The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-03 00:00:00

THE RUSSIAN COURT AND CHURCH.

A letter from St. Petersburg of the 15th ultimo, in
the Press, gives the followine account of the movements of
the Imperial Court, of the opinion entertained in Russia of the
governmental reforms projected by the new Pope, and of the
probability of a concordat between the cabinets of St. Peters-
burgh and Rome for the administration of the Catholic
Church in Russia: "The court is still staying at Peterhoff,
the Imperial Family having remained only two or three days
in the capital, to be present at the ball of the nobility and
the Ste given by the Empress at her delicious retreat of
Yelaguine. Peterhoff is not the only imperial residence
built on the southern share of the Gulf of Finland. This
part of Ingria, without question the most picturesqlie in
northern Russia, is strewed with beautiful country houses
belonging to different members of the Imperial Family or
noblemen about the court. At Oranienbaum, opposite Cron-
stadt, the Grand Duchess Helena, has a superb perk and
palace constructed by Menzikoff, the friend and minister of
Peter the Great; the Prince of Oldenburg has a summer
residence near Peterhof, and a few years since the Duke and
Duchess of Leuchtenberg caused a beautiful Italian villa to be
built between Peterhoff and Strelna ; this rich and elegant
Florentine mansion ,built in a forest above the gulf and opposite
the low and foggy coast of Finland has a very singular effect.
Every prince and every member of the imperial family, with a
separate court, has given entertainments to the newly-mas-
ried couple, with the exception of the Grand-Duchess
Helena, who is absent in Germany ; and on the 2nd of
August the Emperor gave a pe chompetre in the island of
Zaraskine, the whole of which was illuminated at night,
and presented the most curious appearance. On the fol-
lowing day the Duke de Leuchtenberg received the Imperial
family and the Duke and Duchess of Wurtemberg. In the
Greek church it is not permitted to take the baptismal name
of the Virgin, but the Magdalen is the patroness of all who
bear the name of Mary in the faith of the orthodox church.
The 3rd of August (22nd July, 0.5.) is consequently •
general /Re in Russia, for there is scarcely a family that does
not number a Mary amongst its members. At the Duke de
Lenchtenberg's party the Imperial family celebrated thefite
day of no lees than four princesses ; Mary, Duchess of
Leuchtenberg, the eldest daughter of the Emperor ; Mary
Ate:ander:issue, wife of the Hereditary Grand Duke ; Mary
Paulowna, reigning Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar, sister
of the Emperor ; and Mary Michailowna, daughter of the
Grand Duchess Helena. The grand reviews of the Guards,
deferred till now on account of the excessive heat, began
yesterday. The different corps encamped between Peterhoff
and Krasnoie-Selo, on a plain several miles in extent,
amounted to at least 100,000 men. As soon se the
manoeuvres are over, the Emperor will set out for
Moscow with the Duke and Michele of Wurtem-
berg; from thence his Majesty will go into Volhynia
and review several corps &alma, which are being concen-
trated there. It is thought that Prince Woronoff, Gover-
nor-General of the Caucasus, will meet the Emperor at
Blew about the beginning of September. Prince Oscar of
Sweden and the Prince of Holstein-Glueksberg have left St.
Petersburg, and Prince Paakewitch has also set out for
Poland, taking with him the pardon granted by the Emperor
to certain political offenders, and the imperial decisions on
the subject of projected reforms. For this purpose the autho-
rity of the Viceroy has been extended over a part of the

predated esfases -- he madedigiTholon Oolobw • .-
ebsseatee of the new Pepe and Ist ens of
have poineeil the wey Ist effect him it ne:eleveLeliC
tin menus odd, We weessary bt gwisinnnotid deo
papase one be mob by the Pop nine% tibbentibe
foe a moieties. The Nospraw los Net sun to
R7erso Wm dailies assets
Italy, with &Wow to pat en sad
to the dilibrowse MOW between the two awn.
Coat Blerade4 Swan* Minister albs interior, a wisher
of the Cepa of Hawke, Hinder dikewendSeeds.
of the Chanseey albs empire, and President Was
ment of the Laws, Wen made the bow to R.,..D'amtte
labours of the cesomission and the forename of the
Hub*,
Czar. M. He. a dinispisbod risecesalt, accom-
panies him. It as said, that in ter Is devoted to
Catholicism ; but such ie wit the case with Count
Bloudoff, who is an intelligent and well-informed man, but
disposed towards the mysticism of We German and Swedish
illuminati. He is a zealous defied": of the Greco-Russian
Church, and has personally to h himself with the
measures which were adopted
tF the Latin Church
while ha was Minister of the In ; amongst Wien with
the famous report on the state of the sweats, addressed b
him in 1832 to the Ecclesiastical Cave, a report which
deprived the Latin Church of 202 mearstaries, wick were
either destroyed or made over to the Bandss Ansi. lam
not of opinion that the
is charged to nuke all proposition% sinwaspo
tbe new envoy be swiped aid
allawibed to by the Cam* of fa.., whatever desire the
may entertain of ohm for the Latin Church
la Goal se& seek as the MIAOW
lima et O&w
weal e . et dm imia-
waft Her askew* of amaamogko, $ sow
abeamelpden of the diatim,. and the eipalmalion of
yeeklbis. may be agreed to, bit s fall and cadapiele satisfac-
tion to the wants of the adroit and the desnands of the
Holy See, in relation to mixed marriages and children born
of these marriages, will not be given. The relations of the
Weeps with the Government and the Court of Rome, and
the pennon of the Latin clergy in Hanna, are questions
difileult to resolve here than in any other country.
The siseammis urged for the last ten years by the
Holy lee and the concessions proposed by the new
commissim and consented to by the government, are far
from giving just grounds for expecting an immediate and
final solution of the differences between the two Courts.
Count Bloudors mission, in fact, is, by the concessions and
arrangements which will rise out of it, to establish the basis
efa concordat between the Cabinet of St. Petersburg and
that of Rome, for the administration of the Catholic religion
in Russia. The Catholic sees are aimed all vacant, and
Count Bloudoff is charged to propose the fitting candidates—
vis. MM. Wolonizewski, Holowiaski, Kubthowski, Gorski,
Woydkiewicz, and Laski ; all of them professors in
the ecclesiastical establishments, and, consequently, belong.
lag to the secular clergy. The majority are learned and de-
serving men, but the position and dispositions of some amongst
diem will militate against the Pope's consent, if he is made
snilisisaily aware of them. It is a curious thing to see the
mitisenatie Sovereign of Russia dispose at his will of the
Catholic sees of the empire, scarcely recognizing in the
supreme Bishop of Rome the right of approbation and of
veto ; the Czars declare that they have inherited all the
rights of the Catholic kings of Poland as regards the nomi-
nation of the bishops and the government of the Latin
church. There has been a new question of marriage
in the Imperial family, and the Holy Synod has
been appealed to to ascertain the possibility of the pro-
jected union. The orthodox Church prohibits marriage where
the slightest relationship by blood or even alliance exists,
and refuses to recognise any right to make innovations or
change in its ecclesiastical discipline; but in the present case
the supreme tribunal has decided that the Grand Duchess
Catherine may wed the Duke Adolphus of Nassau, a Cal-
vinist, and the widower of the Grand Duchess Elisabeth. Her
Imperial Highness is the youngest dsughter of the Grand
Duke Michael and the Grand Duchess Helena, and is a
charming princess, full of talent and intelligence, the most
remarkable person in this rear eet in the Imperial family
after her mother, whose grace and extraordinary beauty she
partly poetesses. There only remains now amongst the
Grand Duchesses unmarried, the Princes' Mary, the eldest
sister of the future Duchess of Nassau.

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