. It serves to add one more strong link to the chain of loyalty and attachment which binds them to the throne of England. The Queen has set a noble example to the princes of India and scholars of the East. The aristocracy in
