At a non-official but representative banquet held in honour of
the Queen's birthday on Wednesday, Lord Rosebery pointed out that on mounting the throne the Queen had only two things left her to achieve,—domestic happiness and the obtaining of the affection of her subjects. He then dwelt on the sovereignty she had exercised far beyond the limits of her dominions by giving to the world the example of the purest and loftiest life, and claimed that in the convulsion of 1848, thanks to her influence and position, aided by the emancipating policy of Sir Robert Peel, the throne of Great Britain, almost alone amid the general shock, had remained un- shaken and undisturbed. The Queen, he continued, was the bond and symbol of our Empire. She had helped the cause of monarchy all over the world, she had strengthened all righteoue thrones, all upright Monarchs, and whatever might be the ultimate verdict of history, whatever the name by which she would be styled, she was already known to us as Victoria the venerable and Victoria the well-beloved. Speeches were also delivered by Lord Strathcona on behalf of Canada, and by Colonel Taylor, as representing the American Society in London, who read a despatch from the camp at Port Tampa, in Florida, suggesting the erection of a statue to the Queen in the States.
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