The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1886. A CROWNED MADMAN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1445, 31 December 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1886. A CROWNED MADMAN.

“ Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” especially his who wears the crown of “ Holy Russia,” and smal wonder, seeing that the “ father of his people ” is scarcely ever permitted to die a natural death, Czar after Cza> having been the victim of violence or o( poison. From his accession Alexander 111 has been haunted by the dread of assassination, and remained for two years an uncrowned Emperor because he feared that theoccasion of his corona tion would also be the occasion ol his murder. Finally, with extraordinary precautions for the safety of the autocrat, the coronation was accomplished but from that day to this the Czar has been the object of plots innumerable, and has been guarded day and night with a vigilance which has on several occasions justified its own necessity by the narrow escapes of its object from the most imminent peril. Every delicacy brought to the Imperial table has had to be searrhmgly inspected in every stage of its preparation, even the royal bath has been very nearly the successful engine of the assassin, and guards have been required in every part of the palace, even to the portal of the Imperial bedchamber. Danger lurked on every stair, in every room, in every dish, in every cup, and while the most rigid precautions had to be taken in the Imperial dwelling—which in such case it were mockery to call a “home” —so also a journey beyond its precincts demanded the exercise of the most argus-eyed vigilance. False announcements as to lime of starting and direction of route had to be made to throw the dynamitard and the bombthrower off his guard, and when a start was made the whole line of the journey had to be protected by regiments of armed men. And this has gone on day and night for years until at last, as we learn by the cable, the reason of the unhappy monarch has given way under the enormous strain. It now appears that the report which reached us a few weeks ago that one of the Imperial household, Count de Reutern, had been shot by His Majesty, and which was denied at the time, is only too true, and it is now said that the Czar also fired at the German military attache. Indeed, it is asserted that he suspects ail the officials of his household, in fact everyone about him, except the members of his own immediate family, of having designs on his life. His mind, it would seem, is completely unhinged, and although more rulgffi than one whom the world has seen have continued to reign for years after they had become little better than lunatics—the late King of Bavaria for example—when insanity takes the dangerous form of homicidal mania and promiscuous pistol-practice it becomes absolutely necessary to entrust

the reins of Government to other hands. Accordingly, it is not surprising to find that a regency is probable, and if the condition of the Czar be as represented the sooner one is set up the better. But what a comment the spectacle of Imperial madness brought abouf by the terrors which are the offspring of autocratic despotism affords upon the miseries of monarchs who rule by force and not by the love and goodwill of their people. Surely the fitting sequel to ttie English proverb, “As happy as a King,” would be found in the antithetical complement “ As' miserable as an Emperor.”