|m 
 
 QUEEfl VICTORIA, 
 
 1837 1901. 
 
 A Sermon preached at the Dalston Synagogue, 
 on February 2nd, 1901, the day of Her 
 Majesty's Burial, by 
 
 THE REV. II. HYAMSON, B.A., LL.B. 
 
 XonDon : 
 
 WILLIS & Co., Printers, Lamb's Buildings, Bunhill Row, E.G. 
 1901.
 
 With the Compliments of the Hxecutnv 
 of the Dalston Synagogue.
 
 A Sermon delivered at the Dalston Synagogue 
 on February 2nd. 1901, the day of the 
 burial of Her late Majesty, Queen 
 Victoria. 
 
 TO-DAY, the voice of lamentation is heard in the 
 streets. Every head is bowed, every heart is 
 heavy, every eye is dimmed with tears ; for the 
 King of Terrors, no respecter of persons, who knocks 
 with equal impartiality at the proud gates of the prince's 
 mansion, and at the humble door of the peasant's hut, 
 has entered our windows and snatched a flower of rarest 
 worth, transplanted it in the garden of God, and left us 
 so much the poorer. The passing of the illustrious ruler, 
 whose earthly shell was borne some hours since to its last 
 resting place, is poignantly felt, not only as a national 
 calamity but also as a deep personal loss. Britain mourns, 
 and all Civilization sorrows with our sorrow ; shares our 
 grief for her who has entered, thro' the dark portal, the 
 realm of light eternal. Our late Sovereign's life exceeded 
 the limit of fourscore years, which, the Man of God tells us, 
 is the mark of extraordinary physical vigour. And yet few 
 paused to reflect that, in the ordinary course of nature, 
 -at no distant interval, the silver cord would be severed 
 and the golden bowl be broken. We, born under her 
 
 21163B9
 
 gracious sway, regarded Queen Victoria as a part of the 
 British Constitution. We thought that Death had for- 
 gotten her, or been bidden by the Author of Life to pass 
 her by, to spare her for an indefinite period. The news 
 of her demise, after a brief illness, thrilled all with a 
 shock of surprise. It seemed as if a majestic column, 
 that had stood in solitary grandeur, long after its fellows 
 had fallen and crumbled into dust, had at length, in its 
 turn been riven from crown to pediment and come to 
 the earth with a mighty crash. 
 
 Why this universal lament for one who had attained 
 a hoary old age and had been gathered to the grave like 
 a shock of corn, ripe for the reaper ? The reason is to be 
 found in the general feeling that the close of this noble 
 life closes an epoch in English History. Queen Victoria's 
 death rings the knell of the departed century a century 
 in which she was a conspicuous and central figure, of 
 which she was the brightest ornament. 
 
 On the pedestal of the statue of one of her earliest 
 advisers, the Hero of Waterloo,* may be read an inscrip- 
 tion consisting of three words simple, yet pregnant and 
 charged with meaning, "Wisdom, Honour, Duty." 
 Of the qualities here noted, the Queen was a living em- 
 bodiment and illustration. Throughout her career, she 
 had a high sense of the dignity with which Heaven had 
 invested her. She possessed, however, at the same time, 
 a clear perception and keen appreciation of the duties 
 entailed by that dignity. To her, Kingship was no mere 
 right of birth, no accidental privilege and prerogative. 
 It was a solemn charge, a sacred trust. It is related that 
 when, a child of twelve summers, she was informed that 
 
 Wellington'* Statue in the Guildhall. 

 
 3 
 
 she stood next in succession to her uncle, the reigning 
 sovereign, she burst into tears and earnestly prayed that 
 God might make her worthy of the high estate. The 
 prayer was answered in the spirit in which it was offered. 
 Six years later, when she mounted the steps of the throne, 
 she took all hearts captive by her youthful charm and 
 grace. She was not content, however, with the sweets 
 of her exalted office. She aspired to wield its power. 
 She was not satisfied to be a figure-head ; her ambition 
 was to be captain of the ship, real, and not merely 
 nominal Head of the State. And she honourably realized 
 her ambition. When, soon after her accession, Lord 
 Melbourne, her first Prime Minister and trusted friend, 
 once placed a State document before her with the request 
 that it should be immediately signed, on the ground of 
 its urgency and importance, the youthful sovereign 
 rebuked her servant with the dignified reply: "It is 
 still more urgent and important that I do not sign any 
 paper before I have fully grasped and mastered its import 
 and purport." 
 
 The position of a constitutional monarch in 
 these isles, amidst the conflict of rival parties with 
 clashing interests and opposing principles, is not an easy 
 one. Yet, with such admirable tact did Queen Victoria 
 fill her office, so evenly did she hold the scales, that none 
 can, even at the present day, tell with absolute certainty 
 in which direction lay her own political sympathies. 
 Many sovereigns have been fortunate in their ministers. 
 The Ministers of Great Britain, for the last six decades, 
 have been, it is no exaggeration to say, fortunate in their 
 sovereign. As years rolled on they learnt to rely with 
 implicit confidence on her mature judgment and store 
 of ripe experience, which gained her, in the opinion of 
 those qualified to decide, the title *' the wisest Statesman 
 and most influential Monarch of modern times." How
 
 much of the progress and development not only of these 
 isles but of the whole of Europe is due to her calm 
 counsels and sole moderating influence on her brother 
 sovereigns, history has yet to recount. 
 
 She had her supreme reward in the love and affection, 
 in the whole-hearted loyalty and devotion, in the ever- 
 increasing reverence and veneration with which she 
 inspired all sections of her subjects, who felt that the in- 
 terest that lay nearest her heart was their weal, their 
 permanent prosperity and happiness. They gave her a 
 return, measure for measure. When the hand of affliction 
 lay heavy upon her and she was bereaved of the partner 
 of her youth, and then of sons, daughter, grandchildren, 
 she was ever sustained by the solacing and comforting 
 consciousness that the nation's heart was with her in her 
 tribulation. The people respected her desire for seclusion 
 and privacy- They knew full well that though the shadow 
 that had fallen athwart her path had darkened her life, 
 blighted her happiness, and made all gaiety distasteful, 
 yet the splendid burden of Empire would continue to be 
 nobly borne, and its heavy duties faithfully discharged by 
 that noble woman. 
 
 What, you will ask, was the secret of her splendid 
 greatness ? What the root principle of her life ? Whence 
 did she draw the inspiration of her career? She was a 
 witness of the influence of Religion on character and 
 conduct. Strongly imbued with the conviction of the 
 reality of God, fully realizing that the beginning of 
 wisdom and the end of it was the Fear of Heaven, her 
 anxiety was that her children might grow up in her strong 
 faith. Hence her life, unaffected, transparently open and 
 sincere, strenuous and laborious, was a lesson to all how
 
 life should be lived. Her home, by its simplicity, was a pat- 
 tern and modei of how ideal a home might be made. Her 
 court, unlike the courts of some of her predecessors, was net 
 disgraced by political intrigues. There was no Court 
 Party in the Houses of Parliament, for all, Commons, 
 Lords, the whole nation, were of the Queen's Party. 
 To her we may apply the Psalmist's words : " Thou didst 
 love righteousness, and hate iniquity^ therefore God 
 anointed thee sovereign," by right human as well as by 
 right divine. 
 
 We Jews owe her an especial gratitude, for never 
 shall we forget that it was during her reign that we lost 
 the Ghetto bend and learnt to stand erect. Sixty-four 
 years ago, the Jew, even in this land of enlightenment, 
 was a barely tolerated alien. He was excluded from the 
 boon of a liberal University education. He was ineligible 
 for State seivice. He was debarred from Parliamentary 
 representation. What a marvellous change has taken 
 place in two short generations, thanks largely to the 
 example of good Queen Victoria. Nine years after her 
 accession a Jew received the honour of a Baronetcy for 
 services rendered not to this country but to his oppressed 
 co-religionists abroad.* Twelve years later, success finally 
 crowned the efforts of the City of London and the Borough 
 of Greenwich to be represented by two Jews in the House 
 of Commons,! and how many co religionists have sat 
 since then in the august Mother of Parliaments. In the 
 next decade a Jew was appointed Solicitor General,^ and, 
 in due course, was elevated to the dignity of the Bench, 
 where he rendered services admittedly weighty and of per- 
 manent value to English Jurisprudence. It is worthy of 
 
 * Sir Moses Montefiore in 1846. 
 
 t Baron Lionel de Rothschild in 1858 and Sir David Salomons in 1859. 
 
 I Sir George Jessel in 1872.
 
 note that among the signatures appended to the Roll 
 proclaiming Edward VII. King of Great Britain and 
 Emperor of India are to be found the names of two Jewish 
 commoners and one Jewish peer. 
 
 Change, Decay, Death, are in the inevitable order of 
 nature. Blessed are lives lived on a high plane of noble 
 thought and beneficent activity, wholly consecrated to 
 duty. Thrice glorious is that career which, even after its 
 close, rendered a service to Empire ; for Victoria's death 
 has knit together Britain's stalwart sons in a still stronger 
 fraternal bond, the bond of a common sorrow, and the 
 sympathy shown by foreign countries reveals (i the one 
 touch of nature that makes the whole world kin." 
 
 Queen Victoria fully deserves this universal tribute, 
 for she served her people and humanity at the same time. 
 By example, ever more potent than precept, she taught 
 Kings not to extort an obedience inspired by craven 
 fear, but through love to call forth love. Uneasy need 
 not lie the head that wears a crown if it recognises, as 
 the late Queen recognised, that to kingship belong 
 duties as well as rights, and resolves to govern not tyran- 
 nically or arbitrarily but in Victoria's spirit, a spirit of 
 justice, generosity, clemency, gentleness. States have by 
 her reign been taught the value of constitutional monarchy 
 in securing stability of government and continuity of 
 policy. 
 
 Farewell, beautiful soul! Thy arduous labours have 
 earned thee repose. As long as the Empire endures, so 
 long will thy name, thy fame, the remembrance of thy 
 glorious career, not be suffered to fade from the minds of 
 Englishmen and Englishwomen. Ours be the task to 
 raise to thee a memorial in our hearts ; a memorial more
 
 enduring than bronze tablet or marble monument ; 
 and on it we shall engrave in indelible characters the 
 three watchwords, Wisdom, Honour, Duty ; so that 
 the glory of the era that will ever be associated with thy 
 name, that will be known in history as the Victorian 
 Epoch, shall not be eclipsed and extinguished with the 
 eclipse and extinction of the light of thy pilgrimage on 
 earth, but shall shine with increasingly radiant splendour 
 under the sway of thy beloved son and successor, who 
 enters on his heritage with the goodwill and good wishes, 
 with the earnest blessings and the fervent prayers of all 
 his subjects. May God prolong his days on the British 
 Throne in health, vigour and happiness, in wisdom, worth 
 and good fortune, and may his dynasty be established 
 for ever. Amen. 

 
 Ionium : 
 
 WILLIS Co., Printers, Lamb's Buildings, Bunhill Row, B.C. 
 
 1901.
 
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