Great Britain and Her Queen

Great Britain and Her Queen

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Title: Great Britain and Her Queen
Author: Anne E. Keeling
Release Date: August 3, 2004 [eBook #13103]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN
by
ANNE E. KEELING
Author of "General Gordon: Hero and Saint," "The Oakhurst Chronicles," "Andrew Golding," etc.
Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged, 1897

[Illustration: Queen Victoria]

[Illustration: Claremont]

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE GIRL QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM
CHAPTER II.
STORM AND SUNSHINE
CHAPTER III.
FRANCE AND ENGLAND
CHAPTER IV.
THE CRIMEAN WAR
CHAPTER V.
INDIA
CHAPTER VI.
THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS
CHAPTER VII.
CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL
CHAPTER VIII.
OUR COLONIES
CHAPTER IX.
INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
CHAPTER X.
PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897
CHAPTER XI.
PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 1837-1897
CONCLUSION

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Queen Victoria Claremont The Coronation of Queen Victoria Kensington Palace Duchess of Kent Elizabeth Fry Rowland Hill Father Mathew George Stephenson Wheatstone St. James's Palace Prince Albert The Queen in Her Wedding-Dress Sir Robert Peel Daniel O'Connell Richard Cobden John Bright Lord John Russell Thomas Chalmers John Henry Newmann Balmoral Buckingham Palace Napoleon III The Crystal Palace, 1851 Lord Ashley Earl of Derby Duke of Wellington Florence Nightingale Lord Canning Sir Colin Campbell Henry Havelock Sir John Lawrence Windsor Castle Prince Frederick William Princess Royal Charles Kingsley Lord Palmerston Abraham Lincoln and his son Princess Alice The Mausoleum Dr. Norman Macleod Prince of Wales Princess of Wales Osborne House Sir Robert Napier Mr. Gladstone Lord Beaconsfield Lord Salisbury General Gordon Duke of Albany Duchess of Albany Sydney Heads Robert Southey William Wordsworth Alfred Tennyson Robert Browning Charles Dickens W. M. Thackeray Charlotte Bront? Lord Macaulay Thomas Carlyle William Whewell, D.D. Sir David Brewster Sir James Y. Simpson Michael Faraday David Livingstone Sir John Franklin John Ruskin Dean Stanley "I was sick, and ye visited me" Duke of Connaught The Imperial Institute Duke of Clarence Duke of York Duchess of York Princess Henry of Battenberg Prince Henry of Battenberg The Czarina of Russia H. M. Stanley Dr. Fridtjof Nansen Miss Kingsley J. M. Barrie Richard Jefferies Rev. J. G. Wood Dean Church Professor Huxley Professor Tyndall C. H. Spurgeon Dr. Horatius Bonar Sir J. E. Millais, P.R.A. Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A. Wesley preaching on his father's tomb Group of Presidents:--No. 1 Centenary Meeting at Manchester Key to Centenary Meeting Wesleyan Centenary Hall Group of Presidents:--No. 2 Sir Francis Lycett The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey. London, S.E. Theological Institution, Richmond Theological Institution, Didsbury Theological Institution, Headingley Theological Institution, Handsworth Kingswood School, Bath The North House, Leys School, Cambridge Queen's College, Taunton Wesley College, Sheffield Children's Home, Bolton Westminster Training College and Schools Group of Presidents:--No. 3
[Illustration: The Coronation of Queen Victoria]

GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN.
[Illustration: Kensington Palace]
CHAPTER I.
THE GIRL-QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM.
Rather more than one mortal lifetime, as we average life in these later days, has elapsed since that June morning of 1837, when Victoria of England, then a fair young princess of eighteen, was roused from her tranquil sleep in the old palace at Kensington, and bidden to rise and meet the Primate, and his dignified associates the Lord Chamberlain and the royal physician, who "were come on business of state to the Queen"--words of startling import, for they meant that, while the royal maiden lay sleeping, the aged King, whose heiress she was, had passed into the deeper sleep of death. It is already an often-told story how promptly, on receiving that summons, the young Queen rose and came to meet her first homagers, standing before them in hastily assumed wrappings, her hair hanging loosely, her feet in slippers, but in all her hearing such royally firm composure as deeply impressed those heralds of her greatness, who noticed at the same moment that her eyes were full of tears. This little scene is not only charming and touching, it is very significant, suggesting a combination of such qualities as are not always found united: sovereign good sense and readiness, blending with quick, artless feeling that sought no disguise--such feeling as again betrayed itself when on her ensuing proclamation the new Sovereign had to meet her people face to face, and stood before them at her palace window, composed but sad, the tears running unchecked down her fair pale face.
That rare spectacle of simple human emotion, at a time when a selfish or thoughtless spirit would have leaped in exultation, touched the heart of England deeply, and was rightly held of happy omen. The nation's