III.
The Nineteenth Century has justly been called the Era of Woman. Whatever regard was formerly paid to her for moral merit or physical beauty, her mental powers were almost universally slighted and her higher education neglected. Now in every civilized country women of talent and genius, in both public and private station, are promoting the moral and material welfare and progress of the age. It is highly appropriate, therefore, that for half of this century, and for more than half, we trust, the sceptre of the mightiest empire of the world should be wielded by a woman who is an honor to her sex, and who for personal merit deserves a place in this list of royal women.
Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was born in Kensington Palace on the 24th day of May, 1819. When she was but eight months old, her father, Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of the pious, stubborn and unfortunate George III., died suddenly. He had been deep in debt, and thus his widow, a stranger in a strange land, and regarded with disfavor by her relations by marriage, had, even while living in a palace, to undertake the melancholy struggle of keeping up appearances. Fortunately she was a woman of sense and cheerful disposition, and had the invaluable assistance of her brother, Prince Leopold, whose wife, the Princess Charlotte, once the hope and joy of the English people, had died a few months after her marriage. Now he acted nobly a brother's part to his widowed sister, and Victoria long
