at Disraeli, on behalf of the British
Government, purchased a very large number of shares in the Suez Canal,
thus gaining for us a hand in its administration--a vitally important
matter when one realizes how much closer India has been brought by
this saving in time over the long voyage round the Cape.

To pass in review the growth and expansion of the Empire during the
Queen's reign would be a difficult task, and an impossible one within
the limits of a small volume. The expressions of loyalty and devotion
from the representatives of the great over-seas dominions on the
occasion of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887 were proof enough that
England and the English were no longer an insular land and people,
but a mighty nation with one sovereign head.

In the address which was presented to the Queen it was stated that
during her reign her colonial subjects of European descent had
increased from two to nine millions, and in Asia and India there was
an increase of population from ninety-six to two hundred and
fifty-four millions.

After the great ceremony of thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral the
Queen expressed her thanks to her people in the following message:

"I am anxious to express to my people my warm thanks for the kind,
and more than kind, reception I met with on going to and returning
from Westminster Abbey with all my children and grandchildren.

"The enthusiastic reception I met with then, as well as on those
eventful days in London, as well as in Windsor, on the occasion of
my Jubilee, has touched me most deeply, and has shown that the labours
and anxieties of fifty long years--twenty-two years of which I spent
in unclouded happiness, shared with and cheered by my beloved husband,
while an equal number were full of sorrows and trial borne without
his sheltering arm and wise help--have been appreciated by my people.
This feeling and the sense of duty towards my dear country and
subjects, who are so inseparably bound up with my life, will
encourage me in my task, often a very difficult and arduous one,
during the remainder of my life.

"The wonderful order preserved on this occasion, and the good
behaviour of the enormous multitudes assembled, merits my highest
admiration. That God may protect and abundantly bless my country is
my fervent prayer."

And in laying the foundation-stone of the Imperial Institute, she
said:

"I concur with you in thinking that the counsel and exertions of my
beloved husband initia