738 



VICTORIA. 



the Prince Consort, and in 1869 her diary, Leaves 

 from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands, 

 of which a second installment appeared in 1885. 



On Feb. 17, 1876, Disraeli introduced in the 

 House of (.'ominous a bill to authorize the Queen 

 to take, in addition to her other titles, that of 

 Empress of India. The proposition was received 

 with disfavor by the Liberals, and excited general 

 disapproval among press and people. It was the 

 subject of long and fierce debates in the house, 

 but was insisted upon and carried through by 

 the ministry. The bill passed the House of Com- 

 mons Marco 23, the House of Lords April 7, and 

 received the royal assent April 27, and on April 

 2S the Queen issued a proclamation assuming her 

 new title. At the time of the passage of the bill 

 in the Commons the Government made pledges 

 that the new title should be used only with re- 

 gard to Indian affairs. 



In 1S7S the death of the Princess Alice took 

 place: in 1SSS those of the German Emperors Wil- 

 liam I and Frederick III; in 1884 that of Leopold, 

 Duke of Albany, youngest son of the Queen; in 

 1S!2 that of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clar- 

 ence and Avondale, eldest son of the Prince and 

 Princess of Wales: in 1896 that of Prince Henry 

 of Battenberg, husband of the Queen's youngest 

 daughter, who died on board the ship Blonde near 

 the West African coast, whither he had accom- 

 panied an expedition against the King of Ashanti. 

 In IS'.i!) the grandson of the Queen, the hereditary 

 Prince of Saxe-Coburg, died; in 1900 his father, 

 the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of the Queen, 

 and Prince Christian Victor, son of Princess Chris- 

 tian. 



On the occasion of the coming of age of the 

 Queen's sons and the marriages of her daughters 

 Parliament made provision. The Prince of Wales, 

 in addition to the revenues of the duchy of Corn- 

 wall, had 40,000 a year, the Princess 10,000, 

 and an addition of 36,000 a year for their chil- 

 dren was granted by Parliament in 1889. The 

 princess royal received a dowry of 40,000 and 

 8,000 a year for life; the younger daughters 

 30,000 and 6,000 a year each. The Dukes of 

 Edinburgh, Connaught, and Albany were each 

 \ oted an income of 15,000 and 10,000 on marry- 

 ing. All these grants were voted under the con- 



were transferred to the nation. 



June 20. ISS7. was the fiftieth anniversary of 

 the coronation of Queen Victoria, and the country 

 threw itself into the celebration with enthusiasm; 

 large sums of money were everywhere subscribed; 

 in every city, town, and village something was 

 done both in the way of rejoicing and in the way 

 of establishing some permanent memorial of the 

 event. In London the day itself was kept by a 

 solemn service in Westminster Abbey to which the 

 Queen went in state, surrounded by the most 

 brilliant royal and princely escort that had ever 

 accompanied a Hrilish sovereign, and cheered on 

 her way by the applause ,,f hundreds of thousands 

 of her subjects. Around her carnage rode her 

 sons and sons-in-law, and some of her grandsons, 

 conspicuous among them being the noble figure 

 the ill-ftited crown prince, afterward the Km 

 peror Frederick, with his son. the present German 

 Ltnperor. Waiting to receive her Majesty in the 

 Abbey were the ambassadors and ministers of all 

 the peers and the peeresses, the members 

 i louse of Commons, the judges, the most 

 iguished officers of l K >th services, and a mul- 

 titude of all that is eminent in every branch of 

 the national life, while grouped together and gazed 



upon by every eye stood a representative body 

 of the Indian princes. Other ceremo'nials con- 

 nected with the celebration of the jubilee were the 

 opening of the People's Palace on May 14, a re- 

 view of volunteers on July 2 at Buckingham Pal- 

 ace, the laying of the foundation stone of the 

 Imperial Institute on July 4, a review of 58,000 

 troops at Aldershot on July 9, and on the 23d a 

 review of ' the fleet at Spithead, in which 135 ves- 

 sels of war were gathered together, including 20 

 armored and 9 unarmored ships, 38 first-class tor- 

 pedo boats, the same number of gunboats, and 12 

 troop ships. 



In September, 1896, the reign had reached a 

 point at which it exceeded in length that of any 

 other English sovereign: but by her special re- 

 quest all public celebrations of the fact were de- 

 ferred until the following June, which marked 

 the completion of sixty years from her accession. 

 The prime ministers of all the self-governing colo- 

 nies, with their families, were invited to come to 

 London as the guests of the country to take part 

 in the jubilee procession: and. at the same time 

 drafts from the troops that preserve order in every 

 British colony and dependency were brought home. 

 The programme of the procession was quite 

 different from that of 1887. In the latter case 

 the Queen had driven from the palace to West- 

 minster Abbey, surrounded by the princes of her 

 family; hid there taken part in a service which 

 was almost a repetition of the coronation service: 

 and had quickly returned home. On the present 

 occasion her purpose, as officially announced, was 

 " to see her people and personally to receive their 

 congratulations"; and with this intention the 

 route chosen was three times as long, and three 

 times as many persons were thus enabled to offer 

 their greetings to the Queen. The route taken 

 was from Buckingham Palace, along Constitution 

 Hill, Piccadilly, St. James's Street, Pall Mall, and 

 the Strand to St. Paul's Cathedral, where the pro- 

 cession halted while a short service was held on 

 the steps, the Queen not leaving her carriage on 

 account of her lameness. Thence she proceeded to 

 the Mansion House, where she received an address, 

 and then the great novelty of the day crossed 

 London Bridge, traversed south London amid 

 crowds as great and enthusiastic as those which 

 thronged the West End, and returned home by 

 way of Westminster Bridge and St. James's Park. 

 Some time later the Queen gave a garden party 

 at Buckingham Palace, and held numerous recep- 

 tions at Windsor, including that of the colonial 

 troops and that of the members of the House of 

 Commons and their wives. The Queen herself held 

 a great review at Aldershot; but a much more 

 significant display was the review by the Prince 

 of Wales in her behalf of the fleet at Spithead 01 

 Saturday, June 26. 



In Ma'y, 1899, the Queen performed what proved 

 to be her last ceremonial function in Lonuon. the 

 laying of the foundation stone of the buildings 

 that were to complete the museum- to be called 

 the Victoria and Albert Museum which had been 

 planned forty years before by the Prince Consort. 

 and one week later she celebrated her eightieth 

 birthday. In the spring she visited Dublin, where 

 she spent four weeks ;l t the vice-regal lodge. The 

 following autumn her health began to fail, but 

 she continued her Usual occupation-, ami before 

 Christmas journeyed to Osborne. where she died 

 Jan. 22. 1901. The first portion of the ceremonies 

 in connection with the funeral took place on Fri- 

 day. Feb. 1. when the remains were removed from 

 Osborne and placed on board the royal yacht 

 Alberta, which conveyed them across the Solent 

 to Portsmouth harbor. The coffin was carried 



