Show THE QUEENOF ENGLAND A Sad Decatlcucc in the Widow of Prince Albert You must know that the present queen and the queen of old when the model prince was still alive are two entirely different persons The former saw in her consort a guide a counsellor the constant object of her adoration she had an ostentatious os-tentatious court was highspirited charming charm-ing smiling and impulsive deigning to take a picnic dinner among the Scotch mountains taking pleasure in everything without being proud and if the term may be used for so august a personage was a good child She had the voice of a bird and gayly cooed the pretty airs of happy life With her own hands the amiable queen arranged her drawingroom under the eyes of Mendelssohn and tremblingly sang before him conforming no more to etiquette than her position necessitated She felt all the emotions of a young mother was fond of pleasure and showed her taste she mixed with her subjects and spread over the whole nation the rays of her own happiness Besides this she was an extremely elegant woman h Who would recognize that queen in the present elderly oldfashioned middle class person of heavy appearance and commonplace talk who flies from the world isolates herself perpetual mourning mourn-ing saddening herself by the bitterness of her regrets and appearing before her surroundings as the picture of a mind oppressed by a kind of precocious moral decrepitude After her death there will be an equal number of admirers and detractors de-tractors of Queen Victoria but whose judgment will be finally accepted is still a mystery Many English people especially es-pecially those of the middle class still love their queen from old custom But her Majesty Queen Victoria no longer rules her people She sees little by little her authority and her prestige disappearing dis-appearing The real queen has died with Prince Albert the queen who remains is hardly a shadow of the former Pall Mall Gazette |