



Produced by Jonathan Ingram, S.R. Ellison, and Project
Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders












QUEEN VICTORIA

STORY OF HER LIFE AND REIGN

1819-1901







[ILLUSTRATION: QUEEN VICTORIA. (From a Photograph by Russell & Son.)]



  'Her court was pure, her life serene;
     God gave her peace; her land reposed;
     A thousand claims to reverence closed
   In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen.'

                           TENNYSON.


'God bless the Queen for all her unwearied goodness! I admire her as a
woman, love her as a friend, and reverence her as a Queen. Her courage,
patience, and endurance are marvellous to me.'

           NORMAN MACLEOD.


        'A Prince indeed,
   Beyond all titles, and a household name,
   Hereafter, through all time, Albert the Good.'

           TENNYSON.


PREFACE.

This brief life of Queen Victoria gives the salient features of her reign,
including the domestic and public life, with a glance at the wonderful
history and progress of our country during the past half-century. In the
space at command it has been impossible to give extended treatment. The
history is necessarily very brief, as also the account of the public and
private life, yet it is believed no really important feature of her life
and reign has been omitted.

It is a duty, incumbent on old and young alike, as well as a pleasing
privilege, to mark how freedom has slowly 'broadened down, from precedent
to precedent,' and how knowledge, wealth, and well-being are more widely
distributed to-day than at any former period of our history. And this
knowledge can only increase the gratitude of the reader for the golden
reign of Queen Victoria, of whom it has been truly written:

     A thousand claims to reverence closed
     In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen.




CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.--Reign of Queen Victoria--Outlook of Royalty in 1819--Duke and
Duchess of Kent--Birth of Victoria--Anecdotes.

CHAPTER II.--First Meeting with Prince Albert--Death of William
IV.--Accession of Queen Victoria--First Speech from the
Throne--Coronation--Life at Windsor--Personal Appearance--Betrothal to
Prince Albert--Income from the Country.

CHAPTER III.--Marriage--Family Habits--Birth of Princess Royal--Queen's
Views of Religious Training--Osborne and Balmoral--Death of the Duke of
Wellington.

CHAPTER IV.--Chief Public Events, 1837-49--Rebellion in Canada--Opium War
with China--Wars in North-west India--Penny Postage--Repeal of the
Corn-laws--Potato Famine--Free Trade-Chartism.

CHAPTER V.--The Crimean War, 1854-55--Interest of the Queen and Prince
Consort in the suffering Soldiers--Florence Nightingale--Distribution of
Victoria Crosses by the Queen.

CHAPTER VI.--The Indian Mutiny, 1857-58--The Queen's Letter to Lord
Canning.

CHAPTER VII.--Marriage of the Princess Royal--Twenty-first Anniversary of
Wedding-day--Death of the Prince-Consort.

CHAPTER VIII.--Death of Princess Alice--Illness of Prince of Wales--The
Family of the Queen--Opening of Indian Exhibition and Imperial
Institute--Jubilee--Death of Duke of Clarence--Marriage of Princess May.

CHAPTER IX.--The Queen as an Artist and Author--In her Holiday
Haunts--Norman Macleod--Letter to Mr Peabody--The Queen's
Drawing-room--Her pet Animals--A Model Mistress--Diamond Jubilee--Death of
the Queen.

CHAPTER X.--Summary of Public Events and Progress of the Nation.





CHAPTER I.

Reign of Queen Victoria--Outlook of Royalty in 1819--Duke and Duchess of
Kent--Birth of Victoria--Wisely trained by Duchess of Kent--Taught by
Fraeulein Lehzen--Anecdotes of this Period--Discovers that she is next to
the Throne.


The reign of Queen Victoria may be aptly described as a period of progress
in all that related to the well-being of the subjects of her vast empire.
In every department of science, literature, politics, and the practical
life of the nation, there has been steady improvement and progress. Our
ships circumnavigate the globe and do the chief carrying trade of the
world. The locomotive binds industrial centres, and abridges time and
space as it speeds along its iron pathway; whilst steam-power does the
work of thousands of hands in our large factories. The telegraph links us
to our colonies, and to the various nationalities of the world, in
commerce and in closer sympathy; and never was the hand and heart of
Benevol