ARRIVAL OF THE CESAREWITCH IN INDIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 19, 6 February 1891, Page 31

ARRIVAL OF THE CESAREWITCH IN INDIA.

(Times of India, December 24,)

His Imperial Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrowich, styled the C sirewitcn, or son of ths Czar, began his eventful tour in India yesterday morning under the best possib « anspices. The formal reception was, of course, organised according to the strictest etiquette, and the glitter of gold-lace and steel ana brilliant uniforms beceath the glowing Indian sun formed a spectacle it would be difficult to match. The crowds, however, of citizens of every cast and creed and in varied turbans and many-coloured garments that lined the streets and thronged the approiches to the Apollo Bunder, gave a spontaneous and quite unofficial welcome to an illustrions guest who appeals to them not so much as the heir of a vast Empire as the close relative of our Royal Family. The welcome bo warmly accorded in Bombay will, we may be sure, accompany the Imperial party througnout their long and very skilfully planned Indian journey. ... His tour, as we have said, is most skilfully planned. On this side of India he will see in a few days such historical and antiquarian monuments as few ot us resident here have ever the opportunity to view at all. After leaving Bombay and Hyderabad he will see something of our other Native States, and. the great Moghul cities and the famous shrines sacred to Engli-h valour. He will have glimpses of the Afghan frontier on the one side, and the Himalayan snows on the other. He will be tbe guest of the Vicaroy in Calcutta, just when the Viceroy's court is at its best and the Calcutta season in '• full swing," while in Madras, as in Western India amid " the palms and temples of the south," he will have the chance of contrasting the remains of bygone powers and Dast magnificen ce with the flourishing actualities of the present. It would ba easy to moralise on the presence of the future Emperor of ail the Russias amid the ruined cities of Hindustan and the grand relics of Moslem prowess and in the very strongholds of British In lia, and to draw parallels and contrasts between the civilizing methods of Brahma and Mahomet on the one hand and Russia and England on the other. But thesi things are obvious enough to be left unsaid ; and it will be perhaps more courteous and more to the point to wish his Imperial Highness a pleasant journey and good health and God-speed. From Madras the Cesarewitch proceeds to CeyJon about the sth February, and thence to China, from which he returns home through Siberia It is expected, we are told, Out he will visit all the chief seats of Government in the Asiatic dominions of the Russian Empire, and will annouce to tbe Siberians the Imperial decision to construct tbe great Siberian Pacific Railway as soon as possible. The journey will in all occupy many months, but hia sojourn in India is limited to about six weeks. It may interest such of our readers as are not Jearned in the Almanack tie Gotka to know that his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Cesarewitch born at St. Petersburg, May 18, 1868, is tbe eldest child of the present Emperor Alexander 111., who' was then Cesarewitch, and of the Empress Maria Feodorovna, was who Princess Dagmar of Denmark, B > ttat he is now in his twentj-ihird year, His brother, who accompanies him in this extended journey is the Grand Duke George Alexandrowitch. and was bern May 9 1871. He is albo accompanied by his cousin, Prince George of Grcsce.