THE LIES ABOUT THE CZAR The Truth at Last In the "Times."

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 199, 16 April 1887, Page 2

THE LIES ABOUT THE CZAR The Truth at Last In the "Times."

The " Times," after circulating for months the most atrocious libels on the Czar, on the. authority of Nihilists and others in foreign capitals, published in its outer t?heet a long and interesting lotter from an occasional correspondent of its own at St. Petersburg, which gives the most absolute contradiction to all the fictions with which Europe has been flooded about the "mad* ness," "drunkenness," "cowardice," &o.» of Alexander 111. The correspondent says :— I trust that a few words about his | Majesty's personality may be suffered to appear in an English newspaper, after the miarepresentation of which he has certainly been the subject, and in view of the great .importance of knowing something about the character of this absolute monarch who has begun to astonish and rather puzzle the, world by the conduct of his own foreign policy. We kaow from the latest work of Count V , and from Russian opinion in general, that Alexander ILL is a very ternperateman, a model husband and father, and such a lover of honesty and detester of self- | seeking officials that he ha 3 sacrificed many persons of political worth to a preference foe men in his entourage, who, although nob brilliant, are at least irreproachable as regards honesty and devotion to Imperial in* terests rather than to their own. He works hard to master the smallest details of go* vernmenr, examining every paper with the greatest attention ; and this absorption in minor matters, it is said, is often taken advantage of by his councillors to keep from him the direction of the greater questions of Stato, at least as far as concerns homo affairs. His knowledge is now believed to be far more extensive k than was generally supposed, but he ia extremely reserved, and rarely converses with any of the personages admitted almost daily to his presence. Ho keeps his own counsel as much as possible, and it is very evident that his most distinguished generals have not yet all made up their minds as to the best way of approaching him. , . . For some time past, however, the gloomy cloud that used to hang about the brow long after the terrible death of his father haa been gradually wearing away. In order to be seen perfectly at ease he ehould be observed with his children in the grounds of Gatschina, where he is much more at home than in St Petersburg. . . . The Emperor is sometimes brusque, and not only says severe things when necessary, but occasionally writes come sharp comments upon the margins of reports. Having entered upon his great inheritance with a declared determination to obtain the absolute power, and with the keen sense of the dishonour, brought on Russia, both at home and abroad, by the weakness and the wavering of the last regimc t he will not admit the least concession to the spirit of the age, nor the slightest compromise with the autocratio principle, and he is naturally very suspicious of being overruled by any interested influence. No one expects any important reforms during his reign, but the relinquishment of this hope is somewhat counter* balanced by the proud satisfaction felt at bis Majesty's new departure in foreign affairs.