Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 04 (of 15), EnglishMorris, Charles
History
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 04 (of 15), English
Morris, Charles
Great Britain -- History
There was also a review of fifty-six thousand volunteers at Aldershot, a
grand review of one hundred and thirty-five warships at Spithead, and
other ceremonies, one of the chief of which was the laying by the queen,
on the 4th of July, of the foundation stone of the Imperial Institute in
the Albert Hall, this Institute being intended to stand as a sign of the
essential unity of the British Empire.
The well-loved queen of the British nation was to live to celebrate in
health and strength another jubilee year, that of the sixtieth
anniversary of her reign, a distinction in which she stands alone in
the history of the island kingdom. George III., who came nearest, died a
few months before the completion of his sixty years' period. Had he
lived to fulfil it there would have been no celebration, for he had
become a broken wreck, blind and hopelessly insane, a man who lived
despised and died unmourned.
But Victoria, though nearly eighty years of age, had still several years
to live and was fully capable of performing the duties of her position.
No monarch of England had reigned so long, none had enjoyed to so great
an extent the love and respect of the people, in no previous reign had
there been an equal progress in all that conduces to happiness and
prosperity, in none had the dominion of the throne of Great Britain so
widely extended, and it was felt for many reasons desirable to make the
Diamond Jubilee, as it was termed, the occasion for the most magnificent
demonstration that either England or the world had ever yet seen.
In all its features the observance lasted a month. It was not confined
to the British Isles, but extended to the dominions of the queen
throughout the world, in all of which some form of festive celebration
took place. But the chief and great event of the occasion was the
unrivalled procession in London on the 22d of June, 1897, an affair in
which all the world took part, not only representatives of the
wide-sweeping possessions of the British crown, but dignitaries from
most of the other nations of the world being present to add grandeur
and completeness to the splendid display.
To describe it in full would need far more space than we have at
command, and we must confine ourselves to its salient features. It began
at midnight of the 21st, at which hour, under a clear, star-lit sky, the
streets were already thronged with people in patient waiting and the
bells of all London in tumultuous peal announced the advent of the
jubilee day, while from the vast throng ringing cheers and the singing
of "God Save the Queen" hailed the happy occasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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