The Queen's Birthday.

Manawatu Herald, 23 May 1899, Page 2

The Queen's Birthday.

To-morrow it is purposed to celebrate the birthday of our Queen and Empress, who will then have achieved the venerable age of eighty years, despite of all the energy and attention she has given to the affairs of an Empire the mightiest in the world. So much has been published about our Queen that a reference to her womanly ways and political knowledge would be but repeating an oft told tale, but the share Her Majesty has had in extending the boundaries of her kingdom, and of staving off the horrors of war remains implanted in the hearts of her subjects creating love and admiration. The age our Gracious Lady has now reached precludes one from wishing Her very many returns of the day, but we all pray that during the term it may be ordered that She shall remain in power She may b* blest with health and all happiness. An old historic figure of speech " Oh, King, live for ever " is not useable under the circumstahcts as the wear and tear of life to one placed as the Queen is, must be tremendous, and to wish even, that She should at her age, be called upon to still work for the benefit of Her millions of subjects appears to be beyond reason or fairness. But what a glorious record has been made by the Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria, a record which the mere recapitutation by other nations causes to tingle the blood of Englishmen, and lifts their thoughts to strive to better ' •deeds. The Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty called forth remarks from the representatives of all countries, and however much struck they were with the grandeur of the spectacle they were more so by the splendid outburst of loyalty whenever the Queen passed by. The American Ambassador bore emphatic testimony to this effect : Mr Chauncey Depew declared that " it was j the most superb exhibition of world wide Empire and loyalty to a sovereign witnessed in modern times." Again, the Temps said, " the whole of Europe has contemplated with an admiration not exempt from envy this grand affirmation oi national unity in the loyalty, spontaneity, and sincerity of their homage rendered by so many millions of men to the public and private virtues, the pure and spotless life, the tact, prudence, and truly constitutional spirit of a Sovereign whose real greatness has consisted in not remaining an inch within the limit of her duties, but also in not going a hair'sbreadth beyond her peroga.ti?e," Mr

Stead wrote " but it was neither the Colonial Procession nor the Navy that most touched the nations heart. It was the Queen herself. Her appearance on Jubilee Day was a positive revelation to her subjects. That plain little Lady in black in the midst of the gorgeous cavalcade of princes for the first time was seen as she is. Since last Jubilee what a transformation ! What have the photographers been doing that they never gave us a hint of the way in which age has transfigured, not to say glorified, these familiar features ? Never before was I so astonished at the change in any face. There was in the Queen's countenance as she passed through the long miles of embodied enthusiasm, an expression of might and of bene- : licence I had never seen before. There was majesty, but it was suffused with kindness, but the supreme expression was one of power and tenderness. 1 ' i Haying this full knowledge of Her Majesty, we know that her subects in I this colony will to-morrow wish her I many happy returns of the day, and ; will gladly join the world in the one : great shout ••God Save the Queen."