Not everyone approved, however. There were strong anti-imperialist elements as well as imperialist pressures in late-Victorian Britain, and Victoria's reign ended in a war in South Africa in which most European countries were highly critical of British actions. The Queen followed the fighting carefully, urging that Kruger should be taught a "sharp lesson". Yet she also bewailed "senseless waste of lives". When she had been proclaimed Empress of India, the magazine Punch, which had once criticised her marriage to a German prince, complained once more:

"Leave the imperial style apart,
Leave it to the lords of legions,
Queen in every English heart,
Be thou Queen in eastern regions".

It was her English subjects who warmed her heart most in 1897. "How kind they are", she said time and time again as she made her way through some of the poorest parts of the East End of London after leaving a Jubilee service in St. Paul's Cathedral. No one, she added later, had ever "met with such an ovation as was given me, passing through six miles of streets. The crowds were quite indescribable, and their enthusiasm truly marvellous and deeply touching. The cheering was quite deafening and every face seemed to be filled with real joy". It is the words "real joy," which now stand out, a missing word in the description to which the Queen attached great meaning was loyalty. They were loyal as well as enthusiastic crowds. They were subjects as well as citizens.

The memory of the Jubilee lingered in many people's lives long after Victoria was dead. For older Victorians it represented a climax. For many of these memories stretched back to the Great Exhibition of 1851, displayed in the Crystal Palace and hailed by Victoria as Albert's great triumph.

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