MURDER OF THE CZAR OF RUSSIA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2200, 15 March 1881, Page 3

MURDER OF THE CZAR OF RUSSIA.

I SEVERAL OF HIS SUITE KILLED. ARREST OF THE ASSASSIN. FURTHER PARTICULARS. [betjteb's telegrams.] ST: PETERSBURGH, March 13. Accompanied by hia suite, the Czar was witnessing a parade of troops in the city to-day, when a bomb was suddenly thrown from among the spectators, and foil close to where he was standing. It exploded, but did no harm to his Majesty, A second bomb was almost simultaneously thrown, and this shattered his legs, and otherwise mortaliy wounded him. He was at once conveyed to a house near at hand, but his Majesty died within two hours from loss of blood, though every effort was made by the doctors who wero at once in attendance to stop the flow. Groat consternation was caused on the parade ground when the bombs were thrown, and when the effect of their explosion was seen. Several persons, including some members of the Czar's suite, were killed, and many others severely wounded. The assassin was arrested at the scene of the outrage before he had time to escape. We take the following from " Men of the Time":— Alexander 11. (Nicolaivitch), Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, who succeeded, on the death of his father, Nicholas 1., March 2nd, 1855, was born April 29th, 1818, in the reign of his uncle, Alexander I. The first seven years of his life were hardly completed when the death of Alexander 1., and the renunciation of his right by his brother Constantino, led to the elevation of his father Nioholas to the throne, to which the young Prince became heir apparent. For a moment, however, his own destiny and that of his house trembled in the balance, as a widely spread defection, whish was only quenohrd by torrents of blood, exhibited itself in the garrisons of the capital. The resolute spirit of Nicholas I. overawed tho rebellious regiments, and from that day, December 26'.b, 1835, he ruled over a nation of slaves. The whole tenor of the young Prince's life was altered, the gentle away of his mother, the daughter of Frederick 111., of Prussia, having been change! for the discipline of military governors and tutors. The substitution of the stern regimen of the barrack room for the more genial influence of domestic life proved so irksome to the future Czar that he enfranchised himself from it at the earliest possible period, and sought in travel and the society of the female members of his mother's family the softening influences of intellectual culture and taste. This predilection for civil rather than military life was opposed to all the traditions of the Russian Court. Gloomy forebodings prevailed respecting the prospects of the Crown Prince, whose succession it was feared might possibly bo disputed by the old Muscovite party. Their half barbarous, half soldierly predilections found a more suitable object in Nicholas' second son, the Grand Duke Oonstantine, and suoh an amount of antipathy and distrust grew up between the two brothers in consequence of thia preference as to become the subject of general remark, and even of quarrels. Upon one occasion Constantino, who was admiral of tho fleet, carried his animosity so far as to put his brother under arrest—an act of tyranny which Nioholas I. reproved by subjecting Constantino to the same punishment. Nicholas I. looked with so much apprehension at the growing differences between his two children that in 1843, upon the birth of Alexander's first ohild, he required Constantino to take , an oath of fidelity to the heir to the throne..' Again in his last illness he summoned his children to his dying couob, and on making over to Alexander the Imperial throne' obtained from both a solemn promise to remain for ever closely united, in order to secure the peaoe and happiness of their oommon country. The Cz*rewitch on this ocoasion, in the presence of the Ministers and the Estates, declared his intention to enter on the government of the empire, and was immediately proclaimed Emperor as Alexander 11. The samo afternoon tho Estates of the Empire, and the military stationed in St. Petersburg, did homage ; and at a Council held under the presidency of the new Emperor, it was resolved not in any_ way to interrupt the course of the war with the Allied Powers in which Rutsia was engaged. Alexander's first act was to issue a manifesto to the nation, notifying his accession, and declaring, in general terms, his intention to uphold the glory of the empire as it had been upheld by Peter, Catherine, Alexander 1., and Nioholas I. Ho at the same time summoned General Rudiger from Warsaw, and conferred upon him the command of the Imperial Guards, until then held by himself; renewed the powers of his plenipotentiaries at Vienna, and through them announced his adherenoo to the declarations made by Prince Gortsohakoff on behalf of his late father. On the return of peace, one of the first steps taken by Alexander 11. in the direction of reform was the reduction of the army to the lowest limits compatible with the dignity and safety of the empire. Vigorous efforts were made to place the national finanoes on a firmer basis, and to promote commercial prosperity. But the greatest reform of all was his emancipation of 23,000,000 human beings from the bondage of serfdom, and an Imperial ukase proclaimed the liberation of the serfs, on certain conditions, March 3rd, 1861. A period of two years was assigned for the settlement of terms with regard to the quantity of land to be ceded, and the rent, labor, or purohase money to be paid for it. . In February, 1864, the same boon was conferred upon the Polish serfs, with a view to weaken the influence of the Polish nobility, who owned the greater part of the land, and were consequently all-powerful. As regards education, great efforts are being made by the Emperor to place the state colleges on a level with the best educational institutions in Europe. A still more notable reform, however, is the inauguration of the elective representative assemblies '.in the provinces. The first of these met in 1865, and it was anticipated that thia tentative measure would pave the way for the introduction of a National Representative AssemHy. The principal war entered into of late years by Russia was that undertaken in Turkestan against the Ameer of Bokhara in November, 1866. Af er a resistance of a year and a half the Ameer wss oonqnered, his army dispersed, and the city of Samarcand occupied by the Russian troops (May, 1868). In March. 1867 the Czar sold the whole of Russian America to the United States for £1,400,000. While Paris. was being besieged by the German*, the Czar declared that ho no longer considered himself bound by those provisions of the treaty of 1856 which limited his rights in the Black Sea. This led to the conference held in London at the commencement of the ye.tr 1871, when the parties to the treaty consented to its modification in compliance with the wishes of the Czar. Going to Berlin in September, 1872. the Czar had a celebrated interview with the Emperors of Germany and Austria, both of whom subsequently paid a return visit to St. Petersburg. In 1873 Khiva was conquered by the Russian troops under General Kauffmann, part of the territory was annexed to Bussia, and the suzerainty of the Czar over the Khanate was established. The Czar paid a visit to this country, where he met with a hearty reception, in May, 1874 The invasion of Kokhand by Russia took place in 1875, when General Kaufman, who commanded the troops of tho Czar, gained a signal viotory, which resulted in the formal annexation to the Muscovite empire of all Kokhand north of the Sir Da»ya. In the war between Turkey and Servia (1876), the Czar did not interfere, although the Bervian army was largely ro-inforced by Russian recruits. But after the capture of Alexinatz by the Turks, the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople presented to the Porte an ultimatum demanding the immediate conclusion of a six weeks' armistice. This the Sultan accordingly granted (November Ist, 1876), and subsequently a treaty of peace between Turkey and S'>rvi4 was concluded on the basis of the xtatui quo ante bellum (March Ist, 1877). The proposals of the Conference of the representatives of the European powers at Constantinople (December, 1876, January, 1877)

having been refused by the Porte, the Czar issued a manifesto at Kischeneff declaring war against Turkey (April 24fch, 1877). Although the Turks fought most gallantly and offered a desperate resistance, they were ultimately compelled to yield to superior numbers, and tlio Buseian troops marched almost to the gates of Constantinople. A treaty of peace between the two countries was signed at San Stefano 19th February OS. (3rd March), 1878. The provisions of that Tronty were, however, materially modified at the Congress of Berlin. It has been the oonstant policy of the prose ;t Czar to strengthen the influence of the Church, of which he is the head. The result bus been a persecution of all other religious bodies, and especially of theCatholio Church, the bishops of that communion having been forbidden to hold any communication with the Holy See. Several attempts have been made on the Czar's life: the first on April 16th, 1866, when he was fired at by an ex-student named Karakesof, while entering his carriage at St. Petersburg. The pistol, however, was turned aside by a workman named Komissarof, a native of Kostroma, who was afterwards ennobled for the aot. Thn second attempt was at Paris, June 6th, 1867, by Berezowski, a Pole, who fired irto the carriage in which the Czar was seated with his two sons and the Emperor Napoleon. Both sovereigns escaped unhurt, Hut the horse of one of the equerries was wounded. Tho assassin was about to fire another shot when the barrel of the pistol burst and rendered his hand powerless. Three other attempts were made on the Emperor's life, but in each case without success. In April, 1879, ho was fired at whjle walking in the Winter Garden at St. Petersburg, by a lunatic named Solovieff. On December Ist in the same year, a mine which had been constructed on the line of railway near Moscow, was sprung upon a baggage train, whioh was mistaken for that whioh oonveyed the Emperor. The last and most formidable attempt was made in February of last year, when the dining-room of the Winter Palace wag blown up. Hero again a very narrow escape was experienced, the fact of a few minutes' delay in repairing to the room being the means of saving the lives of the Emperor and a large number of distinguished guestß. The Emperor Alexander 11. married, April 28th, 1811, Maria Alexandrov,na Princess of Hesie Darmstadt, by whom ho has had a' large family. The eldest of the princes, Nicholas, the late Cesarewitcb, born September 20th, 1843, died prematurely at Nice in April, 1865. Alexander, the present Crown Prince, born March 10th, 1845, married November 9th, 1866, the Princess Marie Sophia Frederique Dagmar, now called, after her having assumed the orthodox faith, Maria Feodorovna, of Denmark. The Eajperor's only daughter, the Grand Duchess Marie, was married to H.B.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, January 23rd, 1874. The death of the Empress, and the subsequent marriage of tho Emperor with the Princess Dolgourika are events of such recent occurrence that it is unnecessary to recapitulate their details.