The England of her early years would be an absolutely foreign country
to us, if by some magic touch we were to be transplanted back down
the line of years. It was different in thought, feeling, and outlook.
The extraordinary changes in the modes of travelling, by means of
which numbers of people who had never even thought of any other
country beside their own, were enabled to visit other lands, broke
down, bit by bit, the barrier between the Continent and ourselves.
England became less of an insular and more of a continental power.
The social 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.
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