Queen Victoria's Jubilee
"THE SPECTATOR," JUNE 25TH, 1887.
Providence has been kind to the Queen. Her Jubilee Day, June 21st, has come and gone, and the most noteworthy 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 catastrophe ; there were few accidents, probably not more than happen every day ; the procession, in its many-coloured pomp, and a certain magnificence derived from the presence of so many Princes, realized expectation • and the people, abroad in millions, were good-tempered, orderly, and most demon- strative of their loyalty. The Queen was wildly cheered along the whole route, and is reported to have felt her reception deeply. The only mistakes made in the arrange- ments were that the Navy was not sufficiently represented in the procession to Westminster Abbey ; that the Royal people, with the exception of the Bodyguard of Princes who rode round the Queen's carriage, were mostly in dosed car- riages; and that the parasols borne by the Queen and Princesses were a great deal too large. The illumination in the evening was most splendid, though it woukl have been more perfect if each street had, like Bond Street, subjected itself to a decorating committee ; and the absence of disorder was unprecedented. Six ladies, for instance, report in the Times that they moved about in a group unattended, and saw everything without let or hindrance, 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.
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