On Wednesday last—her eighteenth birthday—the minority of the young Queen
of Holland was ended, and in a simply worded Proclamation she announced her accession to the throne. After a warm acknowledgment of the affection with which she has been surrounded from childhood, and a filial expression of her debt to her mother the Queen-Regent, Queen Wilhelmina declares that the aim of her life will be to follow her mother's example, and govern in the manner expected of a Princess of the house of Orange. The conditions under which the young Queen enters on her rule, recalling in more ways than one the accession of our own Queen, appeal with peculiar force to our sympathy. Indeed, since 1837 no Sovereign has ascended any throne more happily endowed with the personal qualities which make for popularity, or with more solid guarantees, in the loyalty of her subjects and the tran- quillity of her country, for a long and prosperous reign. We only wish that Queen Wilhelmina may get as good a husband as the Prince Consort, and as wise and fatherly a first adviser as Lord Melbourne. Then she may make the Dutch people wish for an anti-Salic law.
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