TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE QUEEN'S EQUANIMITY. THE celebration of her eightieth birthday has once again made the Queen the object of sympathetic interest and criticism throughout the English-speaking world, and once again all her special characteristics of heart and head have been enumerated and discussed. In our own opinion, one of the most striking and most valuable gifts possessed by her Majesty is that of equanimity. Throughout her low.- and arduous life she has never failed to keep her head, to see things in their true ptoportions, and to maintain a wise, sane, and equable outlook on public affairs. The Queen, that is, in spite of the thousand temptations which must have arisen during sixty-two years of sovereignty, has never shown fussiness, irritability, over-anxiety, or any other form of distraction and want of mental balance. There must have been plenty of steps taken in home and foreign affairs, plenty of Bills passed and policies adopted, of which the Queen has most heartily and strongly disapproved. Again, there must have been plenty of cases in which statesmen have been raised to power by popular favour, or dismissed from power by the fickleness of public opinion, in which the Queen has entirely differed from the majority of her people. Whether the Queen or her people have been in the right does not matter. No doubt there have been some instances in which she has been wrong and the public right, and others in which her personal view has proved the true one. The impor- tant, the essential thing is that she has always kept her head in public affairs, and that in regard to the controversies of the hour she has been able to show the well-balanced mind. When she sincerely and conscientiously disapproved of a measure or a policy that was triumphant for the moment she never showed fussy anxiety or irritability, never let it be seen or known that she thought the country was being injured by this or that fundamental change. Again, at times when a policy has been popular with which she has been in special and personal sympathy, she has never yielded to the temptation to let her name be connected with it, or to assume any credit for its initiation. Yet again and again it has happened that happy suggestions from the Queen have had extremely important results in policy and legislation. In theory her Ministers advise the Queen, but in practice she often advises them. In a word, the Queen has been able, thanks to the inestimable gift of equanimity, to show neither irritability nor anxiety when things have not gone the way she would have liked them to go, nor the slightest touch of triumph or self-complacency when her personal view has been in the ascendant. She has been perturbed neither by regret nor by pride, but has kept her mental balance absolutely alike in storm or calm.
But it is a commonplace to insist upon the Queen's equanimity. The country knows so well her perfect judgment, perfect tact, and perfect serenity in regard to all public matters, and judgment, tact, and serenity are the outward signs of equanimity. It is more interesting to inquire whence comes this equanimity to which the country owes so much. Unquestionably this gift, golden to all men, but thrice precious in a constitutional Sovereign, is largely the outcome of that singlemindedness and absolute rectitude of intention which marks the Queen. The Queen has always sailed an absolutely straight course. The idea of intrigue, of working for an ulterior object by unseen means, of concealed or personal aims, is unthinkable in connection with the Queen. She has never tried to enlarge her constitutional rights, to increase her personal power and influence, to have her own way because it was her own way. Again, she has never made favourites of this or that man, or even of this or that policy, and then tried to press them forward by any con- cealed means or secret device. Nobody has ever been able to say, 'The Queen has taken a great liking for this or that statesman, and means to push him quietly ; ' or, Her Majesty has set her heart on this or that scheme or proposal, and means to carry it somehow or other ; ' or lastly, If that is proposed the Queen will insist on striking a bargain, and having her favourite plan as to this or that put into execution.' The Queen, that is, has never had certain private aims in the background which she has been intently pressing on while apparently doing other things. Her aim has been a single one,—to obey the law' custom, and etiquette of the Constitution, and to further in every possible way the good of the country. She has never, for example, as have many Monarchs, good as well as bad, been perpetually solicitous about advancing dynastic interests, improving the position of her family, or seizing oppor- tunities to increase the Royal power. Instead, there has been complete loyalty to her high position, and, as we have said, absolute singleness of aim. The result has been that, though the Queen has felt very deeply on many public questions, the note of personal passion has never been present to disturb, perplex, and distract. The Queen, therefore, has never been in the slightest danger of experiencing the humiliation of a personal defeat, , for her conduct has never been influenced, or her judgment clouded, by personal aims. If singleness of heart and pur- pose have helped the Queen to equanimity, so has that over- mastering sense of duty which has always distinguished her. To do her duty has always been the Queen's guiding thought, and the fact that she was born with a simple, straightforward, unsophisticated nature has helped her wonderfully. One cannot fancy the Queen splitting hairs as to whether it was her duty to do this or that, or paltering with hypothetical cases. But when once a man or woman has given a full allegiance to duty, and has resolved to follow that path unheeding, the result cannot but be to steady and uphold the mind,—to give the mens cequa in arduis. Take, again, the Queen's truthful- ness,—the quality which made Mr. Bright say that the Queen was the most absolutely truthful human being he had ever, known. This integrity and sincerity of heart and purpose must contribute greatly to equanimity. It is the shifty, insincere person, the person who makes half- hearted compromises between the true and false, not the loyal servant of the truth, who is perplexed in mind.
We have noted certain moral qualities which have helped to give the Queen her equanimity. There is, however, another source of mental balance which may fitly be mentioned here. The Queen cannot insist upon having her - own way in policy and legislation. Her policy is that of her Ministers. But she can and does, insist upon being fully and truthfully informed, and in full detail, upon all that is important to the welfare of the State. Hence, she always knows the best and the worst on every subject ; and hence her mind is never liable to be harassed by the fears and suspicions of ignorance. It is ignorance, or rather the inability to know whether one knows all or only a part, never knowledge, that distracts. By insisting on full knowledge and upon having nothing kept from her, the Queen has doubtless greatly strengthened her natural equanimity.
Perhaps it will be said that we have exaggerated the Queen's equanimity, and that we have not made allowance for the fact that it has never been tried by any great public disaster. Her reign, it may be urged, has been far too prosperous to test whether she possesses the true mens cequa in arduis. Before it can be said that she possesses that, one wants to know how she would have behaved if the Chartists had held London for a week and proclaimed a republic ; if one of her own Ministers had turned against her and joined in a plot to dethrone her; if an invading army had landed in Kent, or if we had lost India as we lost America.' No doubt the Queen has not—except, perhaps, for a few• months during the Mutiny—been greatly tried in publicaffairs. Yet, in spite of that, we believe we are perfectly justified in asserting, as we do assert, that she would have kept her equanimity even in such circumstances as those just described. The assertion is based upon the facts of the Queen's private life. There she has been tried as much as any woman could have been tried. Her husband, two of her children, a much- loved grandchild, and all her most devoted friends have died, and she has seen two of her daughters made widows under specially tragic circumstances. In truth, few loads of private sorrow have been heavier. Yet through all these terrible trials the Queen has borne a brave and constant heart. No sorrow has even for a moment impaired the balance of her mind. Even if her reign had been as full of danger and perplexity as it has been prosperous, nay, triumphant, we may feel certain that the Queen would have shown in the highest degree that equanimity for which we have ventured to praise her. It is, after all, a quality easier to display in public than in private affairs. .
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