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Rh itself into the celebration with unchecked enthusiasm; large sums of money were everywhere subscribed; in every city, town and village something was done both in the way of rejoicing and in the way of establishing some permanent memorial of the event. In London the day itself was kept by a solemn service in Westminster Abbey, to which the queen went in state, surrounded by the most brilliant, royal, and princely escort that had ever accompanied a British sovereign, and cheered on her way by the applause of hundreds of thousands of her subjects. The queen had already paid a memorable visit to the East End, when she opened the People's Palace on the 14th of May. On the 2nd of July she reviewed at Buckingham Palace some 28,000 volunteers of London and the home counties. On the 4th of July she laid the foundation stone of the Imperial Institute, the building at Kensington to which, at the instance of the prince of Wales, it had been determined to devote the large sum of money collected as a Jubilee offering, and which was opened by the queen in 1893. On the 9th of July the queen reviewed 60,000 men at Aldershot; and, last and chief of all, on the 25rd of July, one of the most brilliant days of a brilliant summer, she reviewed the fleet at Spithead.

The year 1888 witnessed two events which greatly affected European history, and in a minor, though still marked, degree

the life of the English court. On the 9th of March the emperor William I. died at Berlin. He was succeeded by his son, the emperor Frederick III., regarded with special affection in England as the husband of the princess royal. But at the time he was suffering from a malignant disease of the throat, and he died on the 15th of June, being succeeded by his eldest son, the emperor William II., the grandson of the queen. Meanwhile Queen Victoria spent some weeks at Florence at the Villa Palmieri, and returned home by Darmstadt and Berlin. In spite of the illness of the emperor Frederick a certain number of court festivities were held in her honour, and she had long conversations with Prince Bismarck, who was deeply impressed by her majesty's personality. Just before, the prince, who was still chancellor, had taken a very strong line with regard to a royal marriage in which the queen was keenly interested—the proposal that Prince Alexander of Battenberg, lately ruler of Bulgaria, and brother of the queen's son-in-law, Prince Henry, should marry Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of the emperor Frederick. Prince Bismarck, who had been anti-Battenberg from the beginning, vehemently opposed this marriage, on the ground that for reasons of state policy it would never do for a daughter of the German emperor to marry a prince who was personally disliked by the tsar. This affair caused no little agitation in royal circles, but in the end state reasons were allowed to prevail and the chancellor had his way.

The queen had borne so well the fatigue of the Jubilee that during the succeeding years she was encouraged to make somewhat

more frequent appearances among her subjects. In May 1888 she attended a performance of Sir Arthur Sullivan's Golden Legend at the Albert Hall, and in August she visited Glasgow to open the magnificent new municipal buildings, remaining for a couple of nights at Blythswood, the seat of Sir Archibald Campbell. Early in 1SS9 she received at Windsor a special embassy, which was the beginning of a memorable chapter of English history: two Matabele chiefs were sent by King Lobengula to present his respects to the “great White Queen,” as to whose very existence, it was said, he had up till that time been sceptical. Soon afterwards her majesty went to Biarritz, and the occasion was made memorable by a visit which she paid to the queen-regent of Spain at San Sebastian, the only visit that an English reigning sovereign had ever paid to the Peninsula.

The relations between the court and the country formed matter in 1889 for a somewhat sharp discussion in parliament and in the press. A royal message was brought by Mr W. H. Smith on the 2nd of July, expressing, on the one hand, the queen's desire to provide for Prince Albert Victor of Wales, and,

on the other, informing the house of the intended marriage of the prince of Wales's daughter, the Princess Louise, to the

earl (afterwards duke) of Fife. On the proposal of Mr Smith, seconded by Gladstone, a select committee was appointed to consider these messages and to report to the house as to the existing practice and as to the principles to be adopted for the future. The evidence laid before the committee explained to the country for the first time the actual state of the royal income, and on the proposal of Gladstone, amending the proposal of the government, it was proposed to grant a fixed addition of £36,000 per annum to the prince of Wales, out of which be should be expected to provide for his children without further application to the country. Effect was given to this proposal in a bill called “The Prince of Wales's Children's Bill,” which was carried in spite of the persistent opposition of a small group of Radicals.

In the spring of 1890 the queen visited Aix-les-Bains in the hope that the waters of that health resort might alleviate

the rheumatism from which she was now frequently suffering. She returned as usual by way of Darmstadt, and shortly after her arrival at Windsor paid a visit to Baron Ferdinand Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor. In February she launched the battleship “Royal Sovereign” at Portsmouth; a week later she visited the Horse Show at Islington. Her annual spring visit to the South was this year paid to the little town of Grasse.

At the beginning of 1892 a heavy blow fell upon the queen in the death of the prince of Wales's eldest son Albert Victor,

duke of Clarence and Avondale. He had never been of a robust constitution, and after a little more than a week's illness from pneumonia following influenza, he died at Sandringham. The pathos of his death was increased by the fact that only a short time before it had been announced that the prince was about to marry his second cousin, Princess May, daughter of the duke and duchess of Teck.

The death of the young prince threw a gloom over the country, and caused the royal family to spend the year in such retirement as was possible. The queen this year paid a visit to Costebelle, and stayed there for some quiet weeks. In 1893 the country, on the expiration of the royal mourning, began to take a more than usual interest in the affairs of the

royal family. On the 19th of February the queen left home for a visit to Florence, and spent it in the Villa Palmieri. She was able to display remarkable energy in visiting the sights of the city, and even went as far afield as San Gimignano; and her visit had a notable effect in strengthening the bonds of friendship between the United Kingdom and the Italian people. On 28th April she arrived home, and a few days later the prince of Wales's second son, George, duke of York (see ), who by his brother's death had been left in the direct line of succession to the throne, was betrothed to the Princess May, the marriage being celebrated on 6th July in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace.

In 1894 the queen stayed for some weeks at Florence, and on her return she stopped at Coburg to witness the marriage

between two of her grandchildren, the grand duke of Hesse and the Princess Victoria Melita of Coburg. On the next day the emperor William officially announced the betrothal of the Cesarevitch (afterwards the tsar Nicholas II.) to the princess Alix of Hesse, a granddaughter whom the queen had always regarded with special affection. After a few weeks in London the queen went northwards and stopped at Manchester, where she opened the Ship Canal. Two days afterwards she celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday in quiet at Balmoral. A month later (June 23) took place the birth of a son to the duke and duchess of York, the child receiving the thoroughly English name of Edward.

In 1895 the queen lost her faithful and most efficient private secretary, General Sir Henry Ponsonby, who for many years