Preface

  'Her court was pure, her life serene;
     God gave her peace; her land reposed;
     A thousand claims to reverence closed
   In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen.'--Tennyson.

'God bless the Queen for all her unwearied goodness! I admire her as a woman, love her as a friend, and reverence her as a Queen. Her courage, patience, and endurance are marvellous to me.'--Norman MacLeod.

        'A Prince indeed,
   Beyond all titles, and a household name,
   Hereafter, through all time, Albert the Good.'--Tennyson.

This brief life of Queen Victoria gives the salient features of her reign, including the domestic and public life, with a glance at the wonderful history and progress of our country during the past half-century. In the space at command it has been impossible to give extended treatment. The history is necessarily very brief, as also the account of the public and private life, yet it is believed no really important feature of her life and reign has been omitted.

It is a duty, incumbent on old and young alike, as well as a pleasing privilege, to mark how freedom has slowly 'broadened down, from precedent to precedent,' and how knowledge, wealth, and well-being are more widely distributed to-day than at any former period of our history. And this knowledge can only increase the gratitude of the reader for the golden reign of Queen Victoria, of whom it has been truly written:

A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen.