THE CZAR OF RUSSIA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2199, 14 March 1881, Page 2

THE CZAR OF RUSSIA.

To-day’s telegrams announce the murder on Sunday (yesterday) of Alexander 11., in his sixty-third year. On the death of his father, Nicholas 1., in 1855, Alexander succeeded to the position of Emperor and Autocrat of all the Bussias, Six years after his accession, he emancipated twenty-three millionßussian serfs and in 1864 the same boon was conferred on the Polish serfs with a view to impairing the influence of the Polish nobles. He introduced an improved system of State colleges, but the institution of elective Provincial Assemblies was an unhappy reform, the Assemblies proving oppressive and fraudulent. Military conscription and jury-jurisdio'.ioß were also inaugurated by Alexander. In 1866 Russia went to war in Turkestan against the Ameer of Bokhara, Samarecand being occupied by Russian troops in 1868. Eourteens year ago the Czar sold Russian America for £1.400,000 to the United Slates. In 1874 *he paid a visit to England. Three years later he declared war against Turkey, The Russians marched almost to the gatsa of Constantinople, and on the 3rd March, 1878, a treaty of peace was signed at San Stefano.’ The Czar persistently sought to consolidate the power of the Church, and other denominations, particularly the Catholic body, were persecuted. In 1866 a workman was ennobled for turning aside a pistol which an ex-student, Karakosof, aimed at the Czar when about to step into his carriage in the capital. The folio wing year Berczoweki, a Pole, fired in Paris at the Czar while seated in a carriage with two of his sons and the then Emperor Napoleon. No one was injured, but one of the equerries’ horses was wounded. Before a second shot could be fired the barrel burst, rendering Berezowski’s pistol • hand powerless. In 1841 the Czar married Maria Alexandrovna, Princess of Hesse Darmstadt, by whom he had several children. Alexander (the Crown Prince) was born in 1845, and married the Princess Marie Sophia Erederique Dagmar. The late Emperor’s daughter, the Grand Duchees Mario, married H.R.H. the Duko of Edinburgh in January, 1574- The recent attempt to blow up the Winter Palace will be familiar to our readers, and of late months hourly precautions were taken by a system of secret and searching espionage to guard Alexander from the attempts of avowed and secret would-be assassins. The Czar’s abdications in favor of his son was, no doubt, in part due to the anxiety which preyed upon his mind, rendering him physically unfit to perform the duties of Sovereign. Great consternation ensued amongst the haughty dames of Impeiial Courts when the Czar contrao’.id what was at first reg wded as a morganatic marriage wilU the j Princess Dolgoronki, between whom and the wife of the Crown Prince a reconciliation was recently effected in Livadia. The Princess pleads that she married her lord “ for her children’s sake,” and it is noted that he i always alludes to boras “hiawi f e,” and not - asthe Czarina.” i