The Express.
London, England, 1856-09-16 00:00:00

TSB EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER IS, 1858:

TIIE CORONATION OF THE
EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

THE CROWNING.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
MOSCOW, Sapr. 8.
To enable the English reader to understand the
outline which it shall be my endeavour to give of
the august ceremonial of yesterday, it will be neon-
eery, ia the first instance, to sketch slightly the dif-
ferent, although contiguous, localities in which the
various portions of the imperial programme were
carried out. Far within the battlementeo walla of
the Kremlin, and surrounded by large public build-
ings, such us the Senate and the Arsenal, is a
rather contracted court, three aides of which
are mainly occupied by the Uspenski
Bator, or Church of the Assumption, the
churches of the Archangel Michael and of the
Annunciation, and the old and new Kremlin Palaces.
The fourth opens upon an extensive esplanade, which
in its turn commands the Moskwa river, and beyond
it one of the finest urban panoramas that can pos-
sibly be imagined. Were it not that it would be a
mistake is art todirect the attention from thereat
central point of my picture—the coronation itself—
whole columns might be written about the innumer-
able: gilded spires, grotesque cupolas, and palatial
mansions, that may be taken in from this spot at a
glance, scattered as they are in rich profusion on the
further bank of the modest river that gives its
name to the ancient capital of Russia. But
our business is with the important events
of the coronation day, and all raptures con-
cerning magnificent prospects must be reserved for
some future occasion. The coronation, as all the
world knows, takes plain in the Church of the As-
gumption, and about this the reader must learn some-
thing before he can follow the elaborate ceremonial
of which it was the scene. According to cur
notion of churches, the interior of the Uspenaki Babor
is small indeed, scarcely accommodating 600 persons;
but still its great height and deep intersecting arches
give it a most imposing appearance, while the by-
zantine pictures and gilding with which its walls
are entirely covered, and the costly shrines and
monuments which it contains, subdue the
mind by the sheer force of their material splendour,
and leave one puzzled as to whether he ought to
smile at their barbaric taste, or tly bow to
their mystic symbolism. Two or three thousand
pictures of saints and heroes stud the walls so closely,
that no interstice can be detected between their
heavily gilded frames, and, from the centre of
the dim lantern which forms the sole means of ilia.
minatioo, a colossal half-length of the Saviour, looks
down benignantly on his, at all events, sincerely
reverent wonhippers below. The roof is
supported by four immense pillars, wholly
out of proportion to the dimensions of the
church, covered from top to bottom with
the frescoed traditions of the Greek Church, lapped,
as it were, in a gilded scroll continuously round the
circumference. Within these four pillars stood the
costly estrade upon which the ceremonial took plies,
and upon the decoration of which all the art, taste,
and resources of the empire had been lavished.
Crimson velvet, gold brocade, gems of immense
Take, gold and silver furniture, including the ancient
throne of the Czar, contributed to swell the Inagual.
ones of this small inch:sure ; and over head hang a
gorgeous canopy, suspended by numerous gold and
.;her cords from the lofty ceiling. A heavily gilt
and made' belastrade surrounded this ratted,
within which no one was to enter but
the Emperor and Empress, the Empress-Mother,
the Metropolitan of Moscow, and,Eat one moment, the
ladies of honour who were to arrange the small
crown on the head of the Empress. On on. side wee
a gallery covered with scarlet cloth for the diplo.
made body; on the other, a similar one for the ladies
of the great ecclesiastical dignitaries of the empire;
and at the back of the throne • third, for the haute
noblesse, and such official notabilities as had the pri-
vilege of the entree. With the church the Kremlin
Palace communicates, exteriorly, by a grand fiightf
steps; and if you add a broad platform, extending
from the base of the point of junction, and making a
long sweep to include the exterior esplanade, and
thus give the people an opportunity of " assisting "
at the coronation of their sovereign, you will
be able to form a tolerably correct idea of the
site covered by the ceremonial of which I am
about to attempt some imperfect details. I should add
that, for the purposes of the coronation, the fourth
side of the court bad been filled by a temporaryl
wooden screen,iduidsomely draped, and pierced with
two lofty gateways, through one of which the im-
perial procession emerged at the termination of the
coronation, and by the other of which it returned en
reale to the Kremlin Palace. In this court were the gal-
leries for the etae of the spectators, the admission
to which was by tickets,the price of which varied a•
cording to proximity from twenty-five to fifty, and
for one gallery even one hundred rubles. Six o'clock
in the morning was an early hour to be afoot, for
people exhausted by previous spectacles, but at any
later hour the chance of admission was ex•
modally problematical; and even then each
entrance-gate of the Kremlin was a scene
of the most extraordinary confusion, in consequence
of a rule of which nobody bad before heard, refusing
admission to all except those who came in carriages
and pairs. !who had, with immense trouble, pro-
cured a most unpretending drotschky, had a regular
pugilistic encounter with the Badishnik before I
got through, and to this moment do not know
whether I may not be the defendant in au action
for assault, battery, and forcible entrance. Once
within, the scene ware most exciting. There were
crowds of well-dressed people, groups of mujiks.
and pelotous of cavalry, mixed up in the most
admired confusion. On every side drums were beat-
ing, colours flying, and trumpets braying the Tarim
notes of command peculiar to the Russian service.
The whole of the esplanade seemed paved with
parasols, above which here and there fluttered the
banner of some guild whose privilege it was to get
thus near the grand ceremonial, and whose organi.
eatioc and costume reminded me strongly of an Odd
Fellows' procession in England. Here and there also
the wiry little Cossack, mounted on his equally wiry
little horse, wound in and out through the crowd,
keeping order as best he could, and constantly
exchanging sentences, obviously not taken from
Chesterfield, with the spectators whom he disturbed.
For this outer space 60,000 tickets had been issued,
and if you add 20,000 more, who either evaded or
forced or bribed their way in, you will come
pretty near the lacteal number of civilians who
were spectators of the coronation procession.
As foe the military of all brioche' of the
service, and gendarmes, I make no attempt
to count them, but they stood everywhere in claps
masses, and must have formed a ;complete army do
parade. In the inner court the crowd was much less,
the price of tickets seeming to have had rather a
coaling effect on public curiosity, but still there was
• large number of fashionably dressed people in the
galleries, and the flagged centre was filled with a
heterogeneous misters of ladies, gentleman, glides a

hsealpied. Cossack., Tcherkesses, Bootie,
n.groec piss
and raillery bands. On the plat-
and a
form which I have before mentioned, none were per-
mitted to walk but persons in uniform, and here I
recognised Mr. William Gladstone, Mr. Banker (en
officer of the St. Jean D'Aere), and two or three other
Englishmen, who is virtue of their yeomanry, or
militia eabiliments, had been permitted thus to min-
gle with the Russian militairee, and to emulate them
in fierceness of strutt, and brusqueness of soldierly
demeanour. At seven o'clock a 'elute of twenty-one
goes from the walls of the Kremlin announced that
the great business of the day was about to begin,
and the officials threw open that gate of the church
by which public functionaries and ambassadors were
to enter. The sweepers and dusters had just given
the interior the last finishing touch, and a reverend
father might be seen hurrying to the corner in which
is placed the silver coffin of St. Philip, of which he
was for that day to be the guardian. His reverence
took bis seat on the steps, but every moment had to
rise and lift the ponderous silver lid, as a
smartly dressed official, or fierce looking general,
came to bend low before the shrine, or devoutly
kiss the effigy of the departed saint. The holy father,
was most polite and communicative to strangers, bat-
as he spoke in Ross, while they spoke English, you
may imagine the additions made by the interlocutors
to their respective stores of information. One little
incident in this sacred corner wee strongly illustra-
tive of the spirit of tolerance that honourably die.
tiognishes the Greek church. While the Russians
only approached the shrine in the most humble and
obsequious manner, barely venturing to touch the
velvet-covered steps with their foreheads, a stranger
wee politely requested to sit thereon, and nobody
seemed to take notOs of the incongruity. But I
most not linger, f& there is still much to be told.
The privileged visitors began now to drop in, and
one of the first wee the Princes. of Miogrelia, who
ham recently arrived in Moscow by imperial invite..
tion, and who is one of the reigning boners of the
place. Her highness, who is a remarkably fine
woman, of about thirty years of age, was gorgeously
dressed in gold brocade, with a broad blue sash, on
the shoulder-knot of which she wore the Order of Bt.
Katherine in diamonds, conferred on her for her
distinguished feats of arms when Omer Pacha ravaged
her mountain kingdom, and on her head a splendid
coronet of emeralds and rubies. She was accom-
panied by her son, the reigning prince, a fine little
boy eight 'years old, dressed as an aids-de-oamp of
the Emperor, an honour which had been conferred
on his little highness only the previous day. Hearing
that some "special correspondent" bad ventured
within the sacred precincts, her highness sent
her interpreter to the representative of •
well known continental journal, requesting
a few minutes conversation. It is needless to add
that the gentleman in question was only too ready to
obey the summons, and was excessively surprised to
find that her highness was fully acquainted with and
duly appreciated the value of the Fourth Estate. She
told him in excellent French that she hoped herself
and her dress would be noticed in the journal he re
presented, and detailed her heroic struggles against
Omer Pacha, who, she said, had plundered and
ravaged her little kingdom. Her highness then re-
turning to the great 'question for which the news-
paper plenipotentiary had been summoned to an
audience, said, with much naivete," Comment me
trouvea eons ?" The gentleman was of course
ebloui, and the interview terminated with a press
ing invitation for self and Mends to the
chateau in the Caucus if they ever should
happen to pass in that direction. The church now
began to fill. Lord and Lady Granville, &comps-
nied by the Marchioness of Stafford and Lady Emily
Peel, were amongst the first arrivals; Lord Wodo-
house, accompanied by Mr.Jalian Fans, cams shortly
after, and the doorway was soon completely filled by
the French Embassy in brilliant uniforms, and
mingled with them were Sir Robert Peel, and one or
two other English faces. The Count de Morny took
the right, nest to him Lord Granville, then Prince
Esterhazy, and lastly the Prince De Ligue, the other
Arab...adore getting seats as beat they could with-
out any order of precedency. Immediately behind
Lord Granville sat Lord Wodebouse and Mr. Pane,
and on the same and hinder benches the ladies
of the several Embassies. By this time forty
Bishops of the Empire had assembled be-
tween the great altar and the estrade, and
assisted by their attendant priests were invoking
heaven in f f the Emperor. Nothing could
be more magnificent than the robes, nothing more
venerable than the appearance of these prelates. At
their head was Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow,
the most distinguished name in the Russian church,
distinguished for piety, for learning, and for the
physical vigour that at ninety years of age enables
him to continue in the active discharge of his episcopal
duties. The golden shrine of the Virgin lay open.
containing her portrait, said to be painted
by Bt. Luke, and studded with jewels of immense size
and value. Wax taper. were burning, incense
was rising in clouds, unseen choristers were chatint-
ing most heavenly music, when the hum of the people
without, and the roar of artillery, announced au im-
perial arrival. It was the Empress Mother, who,
although broken down with ill-health and sor-
row, had tome thousands of miles to assist at the ,
coronation of her son. Nothing can be more touch-
ing or creditable to the Russian people than the affec-
tion and respect which they always exhibit towards
this illustrious lady, and as It more conspi-
coons than on the day of the coronation, when, both
within and without the church, she was almost
overwhelmed with demonstration, of attaohmect.
Her Majesty, who was accompanied by a bril-
liant cortege, immediately took her seat on
the throne allotted to her on the eared.. There
was now a slight stir at the side door. It was the
Turkish envoys asking admittance. They were
obliged, however, to go to a gallery specially pre-
pared for them outside, as the rules of the Greek
oburch do not permit the entrance of any one who
cannot kneel before the true cross. Another salvo of
artillery, another chorus of almost divine harmony
from the invisible choristers, and the Emperor and
Empress arrived at the grand grille of the church.
Hie Imperial Mejes'y wore • general's uniform, and
marched under a magnificent canopy supported by
sixteen of the grand dignitaries of the empire. The
Archbishops of Moscow and Novogorod proceeded
to the gate to welcome his Majesty, bestow
a blessing, and sprinkle the imperial pair,
with holy water. They were followed by
a gorgeously attired cortege, amid which
might be recognised the Patties, Dolgourokis,
Gortchakoffs, and other names familiar to the stu-
dents of Russian history. The gallant defender of
Sebastopol looked as well and as young as when,
four years since, he stood over the open grave of
the Duke of Wellington in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Then there ware the Asiatic tributary princes, in
their magnificent costume; and, finally, the gene.
rale who had the right to occupy so distinguished •
position. At the entrance, the Emperor kissed the
hand of the prelate with the palm upwards, the
mode in which this salutation is performed in the
Greek church. The Empress was followed by a
fair bevy of maids of honour in Parisian versions of
the Russian national costume. They looked
moat captivating in their kekoebatke, but