MR DISRAELI ON THE QUEEN'S HEALTH.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1209, 29 December 1871, Page 2

MR DISRAELI ON THE QUEEN'S HEALTH.

At a dinner at Hughenden, in proposing the Queen's health, Mr Disraeli

said : The health of the Queen has for several years been a subject of anxiety to those about her, hut it is only within thjo last year that the country generally has become acquainted with th«i gravity of that condition. I believe I may say that there is some improvement in her condition J believe I may say there is some improvement in her Majesty's healtli—hear, hear— but I fear a long time most elapse beibie it will reach that average condition which she has for some time enjoyed, and 1 do not think we can conceal {rem ourselves that a still longer time must elapse before her Majesty will be able to resume the performance of those public and active duties which it was once her pride and pleasure to fulfil, because they brought her into constant and immediate contact with her people. The fact is, we cannot conceal from ourselves that her Majesty is incapacitated from performing those duties, but It is some consolation to her Majesty's subjects to know that, in the performance of those much higher duties which her Majesty is called upon to perform, she is still remarkable; for a punctuality and a precision which have never been surpassed and rarely equalled by any monarch of these realms. (Hear, hear.) A. very erroneous impression is prevalent res peering the duties of the Sovereign of this country. Those duties are multifarious ; they are weighty, and they are unceasing. I will venture to say that no head of any department in the State perform > more laborious duties- than fall to the Sovereign of this country. There is not a despatch received from abroad nor one sent from this country which is not submitted to the Queen. The whole internal administration of this country greatly depends upon the sign manual, and of our present Sovereign it may be said that her signature has never been placed to any I public document of which she did not I know ihe purpose and of which she did | not approve. Those Cabinet Councils j oi which you ail hear, and which am | necessarily the scene of anxious and im- | portant deliberations, are reported and j communicated on their termination by j the Minister to the Sovereign, and they often call from her critical remark-, necessarily requiring considerable at ten-, tion. Ami I will venture to add that no person likely to administer the affairs of this country would treat the. suggestions of her Majesty with indifference, for at tills moment there is probably, uo person living in this country who has such complete control over the. political traditions, of England as the Soveieign herself. (Hear, hear.) The. last generation of statesmen have all, or almost ail, disappeared—the Sir Robert Pes Is, the Lord Derbys, the Palmers tons have gone, and there is no person who can advise her Majesty, or is likely to advise her Majesty in the times in which we live, or who can have such a complete mastery of what has occurred in this country, and of all the great" and important affairs of State, foreign and domestic, foi the la-»l 3-i years, as the Queen herself. He therefore, would not be a wi.-e man who would not profit by her Majesty's judgment and experience. 1 would venuire, in conclusion, to remind those whom J address th.-r, although her Majesty may lie, and often is, of great service and assistance to her servants, there never Was a more Constitutional Sovereign than our present Queen. (Cheers.) All who have served her would admit that when Ministers have been selected by her in deference to what she believed to be the highest interests of the State in the opinion of the country, she gives to them a complete confidence and uiideviating support. But although there never was a Sovereign who would more carefully avoid arrogating to herself any power or prerogative winch the Constitution does not authorise, so I would add there never was arSovereign more jealous or more wisely jealous of the prerogatives which the Constitution has allotted to her, because she believes they are for the welfare of her people.