changes were, as has been shown, all for good. Education
became not the privilege of the few but the right of all who wished
for it. Step by step the people gained in power and in the right to
govern themselves. The idea of citizenship, of a patriotism which
extended beyond the narrow limits of these isles, slowly took root
and blossomed. Through all these manifold changes the Queen reigned,
ever alert, and even in her last years taking the keenest interest
in the growth of her mighty kingdom.

"The use of the Queen in a dignified capacity is incalculable,"
declared Walter Bagehot in his famous essay on _The English
Constitution_. He continues: "Without her in England, the present
English Government would fail and pass away." It is interesting to
read the reasons which such a clear and distinguished thinker gives
to explain the hold which the Monarchy retains upon the English
nation as a whole.

Firstly: there is the Family, of which the Queen is the head; the
Nation looks upon her as its mother, witness its enthusiasm at the
marriage of the Prince of Wales.

Secondly: The Monarchy strengthens the Government with the strength
of religion. It is the duty of a loyal citizen to obey his Queen;
the oath of allegiance is no empty form. The Queen from her very
position acts as a symbol of unity.

Thirdly: The Queen is the head of our society; she represents England
in the eyes of foreign nations.

Fourthly: The Monarchy is the head of our morality. The example of
Queen Victoria's simple life has not been lost upon the nation. It
is now quite a natural thing to expect and to find the domestic
virtues personified in the ruling monarch, and this in spite of the
fact that history has shown what temptations lie in the way of those
possessed of the highest power in the state.

Shakespeare voiced the feeling of the people for the kingship in the
words which he put into the mouth of Henry V:

Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
Our debts, our careful wives,
Our children, and our sins, lay on the king:
We must bear all.
O hard condition! twin-born with greatness,
Subject to the breath of every fool, whose sense
No more can feel but his own wringing!
What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,
That private men enjoy?
And what have kings that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?

And lastly, the actual Government of the country may change but t