Sketch of Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent

There is no public character living, outside of our own country, in whom the people of the United States feel a greater interest than in Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Nor is this at all singular. On the contrary, considering the former connection of the Colonies with the British Crown ; that much the larger number of our native citizens are the descendants of parents from the British Isles; that our language, literature, and religion are similar, it is very natural that such should be the case. But when, added to this, we have the authority of one of England's greatest writers for the remark that " in Queen Victoria her subjects have found a wiser, gentler, happier Elizabeth," and that in her, her subjects have also found a monarch who has been guided by the belief that the powers of royalty are held in trust for the people, and are not the end, but the mere means, of government; that she is, and has been during her entire reign, the most constitutional monarch her country has ever seen ; that she has practiced during her government every domestic virtue, and that her life has been a stainless one, setting an example of piety which has had its influence for good throughout the whole of the magnificent empire over which she reigns, we need go no farther to ascertain the reason for this interest. It may, therefore, be presumed that a short sketch of the Duke of Kent, the father of the Queen, taken mostly from Mr. Neale's Memoir (a work which attained but one small edition, and which is accessible to only a few readers), would not be uninteresting to the readers of the Valley Monthly.