NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Queen died at Osborne on Tuesday at half-past six in the evening, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, among whom was the German Emperor. To describe the nature of the loss that the nation and the Empire have suffered is almost impossible, form dealing with a character like that possessed by the Queen one shrinks from the ordinary language of eulogy as something gross and unfitting. A man cannot praise a well-loved mother when she dies. But the nation had grown to regard the Queen with an affection which was in no forced or metaphorical sense filial. There was not a man or woman in the country capable of feeling anything who did not feel a sense of love and rever- ence for the Queen absolutely and entirely apart from the loyalty that attached to her person as the Sovereign and the head of the State. The loss is a personal one, for we must all feel that we have lost one whose devotion to and love for her people knew no limits or restrictions, and whose sym- pathies were always with whatever was sound and noble in the national aspirations. When the Queen ascended the throne men felt that the girl-Sovereign occupied a position unique in the world's history. When she died she had achieved, owing to her own high character and lifelong devo- tion to the nation, a position equally unprecedented. There was never before a female Sovereign like her, and it will be long before the revolution of the ages gives us her equal.
