Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 5.djvu/224

 LAURIER

ON THE DEATH OF QUEEN VICTORIA 1

(1901)

Born in 1841 ; Minister of Internal Revenue in Canada in 1877 ; Queen's

Counsel in 1880; Leader of the Liberal Party in 1887; Prime Minister

in 1896; Knighted in 1897.

We have met under the shadow of a death which has caused more universal mourning than has ever been recorded in the pages of history. In these words there is no exaggeration; they are the literal truth. There is mourning in the United Kingdom, in the Colonies, and in the many islands and continents which form the great empire over which extend the sovereignty of Queen Victoria. There is mourning deep, sincere, heartfelt in the mansions of the great, and of the rich, and in the cottages of the poor and lowly; for to all her subjects, whether high or low, whether rich or poor, the queen, in her long reign had become an object of almost sacred veneration.

There is sincere and unaffected regret in all of the nations of Europe, for all the nations of Europe had learned to appreciate, to admire, and to envy the many qualities of Queen Vic- toria, those many public and domestic virtues which were the pride of her subjects.

1 From a speech delivered in the Canadian Parliament on Febru- ary 8, 1901.

192

�� �