COUNT MURAVIEFF.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 131, 8 May 1897, Page 4

COUNT MURAVIEFF.

'l'm; appointment of Count Mnraviell to li!! the office of Rms'tui SI ulster of Foreign Affairs, rendere.l vacant by the death of Prince Lobanoff, has (says the St. .lames' Budget) taken almost the whole official world by surprise : but in Downing-strcct it caused no astonishment. Lord Salisbury, indeed, Mas in the secret from the beginning. When the Czar was in Copenhagen hist year, overburdened with the responsibilities cast upon him by the deatli of Pliucc Lobanoff and the connecting counsels of M. Shishkhi and M. de Nclidoff, he held several conferences with Count Muravielf, then Russian Minister to the Danish Court. M. Muravieff was kuown to enjoy the confidence of the Dowager Czarina, and the Emperor consequently asked him to put into writing the- views lie had orally expressed at these interviews. The result was an elaborate report on the Europeau situation, which struck the Czir as possessing exceptional liH-iits. The Emperor, however, is slow to form a definite opinion, and he took the document with him to Balmoral to study at leisure. Here lie submitted it, in the first place to the Prince of \\ ales, to whose judgment he is known to u*tach a hie.li importance. The Prince, in his turn, handed it to lord Salisbury with the Czar's sanction ; and the latter, in an audience subsequently granted to him by the Czar, spoke of the report in terms of unhesitating and unqualified approval, It was largely in consequence of this expression of opinion on the part of Lord Salisbury that the Czar subsequently selected Count Mnraviell'for the post of Russian Foreign Minister. The Muravieffs do not date so far back as the Ruriknvitch Princes, to whom the late Prince Lobanoff belonged ; but quite a number of them played a distinguished patt in the more modern history of Russia. The family was first brought to the front by Catherine 11., and China, Turkey and Poland have at different times all felt the effects of the energy and ability of its more remarkable members. The new Minister is the grandson of the General Count Muravieff who so firmly and even cruelly suppressed the Polish revolution in lS(i.'s as GovernorGeneral of Vilna and Polish Lithuania. In ISG4 he entered the service of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and received lii3 first diplomatic appointment as Secretary to the Embassy in Berlin. He filled several other otliees, and in 18S0 went to Paris and in ISB4 to Berlin as Councillor of Embassy. His appointment as Minister to Denmark took place in IS!).". It is stated that while acting as Charge iV Affaires in Berlin his despatches on the decline and fall of Bismarck showed remarkable perspicacity and clearness. Another fact to be noted is that he has never represented Russia in the lOast.