HEALTH TO HER MAJESTY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 202, 24 September 1878, Page 4

HEALTH TO HER MAJESTY.

(From the " News Letter.") Ifc is refreshing to find in an American paper now-a-days, such a reflection of the true-hearted and unenvious American gentleman as the following article from the Viginia Enterprise. It breathes throughout that just spirit of true reverence which every child should feel for a parent whose worthiness is his greatest pride. These are the words of a son who is not afraid to acknowledge his mother, and if the approval of the News Letter is of any importance, the " Virginia man" has it: —

< " This twenty-fourth of May is the birthday of England's Queen. She is 59 years of age to-day, and if she lives a month and four days more, will have reigned 41 years. She has been blessed and honored as no woman ever was before, and to her credit, be it said, she has received her blessings with thankfulness, and worn her honors meekly. She has ruled the mightiest empire of the earth — the mightiest empire that ever existed upon the earth — for two-score years. She is the mother of four sons andfive daughters.allof whom are living, and many of whom have between them and a crown but a single feeble life. A title has been given to her higher than any of her predecessors bore. Since, she has been Queen her subjects hate fought to a successful issue half a dozen wars, two of which have been terrible, and in the meantime the material wealth of her empire haa increased five-fold. But infinitely greater advances have been made in tbe passage of enlightened laws. A thousand abuses which prevailed at the time of her coronation have been swept away. She has been fortunate in having been, from the first, surrounded by sage councillors, and her reign will be pointed back to by history as an epoch of scholarship and statesmanship. The arts have advanced as swiftly as the material progress during her reign. To-day, at dawn, Englishmen began to drink her health, and the pledges will go on with the hours all round the great world ; and as at sundown they reach the point from which they departed at dawn, all good Englishmen will renew the pledge, except those who went to sleep under tbe tables earlier in the day. Every battlement and fort which belongs to Great Britain will roar out its salute to Victoria to-day. "Where ever, in port or at sea, there is to-day an English ship, there will cannon boom and flags dip the sea in honor of England's Queen. Two hundred and fifty millions of people will salute the one woman they turn to as their Queen or Empress. A special significance will be given to this birth-day, because of the splendour of her reign, and the clouds which now in the East give a sombre background to tbe magaificent picture. Surely if ever the heart of a woman has a right, to swell with pride, it is that of Victoria to-day. And yet, if ever there waa a woman who, in all humbleness of spirit, ought to Btretcb out her arms in thankfulness for the unprecedented glories that have been showered upon her, that woman is Victoria. Not especially gifted, not so beautiful as a million of jber subjects who walk the streets before her daily, all blessings and all honorsjhave been here. The fairies that watch above her cradle heaped every blessing upon her. Nevertheless, the plain woman has, after all, the right to command of her subjects to-day their reverence. In all the duties of wife and mather she has been true ; and if, upon this birthday, tbe summons should come for her to lay by her diadem, there would not be found a stain upon one of its gems."