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

TENNYSON.


PREFACE.

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.