the truth--of having yearned for the truth for its own sake! All else is
either mere vanity or a sick man's dream."'

John Bright once said of the Queen, that she was 'the most perfectly
truthful person I ever met.' No former monarch has so thoroughly
comprehended the great truth, that the powers of the crown are held in
trust for the people, and are the means and not the end of government.
This enlightened policy has entitled her to the glorious distinction of
having been the most constitutional monarch Britain has ever seen.

In 1897 the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated,
representatives from all parts of the empire and from many foreign
countries taking part in a magnificent procession to and from St Paul's
Cathedral.

The already aged Queen continued to reign for only a few years longer. The
new century had hardly dawned when she was stricken down by the hand of
death. After a brief illness she passed away at Osborne on 22d January
1901, amidst an outburst of sorrow from the whole civilised world. Next
day the Prince of Wales was proclaimed as King Edward VII. On Saturday, 2d
February, amid a splendid naval and military pageant, the body of the
Queen was borne to St George's Chapel, Windsor, and on Monday buried in
the Frogmore Mausoleum beside Prince Albert.




CHAPTER X.

Summary of Public Events, 1856-93--Civil War in America--Extension of the