Page:The Queens of England.djvu/607

VICTORIA. 545 held sway over the vast British Empire, and the title would be valuable in the administration of affairs in India. The Queen had a high regard for and confidence in his sound judg- ment. When his death was announced to her she said : "His Garter shall remain vacant." Gladstone, the antagonist of the Hebrew statesman, has been long and constantly, before Eng- land and the world, and the world missed him from his ac- customed relations to England's polity. ' Her Majesty, ever quick to recognize and appreciate merit, has encouraged and helped those who have helped themselves, no less than those who have helped their sovereign and her realm, and the names of those great in science, literature and art, who have lent added luster to the greatness of the Vic- torian era, would fill a volume. The Peace Jubilee of 1887 was the enthusiastic expression of a loyal people, of their intense joy and thankfulness that Victoria had ruled the nation with justice and mercy for fifty years. No other Queen has attained such honor, love and prosperity, and no other Queen could hold such exalted position and receive such laudations with quiet simplicity. In the midst of a pageant of splendor and royalty from all the coun- tries of the earth, glittering- with color, jewels and insignias of high orders, Victoria appeared in a gown of black and gray, wearing the broad ribbon and decoration of the Order of the Garter, an inconspicuous bonnet, her soft gray hair her only crown, Her Majesty's three sons, in full uniform and magnifi- cently mounted, an imposing bodyguard of Princes, immediately preceded their royal mother in the august procession, and with the field officers in British red in the rear of the state carriage— the Queen never allowed herself other military escort — formed a brilliant setting for the simple dignity of the majesty whom they all delighted to honor. "She moved as ever, with a beau- tiful stateliness that well expressed her royal authority; her face gravely radiant, her eyes turned to. right and left, as with her unequaled demeanor she acknowledged the salutations ad- dressed to her on either side." On the same spot in Westminster, where fifty years before, as a young girl, the Queen had knelt and sworn fidelity to the constitution of the kingdom, and to govern according to law, justice and mercy, the aged Queen appeared, followed by chil- dren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to return thanks to the Almighty for the blessings of her reign and the augment-