Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/262

 circumstances just narrated are only a specimen of what is constantly going on of the Queen's unwearying watchfulness over national interests, so that necessary changes take place without unnecessary friction and violence. There is a passage in one of the Queen's letters to her uncle, published in the "Life of the Prince Consort," in which Her Majesty expresses (in 1852) her weariness of political strife, and says, "We women are not made for governing." As this passage meets the eye we can hardly forbear the remembrance that St. Paul wrote of himself, no doubt sincerely, as the chief of sinners. No Sovereign has ever shown more diligence, tact, and courage in the fulfilment of Royal duties than the Queen, and there can be no doubt, not only of her vast knowledge, but also of her intense interest in her work, and of its high utility to the nation.

There has been no space in this little book to dwell upon the colonial expansion of England during the Queen's reign, nor yet upon the great development of man's powers over the forces of nature during the same period, making the England of to-day more different from the England of 1819 than the England of 1819 was from the England of Elizabeth. Neither has space allowed even a reference to the wonderful social progress that has accompanied this material development. Disraeli was perhaps the first among statesmen to grasp the fact of what England's Colonial and Indian Empire meant, and the new place it gave this country in the world. It should not, however, be forgotten that the conception of England as a great Imperial Power is as much due to the philosopher as to the statesman. Sir John Seeley, in the field of historical research, has contributed to it as much as the practical politician. He has pointed out that "the main fact of all facts is the expansion not only of