At the lone o! Victoria's birth (reorge
HI lingered n mental darkness, and
iv.s son wa-. legem. The caiiiiiiLiri.il
world w.ts slowly recovering lrom the
wounds
The .... t
lhe Frenc ! Revolution.
i Watetljo paced
the
I
oiidou
.-els. The English slave
trade had been abolished. Tiie Liuied
S-ates had, by her second war ol
independence, become one of the
great jiowers ot tiie worhl.
The ascension of Victoria to the
throne e-onc hided with a new era.
era.
Arnold was doiriL' his work ot moral
reveiiulion in the public schools;
Dickens, Longfellow and Victor Hugo
represented the new literature; the
first railways were established, steam
navigat ion
inaugurated between the
. ..
continents, and toy telegraphs fore
shadowed the mighty lever of electricity.
Victoria reigns to-day over nearly
tiiiee bundled and ninety million
souls, one-fourth of mankind. To
realize the immensity ol ih number
euie must understand that the present
populuioti ol tiie United States num
bers oiil) a little more than one third
of the mere increase of the llritish
Empire's population since Victoria's
ascension.
'i iindosiai), which in 1837 was
practicaiiy the propel ty of the Eist
India Company, since augmented by
kingdom alter
kingdom as
IJurma; Canada, thinly peopled, dis-
contented, to day a vast domain; Aus-
traba, a dumping ground lor convicts,
now a loyal empire 'wnh a giant
youth;' New Zealand in tin: Smdi
Pacific, ami province alter province in
Africa, where 'diamonds have helped
gold to crea'e new nations,' these have
swelled Victor ia's possessions to eleven
million squue m.lcs.
"Above even en.. 111 tre'l .us agg: m -
dizemen; ot i;i;;-h ten ,tot , popuia
Hon and Weabh, i h '...t ui.in
Era
grows vvn'ii us iriuutpo ot scKnce.
