One hundred years ago
PROVIDENCE has been kind to the Queen. Her Jubilee Day, June 21st, has come and gone, and the most notewor- thy fact about it is that it was not spoiled, either by failure, by accident, or by natural causes. The weather was superb, cloudless and yet cool; the revolutionists, whether Irish or foreign, remained passive; there was no cata- strophe; there were few accidents, probably not more than happen every day; the procession, in its many- coloured pomp, and a certain magnifi- cence derived from the presence of so many Princes, realised expectation; and the people, abroad in millions, were good tempered, orderly, and most de- monstrative of their loyalty. . . . The only mistakes made in the arrangements were that the Navy was not sufficiently represented in the procession to West- minster Abbey; that the Royal people, with the exception of the Bodyguard of Princes who rode round the Queen's carriage, were mostly in close carriages; and that the parasols borne by the Queen and Princesses were a great deal too large. . . . The absence of disorder was unprecedented. Six ladies, for inst- ance, report in the Times that they moved about in a group unattended, and saw everything without let or hindr- ance, or annoyance of any kind. The whole affair was, in short, a success most creditable to the people, to the police, and to the Court.
The Spectator, 25 June 1887
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