The empire was
immense in extent, prosperous in all its parts, and the queen was
beloved throughout her wide dominions as no monarch of England had ever
been before. Thus it was a year in which the people could rejoice
without a shadow to darken their joy and with warm love for their queen
to make their hilarity a real instead of a simulated one.
It was in far-off India, of which Victoria had been proclaimed empress
ten years before, that the first note of rejoicing was heard. The 16th
of February was selected as the date of the imperial festival, which was
celebrated all over the land, even in Mandalay, the capital of the
newly-conquered state of Upper Burmah. Europeans and natives alike took
part in the ceremonies and rejoicings, which embraced banquets, plays,
reviews, illuminations, the distribution of honors, the opening in honor
of the empress of libraries, colleges and hospitals, and at Gwalior the
cancelling of the arrears of the land-tax amounting to five million
dollars.
The fiftieth year of the queen's reign would be completed on the 20th of
June, but in the preceding months of the year many preliminary
ceremonies took place in England. Among these was a splendid reception
of the queen at Birmingham, which city she visited on the 23d of March.
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