[centre][img=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%281837-1952%29.svg/700px-Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom_%281837-1952%29.svg.png]

[b]The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland[/b]
[i]Queen Victoria's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament
January 30th, 1900[/i][/centre]

My Lords and Gentlemen,

The peace which had recently been broken by the Boer Republics in the last few months have unhappily not been restored; but otherwise my relations with other nations of the world are friendly. We shall strive to ensure that this remains the case.

In resisting the invasion of my South African colonies by the Transvaal Republic and by the Orange Free State, my people have responded with devotion and enthusiasm to the appeal which I have made to them. The heroism of my soldiers in the field, and of my sailors and marines who were landed to co-operate with them, has not fallen short of the noblest traditions of our military history. I am deeply grieved that so many valuable lives should have fallen a sacrifice. But I have witnessed with pride and with the heartiest gratification the patriotic eagerness and spontaneous loyalty with which my subjects in all parts of my dominions have come forward to share in the common defence of their Imperial interests. I am confident that I shall not look to them in vain when I exhort them to sustain and renew their exertions until they have brought this struggle for the maintenance of the Empire and the assertion of its supremacy in South Africa to a victorious conclusion. We are not interested in the possibilities of withdrawal nor defeat; they do not exist. 

The brilliant courage of the colonial forces engaged in South Africa have already earned high admiration. Patriotic offers of assistance have come from many other colonies with populations of various races. Furthermore, I have also received from the ruling chiefs of Native States in India numerous offers to place their troops and the resources of their States at my disposal for service in South Africa. These proofs of the loyalty of all the peoples of the British Empire to myself and of their devotion to the cause of my Empire have afforded me much gratification.

Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

The experience of the shocking invasions by the Boer Republics must necessarily afford lessons of the greatest importance to the military administrations of the country. You will not, I am convinced, shrink from the duties that are required of each and every one of us to place our defensive preparations on a level with the responsibilities which the possession of so great an Empire has laid upon us. Indeed, at a dawn of a new century where the future may be uncertain, the solicitude with which you have provided for the efficiency of our Royal Navy and of our coast defences will assuredly not be relaxed.

I commend your deliberations in this anxious time to the blessing and guidance of Almighty God.