Sixty Years a Queen: The Story of Her Majesty's ReignMaxwell, Herbert, Sir
History
Sixty Years a Queen: The Story of Her Majesty's Reign
Maxwell, Herbert, Sir
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
The Colonies were as enthusiastic as the Old Country in their
celebrations of the Jubilee. In Ottawa there was a gathering of 7,000
school children on Parliament Hill. Each of the children carried a Union
Jack, and when these were waved together, while the National Anthem was
being sung, the effect is described as having been very remarkable. At
night the Parliament House was ablaze with 10,000 incandescent lamps, an
inscription on the right or Senate wing reading "God save the Queen,"
while on the left or Commons wing the device read "Dieu sauve la
Reine." Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg had each its own
well-arranged festivities. In Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, and in
the cities of New Zealand, the day was kept as a general holiday, the
decorations and illuminations being splendid in every case. In Cape Town
there was a review of troops and a huge procession headed by the Naval
Brigade. In Egypt, at Lagos, Sierra Leone, and at Mauritius, in the far
east at Singapore, at Hong Kong, and at Shanghai, in the East Indies and
the West Indies, in British Honduras and British Guiana--everywhere
where the Union Jack flies Her Majesty's subjects gathered together to
do her honour. Save only in her Empire of India, where the hearts of men
were hardly in tune with the festive spirit of the day. Yet, in spite of
the recent earthquake, which had shaken Calcutta to its foundations; in
spite of the plague, now happily only lingering in Bombay, and the
devastations of the recent famine, India was not without her joyful
celebrations, these appropriately taking the form, for the most part, of
acts of charity and mercy.
[Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Eyre & Spottiswoode._
THE SPEAKER IN HIS STATE COACH BEARING THE COMMONS' ADDRESS TO HER
MAJESTY.]
[Sidenote: Addresses from Lords and Commons.]
On Wednesday, June 23, the Lord Chancellor (Lord Halsbury) carried the
address of congratulation of the Upper House to Buckingham Palace, and
presented it to the Queen. This address had been moved in the House of
Lords by the Marquis of Salisbury on Monday, June 21, in the following
terms:--
"That a humble address be presented to Her Majesty on the auspicious
completion of the sixtieth year of her happy reign, and to assure Her
Majesty that this House proudly shares the great joy with which her
people celebrate the longest, the most prosperous, and the most
illustrious reign in their history, joining with them in praying
earnestly for the continuance during many years of Her Majesty's life
and health."
Mr. Speaker Gully, arrayed in his handsome Robes of State, went in his
great old gilded State coach to the Palace with a similar message from
the Commons.
[Sidenote: Gathering of School Children.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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