THE GRIEFS OF QUEEN VICTORIA.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3121, 18 February 1879, Page 1

THE GRIEFS OF QUEEN VICTORIA.

The epi4«mic which has attacked—in one «ase fatally—the children of perhaps the most beautiful and assuredly not the least distinguished of the Queen's fair daughters, the Princess Alice of Hesse, has affected her Majesty rerf profoundly, and this circumstance, so fraught with anxiety, together with the continued tension in the political situation, has rendered a journey southwards something more than a matter of expediency. The Queen's health is surprisingly robust. She exhibits that abnormal impervious* ness to cold which betokens longevity, ,• and it i« a matter of notoriety that when her suite are starring (tic) she is perfectly indifferent to tempera* ture. Physically, therefore, our beloved sovereign possesses more than the arerage strength of womanhood. Mentally, how* ever, the conditions are reversed. It is not too much to affirm that the Queen is acutely sensitive, and her hich order of intelligence renders her almost keenly appreciative. It is not so many days since her Majesty expressed her dispair as to the possibility of our avoiding a conflict'with Russia, nnd the bare probabi'lUy of so colossal a calamity to Inuland and to Europe filled her with horror and apprehension. The lady who guides the destinies ai this vast empire is not one of tbos* morally-facile people who can con tempi* U awful responsi- f bility of warfare <with a light heart. * On the contrary. «*er sioee this interminable Eastern problem began to perplex the statesmanship of Europe she has labored, in season and out of season for peaecu The likelihood of her noble eflorts being foiled has caused this illustrious personage poignant regret, and to this has now been added the gravest anxiety onbehalf of her grandchildren. Tils strain upon an already overwrought brain has, in short, made a change of scene doubly dotaxable, and although there is, happily, no immediate cause for apprehension lest her Majesty should be eteii temporarily-un-.. - equal to the arduous duties which she discharges so conscientiously, still it is "~ neither impertinent nor inexact to affirm that the Queen has been passing through a very ttjiag ordeal at Balmoral, and one which' we would fain believe has already terminated.r-Wbitehall Review.