Britain this week celebrated an anniversary that may have prompted more national self-reflection than either of the two competing millennial observations did.

One hundred years ago, on Jan. 22, 1901, Queen Victoria died. Her passing marked the high point of a remarkable era for Britain -- some historians describe her entire reign as the country's zenith -- and from that perspective things have been going nowhere but downhill ever since. As Britain merges more and more closely with its European neighbors, yielding sovereignty inch by inch (or, as it now should say, millimeter by millimeter) to Brussels, the doughty old queen and empress must be spinning in her grave.

Victoria came to the throne in 1837, when she was just 18 years old. Through no doing of her own, she presided over a period of British prosperity and expansion that in some respects makes even the world-beating achievements of the succeeding "American Century" look puny. For one thing, Britain did not have to be covert or defensive about its imperialist ambitions. By the time Victoria died, after a reign of nearly 64 years, fully one-quarter of the world map was colored pink to mark Britannia's far-flung dominions.