THE CZAR OF RUSSIA.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2705, 19 November 1881, Page 3

THE CZAR OF RUSSIA.

The “ Australasian’s” London correspondent writes thus of the life of Alexander III.: The murder of the Czar has been a double-dyed misfortune for his empire, because it has handed the Russians over to the rule of one who is either utterly devoid of good sense and good feeling, or who is a victim to panic of a kind which it is not pleasant to contemplate as existing in the mind of a great monarch. The frightfully tyrannical ukase which has been issued by Alexander 111., and is accepted as the first fruits of the Imperial Meeting at Dantzig, is justly regarded as a very serious indication of imminent convulsion in Russia. That “ fear is an abandonmentof the succours of thought” is a great saying of King Solomon, and it has seldom found a stronger illustration than in the infatuated conduct of the Czar, He seems determined to make it impossible for bis truest friends to commend him, or to condemn those who are resolved at all to rid their country of so atrocious a system of misgovernraent. The real deadly danger to the autocrat’s power is not the mysterious threats of the Nihilists so much as the despondency of all good and practical political men. The daily life of the Czar is a terrible thing to contemplate, just as the daily life of his predecessor was in its closing years. It is said that the present Czar is about to appoint a commission to “ liquidate ” his father’s private affairs, examine his papers, and dispose of his personal property. His private papers, which are very numerous, will be examined in detail, and where referring to family affairs alone, will be destroyed ; but those which concern the business of the state will be sent to the archives, where they will be kept secret for 20 years. If the historians of that distant time get access to them then, it may be to cast a light upon a system which will then belong to ancient history.