The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-19 00:00:00

• THE PROBATE, LEGACY, AND
SUCCESSION DUTIES.

Lttstrii

-- as an .....trious and memorable reign. _
!_
t Ulf, Throne when the country was lodged in a deadly rnegie with three Powers, two of them among the greatest
rliztigseworld, and he extricated her from that struggle with
• h Dr°ll,lPfit'ude and all the honour that the most loyal
citizen of
to hi cotry could have desired. It was not his fate
Pyll throughun a
lung reign without again seeing his country
YvaYEli twitarde the eloss ot it, in another great and

The Morning Post says •.—" It is understood that
Mr. Gladstone has under consideration the question
of effecting a radical change in the present system
of levying probate, legacy, and succession duties,
and it is likely that to this question will be devoted
an important part of the Budget statement, It is
rumoured that the scheme which finds favour with
the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a proposal
to sweep away the differential duties which at
present depend on the degree of relationship between
testator and legatee, to abolish also the probate duty
as such, and to substitute a uniform succession duty
)f4 per cent., applicable to real and personal property
dike. This scheme has the merit of great simplicity,
and, as unfairly increasing the burdens of the already
heavily charged landowners, would no doubt con-
ciliate the advanced Radicals, whose principles have
suffered much violence at the hands of the Govern.-
ment during the present session."

From every part of Hungary and Transylvania
news of dangerous inundations is (says a telegram from
Pesth) being hourly received. 4e River Danube and its
yverflowed their banks and flooded vast
Numberless villages and some of the
:egled and Csaba, are under water or in
)mbankments of the rivers in some dia.
and it is only by the utmost exertions
that in many places she inha.bitantevare
'waters sweeping ittertriatil'ttelr
case of the destruction of Szegeditt.

tributaries have all -0,
tracts of country. -
larger towns, like Czegl
great danger. The er-
tricts have given way,
and sleepless laboar tha,
able tb 'prevent •thewp
Pert,' away, SA in the

The late Emperor of Russia was not only a well-meaning
monarch, who erred rather through hesitation as to what
he ought to do than from any reluctance to do what was
right; he was also the most finished gentleman who
has sat on the Russian throne He had a kind,
even temper; he was an indulgent father, a gentle
master, and he loved to be surrounded by friends. Solitude
made him sad, and he courted chee:ful company as some do
bracing air for the sake of their health. Even when the
Nihilist agitation had begun, and one dastardly attempt
after another was made against his life, the late Czar could
never bear to shut himself up and avoid all society but that
of his family and intimate friends, as he had been advised
to do. The very bustle of the streets was pleasing to him
Though no soldier, he loved military pageants ; and play-
going was almost a passion with him. He submitted witli asort
of impatience to the precautions that were taken to ensure
his safety after the attempt made to blow up the Winter
Palace last year; and the circumstances of his death prove
that some of these precautions he had laid aside as too irk-
some. He was often heard to say with unaffected piety,
though with a sadness which was but too natural, that his
fate was in God's hands; and he could not be prevailed upon
at this season of the year to live elsewhere than in the
Winter Palace, which continued to be his favourite resi-
dence, notwithstanding the sinister associations which had
become connected with it.

This Winter Palace is a huge, oblong building, five stories
high, and painted in a staring red-brick colour. ..It is
said to have cost hundreds of lives in theoerecting, for when
the old one,-which stood on the same site, had been burned,
Nicholas ordered that the new one should be built within six
months. This necessitated the employment of thousands
of workmen day and night through the winter, and many of
these unfortunates were frozen. As fast as the lower stories
were completed the walls were dried with roaring fires
while the works were carried on above; and the uphol-
sterers and decorators had completed the furnishing of the
principal rooms before the attics were roofed. Within ten
days after the workmen had left the building it was inhabited
by the Czar and his Court. . . .
It was in this palace, so strangely erected, that the late
Emperor always spent the six winter months; and before
the Nihilist troubles began the life he led there was a
preasant one. Alexander 11. never affected the Spartan
simplicity of his father Nicholas, who used to sleep on a
camp bed, eat of the most frugal fare, and spend
most of the time he could spare from State business
in inspecting his soldiers. He (Alexander) was addicted
to conviviality and home pleasures. He had a
few very intimate friends—the Bariatinskies, Adlerbergs,
Schouwaloffs, Blondoffs, and others—with whom he spent a
good deal of his time, and from whom he heard all that
went on in the world. Every evening one or otheeof these
familiars attended the private Court dinner, and afterwards
charades or comediettas used to be performed either by the
ladies and gentlemen of the Court, or by comedians from the
French theatre. During the daytime when it was
flne, the Emperor would take walking exercise in
the public garden of the palace, the gravel walks of
which were boarded over, and his only attendant was
usually a big dog; or he would get into his sleigh and
drive about the city without escort. Sometimes he
alighted and walked all down the Newski Prospect, looking
into the shops; or he would stroll into some friendly house
and pay a visit. He was known to everybody, but it was not the
etiquette to salute him, still less to accost him; unless he
courted recognition by one of those good-natured nods, of
which he was never chary, towards his personal acquaintances.
All this easy style of living however came to an end last
year ; and the precautions taken to guard the Czar made his
life for a time absolutely burdensome. He was scarcely
allowed to go out, and when he did so was closely followed
by detectives with loaded revolvers and by an armed Cos-
sack hetman, who walked beside him or sat opposite bins in
his carriage. The vehicle in which the Emperor rode—
whether it were a coach or railway carriage—was cased in
iron, and it had nothing about it to attract atten-
tion. Thus, in the streets, when several Court car-
riages passed together, the one which looked like
the Czar's was never that which • contained his
Majesty; and on the railroads the most brilliant saloon car
remained empty, while the Emperor travelled in what ap-
peared to be a second-class compartment or a baggage
van. At one time the Czar was prevailed upon to wear
a chain breastplate under his tunic, but though one
of the lightest kind was made for him, he could not
bear its weight, so the expedient was adopted of caus-
ing his tunics to be padded with cotton wool steeped
in a preparation which hardened it and rendered it,
if not bullet-proof at least knife-proof, and difficult for even
a bullet to pierce at a long shot. An attempt was made
some time ago by sending him a petition covered with some
noxious powder, since which he has ceased to receive letters,
papers, or petitions. For a similar reason he gave up
smoking, though he used to like a cigar, and he drank no
wine but irons bottles uncorked in his presence
All this watching and guarding was kept up for a time,
but at last the Emperor could bear it no longer. He ended
by telling the Chief of Police to take what precautions were
necessary, but to let him—the Czar—see as little of them as
possible. He resumed his walks in the palace gardens, his
occasional outings in sleighs, and he would sometimes go off
on the spur of the moment to spend his evening at the
French Theatre. Newspapers he seldom touched, but this
was only because one of his secretaries used to prepare him
a special journal every morning with cuttings from all the
others. . . .

• - •
During the last two years Alexander 11. found himself
placed in such a position by the crimes of the Nihilists that
he could take no action at all, from the fear lest be should
seem to be yielding to intimidation. Those who saw his once
handsome face prematurely aggiLdnd pinched with care, his
large eyes grown haggard, hfi=glitfice unsteady, imagined that
his nerves were unstrung, and that he had become a prey to
the terror af death. But this Ras never true for a moment.
The Czar did not fear death; but he was saddened by the
uncertainty of his life and by the prospect which would
confront his children when he was gone

CitiZe .
to pap thro
111VOIYOdi tOffara.