On Saturday last Lord Rosebery unveiled a bronze statue: of
Queen Victoria at Leith, and delivered one of those public orations of which he is almost the only remaining master::: Queen Victoria was not merely the Queen, but the mother of the nation. Under the brooding care of her long reign her sovereignty emerged into a double and incalculable Empire ; her sympathy was with all her subjects ; she watched and. fostered all good causes with maternal care. Lord Rosebery, after touching on the rehabilitation of the Monarchy, the mighty expansion of the Empire, and the growth of art and letters, continued :—" But more than enough remains for renown, and I will not undertake the prodigious survey, for what I want to urge is something different. It is that both within and outside these islands there was established under' the last reign a new relation of .personal affection and, allegiance to the wearer of the British Crown. Nor is that all, or nearly all. It is not the mere increase of territory, not the bloodshed of war, however triumphant, nor the mere. swell of wealth that are the test of a glorious reign. It is well to make an Empire ; it is well to see victory crown a, righteous cause; it is well to see a nation, reap the fruits of its industry and intelligence. But. the test of a reign must be the condition of the nation itself,—its moral,. physical, intellectual welfare. And what reign will better, bear the crucial test than the long years of Queen Victoria P "-
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