e cannot
contemplate the story of Christianity throughout our epoch, even in
these islands and this empire, without seeing that the advance of the
Faith is real and constant, the advance of the rising tide, and that
her seeming defeats are but the deceptive reflux of the ever-mounting
waves.

CHAPTER X.

PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897.

[Illustration: Duke of Connaught.]

Resuming our pen after an interval of ten years, we have thought it
well, not only to carry on our story of the Sovereign and her realm
to the latest attainable point, but also to give some account of the
advance made and the work accomplished by the Methodist Church,
which, youngest of the greater Nonconformist denominations, has acted
more powerfully than any other among them on the religious and social
life, not only of the United Kingdom and the Empire, but of the
world. This account, very brief, but giving details little known to
outsiders, will form a valuable pendant to the sketch of the general
history of Victoria's England that we are now about to continue.

[Illustration: The Imperial Institute.]

Many thousands who rejoiced in the Queen's Jubilee of 1887 are glad
to-day that the close of the decade should find the beloved Lady of
these isles, true woman and true Queen, still living and reigning.

On September 23, 1896, Queen Victoria had reigned longer than any
other English monarch, and the desire was general for some immediate
celebration of the event; but, by the Queen's express wish, all
recognition of the fact was deferred until the sixtieth year should
be fully completed, and the nation prepared to celebrate the "Diamond
Jubilee" on June 22, 1897, with a fervour of loyalty that should far
outshine that of the Jubilee year of 1887.

In the personal history of our Queen during those ten years we may
note with reverent sympathy some events that must shadow the festival
for her. The calm and kindly course of her home-life has again been
broken in upon by bereavement. All seemed fair in the Jubilee year
itself, and the Queen was appearing more in public than had been her
wont--laying the foundations of the Imperial Institute; unveiling in
Windsor Park a statue of the Prince Consort, Jubilee gift of the
women of England; taking part in a magnificent naval review at
Spithead. But a shadow was already visible to some; and early in 1888
sinister rumours were afloat as to the health of the Crown Prince of
Germany, consor