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 audiences.
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