The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 21, 1857. 11.38 Xittraturt. The Accession of Nicholas I. Compiled, by Special Command of the Emperor Alex ander 11., by his Imperial Majesty's Secretary of State, Baron M. Korff, and Translated from the original Russian. London : Murray. Tim is a corrected edition, for the first time made public, of a State paper of considerable historical importance. It is a narrative, on ginally compiled under the eye and correction of the late Emperor Nicholas of Russia, of the singular events which characterised his accession to the imperial Throne. The con tents of this volume comprise a detailed memoir of the whole transaction drawn up by the Emperor himself, and the contents of official papers prepared by the Grand Duke Constantine and the Empress. To these materials are added a précis of the evidence of trustworthy witnesses—many of them still living and in the service of the present Emperor—the recollections of actors in the scene, together with the private memoirs of several distinguished persons since deceased. The narrative has been re-compiled by Baron Korff at the special command of the Emperor Alexander 11. The object of this historical narrative is to " re-establish the facts in their purity," and to place b9fore Europe " a faith lid chronicle" of a series of political events which time and exaggeration have to a certain degree " disfigured in recital and embellished 4 • with invention." There have been many versions of the mili tary insurrection which broke out upon the Emperor Nicholas ascending the Throne of Russia. It has been the tendency of most writers to represent this insurrection as a national movement and a great popular effort — unsuccessful because ill executed—at revolu. tion. We believe there never was a greater error. It was to some extent Liberal, as opposed to the existing institutions of Russia; but it was a spurious Liberalism, confined to discontented military conspirators, who, tainted by their long residence in France, and relaxed by the licence of a desperate and popular war, sought to bring about some c'tange which might advance their fortunes. But from first to last the movement was essen tially military and not popular. To show this, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate from the text before us the antecedent events which unhappily brought about the unfortu nate crisis this official document relates. Previous to the death of the Emperor Alex aader I. the Imperial family, besides the 1 idies, consisted of the Emperor and his three brothers, Constantine, Nicholas, and Michael. Constantine had separated from his wife, and bad contracted " peculiar " relations with a P Aish lady of rank. Nicho las was married and had two children, and Michael was unmarried. The Emperor Alex ander for many years previous to his death had entertained the idea of abdicating his throne and of retiring into private life. Juki, ing from his character—a curious mixture of vanity, ambition, superstition, and indolence — it may be doubted whether lie would ever have given a practical test of the sincerity of his intentions; but thus much is known,—he gave distinct expression on more than one occasion to his views, and in 1819, at a pri v rte dinner with his younger brother, the Grand Duke Nicholas, and his Grand Duchess, the Emperor not only alluded plainly to the subject, but upon the point of abdication frankly admitted that the moment he felt his physical powers fail him lie should resign the sceptre, and concluded his remarks, says the Baron Korff, with the following singular statement —" I have, on more than one occa " sion, discussed the subject with my brother " Constantine ; but he, being of the same age " as myself, having contracted family ties of " the same peculiar character, and being " animated, b,sides, with an innate and irre " sistible aversion to the idea of reigning, has " decidedly refused to succeed me on the " throne. We are both still further confirmed by ieeinr " in you an evident proof of the peculiar bless " ing of Providence, which has vouchsafed you " a son. You are therefore informed beforehand " that you are destined, at a future period, " to be invested with the I mperial dignity." Be tween the Emperor and Constantine the most perfect understanding as to the accession of Nicholas to the throne upon the Emperor's abdication or death appears to have existed for many years, and in 1822 a formal deed of renunciation of his right of accession was executed by Constantine, endorsed by the Emperor, and in 1823, with other State papers of importance bearing on the point, secretly deposited by order of the Emperor iu the Ark of the Cathedral at Moscow. Three persons only. besides the Emperor, the Empress Mother, and Constantine, were intrusted with this great secret. It certainly does not appear that the Grand Duke Nicholas was informed of what had taken place ; and though copies of the document. were forwarded to members of the Imperial Family and to the Council of the Empire, to the Synod and the Senate, they were under the Imperial seal, and with a superscription in the Emperor's own hand to the effect that they were to be retained till he demanded them, and not to be opened unless at his decease, and then before any other steps were taken. At first sight this statement of se• crecy appears suspicions. What object could the Emperor have in keeping from his people the ab rogation of the law of succession, and of the choice he had made, with the consent of the heir apparent, of a successor to his throne? Clearly, with a people so loyal, the sudden and appa rently forcible setting aside of the heir-apparent on the death of the Emperor would open a wide field for intrigue, if nut for insurrection. And if the Grand Duke Constantino of his own free will declined the throne, what possible object could the Emperor have in surrounding this fact with so much mystery ? Baron limit' pro fesses himself unable to account for the Em peror's conduct. We think the solution may be sought for in his character He was very superstitious. The only gift he begged of Napoleon at Tilsit, besides Finland, was a pair of the great conqueror's buckskin breeches, in which he believed lay the charm of victory, and which he wore throughout the whole cam paign of 181:34 ; and the man who believed luck to lurk in a pair of old breeches would be just the man to avoid action, if he thought it anticipated the decrees of Providence. Then he was essentially slow in action. " Mea sure ten times and cut once," was his favourite proverb. lie had been eighteen months writing the manifest, and when, in 1823, two years afterwards, on the eve of his visit to Taganrog, he was reminded by Prince Galitzin, one of the confidants of the State secret, that in the event of his Nlajesty remaining for any lengthened period in the southern provinces of the empire, a serious inconvenience, if not danger, might contingently arise from the non promulgation of this document. the Emperor replied, " Remettons-nous en it Dieu. 11 saura " mieux ordonner les choses quo nous autres " fables mortels." A profound truth, no doubt, and one never to be forgotten ; but Prince Galitzin might have justly replied, " Aide-toi " et ciel Caldera." Alexander always waited until he thought he saw the finger of Provi dence directing him. The result may be easily anticipated. He left St. Petersburg without promulgating the manifest, and died at Taganrog on the 25th November following, with out revealing the secret of his testamentary disposition of the throne even on his death-bed. It is necessary to enter into this brief re view of the preliminary steps which led to the ultimate accession of Nicholas to the throne, order to clear his memory from that charge of falsehood and double-dealing which is brought against him because on first learn ing the tenor of the secret manifest he declined to accept the crown. Assuming the truthful ness of Baron Kortrs statement, Nicholas had ii) othemal knowledge of the change of succes sion, and could not foresee in what spirit his brother might receive the news. Whit( with the sudden and unexpected intelligence of the death of the Emperor, and the immediate announcement that he was to assume the Imperial Crown, some allowance may well be made fir his indisposition to accept the re ,ousibilities imposed upon him during the lifetime of his brother Constantine ; and it was both natural and politic that he should first ascertain the real sentiments of Constan tine at a moment when the crown was within his grasp. Had Constantine, who was at Warsaw at the time of the Emperor's death, chosen to disavow the whole previous proceed ings of the manifest, while Nicholas, at St. Petersburg, had hastily availed himself of it to proclaim his right to the throne, a civil war would have been the inevitable result. The refusal of Nicholas to accept the throne might have been more or less tinged with hypocrisy, but at least it was an act of great sagacity. He did more : he took the oath of allegiance to his brother Constantine, and compelled the Council of the Empire to do the same. The oath was also administered to the army—a step that Nicholas would scarcely have ven tured upon had he not been acting in perfect and pure sincerity. Expresses were sent off to Constantine at Warsaw, informing him of these important events, and requesting his immediate return to the capital. Meanwhile, Constantine, on hearing of the Emperor Alex andar's death, had despatched his younger brother Michael to St. Petersburg to enforce his (Constantine's) adhesian to the manifest. The Grand Duke Michael arrived after Nicholas and the Council had taken the oath of alle giance to Uonstantine. Here, then, was a dilemma. A secret council of the Imperial family was at once held. The situation of affairs was becoming critical; there had been no Emperor and no Government for some days, Constantine was at Warsaw and refused to come to St. Petersburg, and the active ele ments of sedition were rapidly ripening, Nicholas took the bolder and safer course : he no longer wasted valuable time in fruitless despatches to Constantine, who flatly refused to come at all to St. Petersburg, but at once resolved to publish a manifesto and to ascend the throne. That was not, how ever, an easy step. Events had be come complicated. the oath to Constantine had been generally administered to the army, and the canaille, from long uncertainty as to who was Emperor or whether there cats to be any Emperor at all, were becoming agi tated and ripe for mischief. A vast military conspie coy, also, the seeds of which were sown in Fralleo in 1815, was slowly ripening. It is diffi cult to explain the objects of the conspi rators. Ostensibly, they objected to the acces sion of Nicholas on the ground that the abdi cation of Constantine was not voluntary ; and the marked absence of Constantine from the capital throughout the whole transaction give some colour to the statement. Whatever the views of the leading conspirators were, this was the argument they used to seduce the army, and its influence was powerful over the minds of ignorant soldiers. The notion of taking an oath of allegiance to the younger brother of the legitimate Czar, who was not permitted to appear among them, was repug nant to the feeling of devotion with which the Czar is regarded by " his children." Reports were actively disseminated throughout the army that Constantine was in chains, and touching appeals were made to the loyalty of the men to go up and liberate their Sovereign (rein the grasp of a usurper. The fact or this huge conspiracy was known to Nicholas only a few days before that fixed (Dee. 11) for his public recognition as Emperor, but all the efforts of the police failed to detect the leadiug conspirators. The Court and the camp were full of them; and while their plans %yew bhricti in profound secrecy, every act of the Govern meta was known to them. Accordingly, it was fixed to make the trial of strength on the 11th December,. The day wits big with the fate of an empire. The oath of allegiance Wits to be administered to the authorities and to the army. Nicholas rose early, received re ports, held interviews, and gave a udiences. At eleven a.m., the oath was administered to the army. The Guards, cavalry and infantry, took it ; the artillery of the Gimlet hesitated, and eventually took it ; but the Moscow regi ment flatly refused, and, led by their officers, marched at once to the Seaat ?-hoase. This was the first step in the mutiny : In reality the Monow regiment was in a state of oprn mutiny. Two of the officers of this regiment, with other " in our respective determinations by seeing I spew I • r -