Fifty years a queen

Preface

In this work, x)ertment to tlie time, the intent of the author hiis been to give, from an American staudj^oint, a brief and unbiassed resume of the events of Queen Victoria's time, and of her reign of half a century.

Contemporaneously with the iifty years of her sovereignty, the marked i)rogress made iu Great Britain has been equalled, if not exceeded, by that made in the United States. Both nations have made enormous material growth within tbat period; and in the friction of events between the mother country and our own, the sentiment of good ueighborship manifested towards us by the Queen of England invites the recognition of the American x)eoi)le, since, in addition to its pleasing aspect, it has been a factor in the harmony preserved between the Uuited States and Eugland through her reign.

In our day of need, when tlie exigencies of civil war were taxiugto its utmost our country, it should be remembered to the houor of Victoria that she steadfastly refused the earnest eutreaty of ISTapoleon III. that England should unite with France in the establishment of an empire in Mexico, and that she also declined his api^eal that Great Britain should join France in the recognition of the Confederate Government as a belligerent power. She refused to take advantage of our critical situation, and to imperil our grand union at that time. When America lost its great men, Lincoln, Garfield, and Grant, her sympathy was as promptly and tenderly expressed as it has been in other national calamities. She has also been a power in the moralities of the age. All these are reasons in favor of a general celebration of her jubilee on this side of the water, ns well as in Britain.