The Queen and Empire.

Manawatu Herald, 8 June 1897, Page 2

The Queen and Empire.

The record of her reign is one long, almoßt unbroken record of Imperial expansion. The heritage which she received at her coronation she will pass on to her successor multiplied many times. Of all the jewels in her diadem of Empire she has losfc none — save and except the rabbit warren of Heligoland — aiH exception which makea all the more conspicuous the uniform record the reign. Our* disputed titles «o Delagoa Bay and South Africa,' ana

to the island of San Juan in Northwest America, were maintained until the decieiod of an International Arbitration conveyed these vantage points to the other claimant?. The Orange Free State and the Transvaal were not in existence in 1887. If W9 have lost them during the reign of Victoria, it was during her reign that they came under our fljg. Neither would have been lobt to us if Her Majesty had been permitted to overrule the veto which Downingstraet placed upon South African federation. The lonian Islands, which we occupied rather than possessed, we hauded over to the Kingdom of Greece. But with these inconsiderable exceptions, wherever the British flag flew on June 20, 1887, it is flying to-day. Our heritage she has kept intact, and great military empires, hungry for the spoil of the Queen of the Seas, have risen op in the last sixty year?, but of the colonies and possessions with which the Queen was invested in the grey old Abbey on that June day, she ha? lost none. The additions to the British Empire during the Victorian reign began with the occupation of Aden iu 1889, and from that date down to the occu pation of Nupe last month in the Niger Protectorate, the record is one of continuous expansion. What with protectorates and annexations, we have added to the territory sheltered by the Union Jack in the course of Her Majesty's reign, dominions nearly double the area of the whole. lndian Empire as it existed in 1887. There is nothing approaching to this record in the history of the world. The facts of the growth of the Empire are familiar enough, but what, it will be asked by the ill-in-formed, had the Queen to do with it ? Much more than has yet appeared, or will be allowed to appear, in her lifetime. For nearly half her reign tho Queen was. almost the only person in the Empire who seemed to oare to keep it together. Of the worthies of the Victorian era we may say : — Servants in Queen, and Queen in servants blest ; Your only glory, how to servo her best ; And hera, bow best the adventurous might to guide, Which knows no check of foemen, wind or tide. — Reviexo of Sevietcs.