NA TURE 



293 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1901. 



THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 



IVJ OT only the British Empire, but the whole 

 -*■ ^ world is mourning the death of one of 

 the most beneficent Sovereigns who has ever 

 adorned a throne. History will for many cen- 

 turies record the fact that her long reign has 

 been contemporaneous with the most tremendous 

 advances of science which the world has so far 

 seen. In consequence of one of these advances, 

 the civilised communities spread over the whole 

 surface of the planet have mourned simultaneously, 

 and as with one voice, the loss of one universally 

 beloved. 



But besides the advances in pure science which 

 have characterised the reign, and the applications 

 of it to the amelioration of human ills and to the 

 greater well-being of humanity, there has been pro- 

 gress along other lines which have been largely de- 

 pendent upon the Queen's own perfect life and 

 character ; her efforts to keep the world's peace, 

 and her intense anxiety that the well-being of 

 even the humblest of her subjects should be fully 

 cared for. 



Thanks to all these causes, constantly at work, 

 her glorious reign has possessed a special charac- 

 teristic, and it has been well called the Victorian 

 age. 



What we owe to the circumstances of the time, 

 and Her Majesty's unceasing efforts to mould them 

 for the nation's good, has been well stated in the 

 Times. 



" Her reign coincides very accurately with a sort 

 of second renaissance, an intellectual movement 

 accomplishing in a brief term more than had been 

 done in preceding centuries. Since the days of 

 Elizabeth there has been no such awakening of 

 the mind of the nation, no such remarkable stride 

 in the path of progress, no such spreading abroad 

 of the British race and British rule over the world 

 at large, as in the period covered by the reign 

 whose end we now have to deplore. In art, in 

 letters, in music, in science, in religion, and, above 

 all, in the moral and material advancement of the 

 mass of the nation, the Victorian age has been a 

 time of extraordinary activity." 



To mention these facts is sufficient to recall the 

 increased national activities, along these several 

 lines, not long after Her Majesty began her reign, 

 when she had by her side the late Prince 

 Consort, to whom the nation owed the idea of the 



Exhibition of 185 1 and everything which flowed 

 from it. His wide culture and complete training 

 enabled him to foresee then (that is, half a century 

 ago) what very few of our statesmen recognise now, 

 that brains and complete mastery of all the arts of 

 peace are the most stable bases of a nation's 

 greatness. 



Few young rulers were so happy as the Queen in 

 her family life until the lamented death of the 

 Prince Consort — one of the best friends that 

 the English nation has ever had. It was largely 

 owing to his wise foresight and influence that the 

 improvement of our British system of education 

 was undertaken ; and in 1852, in the Speech from 

 the Throne, Her Majesty spoke as follows : — 



" The advancement of the Fine Arts and of prac- 

 tical Science will be readily recognised by you as 

 worthy the attention of a great and enlightened 

 nation. I have directed that a comprehensive 

 scheme shall be laid before you, having in view 

 the promotion of these objects, towards which I 

 invite your aid and co-operation." 



The death of Prince Albert in 1861 was a blow 

 rom which Her Majesty may be said to have 

 never recovered. It was also a blow to British 

 science which the nation still feels. 



The late Lord Playfair told the story how 

 Her Majesty, not long after the commencement of 

 her reign, expressed her desire to show, by dis- 

 tinctions conferred upon them, that she regarded 

 men of science as fellow-workers for the nation's 

 good. He also told us how it came about that at 

 the time this desire was not carried into effect. But 

 during recent years Her Majesty from time to time 

 has shown in this way her interest in scientific pro- 

 gress, and the position of science in the national 

 regard is vastly different to-day from what it was 

 on Her Majesty's accession. 



The world is all the poorer for the departure 

 from us of our noble Queen. The nation is 

 stunned : each of her late subjects is mourning a 

 personal loss, but that does not prevent a universal 

 sympathy with those near the throne who, as 

 children or grandchildren, stood at the bedside at 

 so great a passing. 



The Royal Family may rest assured that, among 

 the minions of mourners for the loss of one who 

 was truly the Beloved and Revered Mother to all 

 her subjects all over the world, there are none 

 whose sympathy is deeper or more respectful than 

 that felt by the students of science throughout the 

 Empire. Editor. 



NO. 1630. VOL. 63] 



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