The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-05 00:00:00

ATE bZ

The following letter has been addressed to the Editor
of the Tiines :
Sir,—l commit into your hands the following letter
and memorandum for publication. It is fit that the people
of this country should know that at the commencement
of the diplomatic dispute with Russia Ministers were
Wade aware of the state of mind and prospect of life of
its mighty ruler. The discussions carried on with him
were shaped on the usual metaphysical grounds. They
should have been guided instead by a knowledge of the
physical condition of the disputant.
At every confidential interview with the British re-
presentative up started the monomaniacal idea of
4‘ l'homme malade—yrarement malade," which was often
repeated, " not without excitement," added Sir George.
If this fact did not of itself open the eyes of Ministers
in January and February of 1853, the timely professional
warning conveyed to them in the annexed letter not long
after might, one would think, put Ministers on their
guard, albeit the warning came from an humble indivi-
dual. Who knows how many thousand lives since sacri-
ficed and millions of money squandered might have been
saved if', on the conviction of the truth of the warning
received, instead of continuing for months together all
sorts of unprofitable arguments, peremptory language
and peremptory action had been employed, leaving no
time to the imperial and real " sick man" for the inflic-
tion on his own devoted people and those of the three
nations allied against him of that irreparable mischief
which he has been suffered to perpetrate ! It was thus
Clot Pitt dealt with Paul. But, alas, there is no Pitt
Dow.
For regularity's sake, - I mention that three pas-
sages in the following letter, which was strictly confi-
dential, are omitted. The first was the expression of a
purely religious opinion, which, though awfully appro-
priate at this moment, might be considered presumptu-
ous. The second detailed the grounds on which during
my residence of several weeks in St. Petersburg, in
1849, in attendance on a high personage at the Imperial
Court, I formed the medical opinion which I deemed it
my duty to convey to the Government at home ; their
publication at this moment would be injudicious. The
third passage was an illusion to nay ill-requitted service
in the navy, which cannot interest your readers.—l have
the honour to be your obedient servant,
A. B. GRANVILLE, M.D.
1, Curzon•street, Mayfair, March 3.

CONTIDINTIAL LETTER TO VISCOUNT PALMERSTON,
DATED KISSINGEN, BAVARIA, JULY 6, 1853.
cr lay Lord,—Failing in my endeavours to meet with
lour lordship at the appointed interview at thee House
of Commons on the 22d ult., at which I proposed to
snake a viva voce communication ofsorne importance to the
Government, as I thought, concerning the present politi-
cal discussions with Russia, I stated, in a second note writ-
ten at the moment of my departure from England for this
place, that I regretted the disappointment, inasmuch as
the subject of the intended communication, from its
delioate nature, did not admit of being committed to
paper.
" I think so still. But, on the other hand, the ne-
cessity of the Government being put in possession of the
communication appears to me to become every day so
much more urgent, that if it is to be of any use it must
be made at once, or it will fail to direct Ministers in time,
as I think the communication is capable of doing, in
their negotiations with Russia, and in their estimation
of the one particular element which, I apprehend, has
first provoked, and is since pushing on the Emperor in
his present reckless course.
" Mine is not a political, but a professional communi-
cation, therefore strictly confidential. It is not conjec-
tural, but positive, largely based on personal knowledge,
and partly on imparted information accidentally obtained
—it is not essential that I should say from whom, for I
take the responsibility of the whole on myself, inas-
much as the whole but confirms what' I have myself ob-
served, studied, or heard on the spot.
" The Western Cabinets find the conduct of the Em-
peror Nicholas strange, preposterous, inconsistent, un-
expected. They wonder at his demands ; they are
startled at his state papers ; they cannot comprehend
their context ; they recognise not in them the clear and
close reasoning of the Nestor of Russian diplomacy, but
rather the dictates of an iron will to which he has been
made to affix his name ; they view the Emperor's new
international principles as extravagant ; the doubt if he
be under the guidance of wise counsels. Yet they
proceed to treat, negotiate, and speak, as if none of
these perplexing novelties in diplomacy existed on the
part of a Power hitherto considered as the model of
political loyalty. The Western Cabinets are in error.
"The health of the Czar is shaken, It has become so
gradually for the last five years, He has been irritable,
passionate, fanciful, more than usually superstitious,
capricious, hasty, precipitate, and obstinate withal—all
from ill-health, unskilfully treated ; and of late deterio-
rating into a degree of cerebral excitement, which, while
it takes from him the power of steady reasoning, impels
him to every extravagance, in the same manner as with
his father in 1800 ; as with Alexander, in Poland, in
1820 ; as with Constantine, at Warsaw, in 1830 ; as
with Michael, at St. Petersburg, in 1848-9. Like them,
his nature feels the fatal transmission of hereditary in-
sanity, the natural consequence of an overlooked and
progressive congestion of the brain. Like t'sem, he is
hurrying to his fate, sudden death, from congestive
disease. The same period of life, between 45 and 60
years of age, sees the career of his fated family cut
short.

" Paul, at first violent and fanatical, a perfect lunatic
at 45 years of age, is despatched at 47, in ISOI.
" Alexander dies at Taganrog in Decein'ier, 1525,
aged 48. For five years previously his temper and his
mind had at times exhibited the parental malady by his
capricious and wayward manner of treating the Polish
provinces. He died of congestive fever of the brain,
during which ie knocked down his favourite physician,
Sir James Wylie, who assured me of the fact at St.
Petersburg in 1828, because he wished to apply leeches
to his temples.
" Constantine, eccentric always, tyrannical, cruel,
dies at Warsaw suddenly in July, 1831, aged 62 years,
after having caused rebellion in the country by his harsh
treatment of the cadet officers. I saw and conversed
with him on the parade and in his palace at Warsaw in
1821. His looks and demeanour sufficiently denoted to
a medical man what he was, and what his fate would be.
It has been said that he died of cholera ; again, that lie
had been despatched like his father. The physician in
chief of the Polish Militaryliespitals assured me some
years after that he had died apoplectic and in a rage.
" Michael, atter many years of suffering from the same
complaints which afflict his only surviving brother—en-
larged liver, deranged digestion, and fulness of blood in
the head—became in 1848-9 intolerably irritable, violent,
and tyrannical to his own officers of the artillery and en-
gineers service, of which he was the supreme chief. In
July, 1849, he consulted me at St. Petersburg. It was
after he had passed in review the whole train of artillery
which was leaving the capital for Hungary, at which re-
view I was present and near him, and witnessed scenes
of violent temper towards generals and aides-de-camp
hardly equalled in a lunatic asylum. I found him as de-
scribed above. I advised cupping, diet, non-exposure to
the sun and fatigue, the administration of suitable medi-
cines, and the cessation from drinking steel mineral
waters, of which he was fond ever since he had been at
Kissingen. His physician, the younger Sir Jas. Wylie
(himself since suddenly dead), assented reluctantly, but
did not carry ray advice into execution. The Grand
Duke, in the state he was, unrelieved by any medical
measure or proper treatment, joined the army, rode out
in the sun, and fell from his horse apoplectic in Septene-
b.ir, 1849, aged 48.
"To complete this disastrous picture of the grand-
children of Catherine, their mother, Maria of Wurtem-
berg, a most exemplary princess, died apoplectic in
November, 1829, scarcely more than 65 years of age.
The attack, mistaken for weakness, was treated with
stimulants and bark by her physician, Ruhl, and bleed-
ing was only had recourse to when the mistake was dis-
covered—but too late to save. The meek and mild
Elizabeth had but a short time before followed her im-
perial partner, Alexander, to the grave, in the still fresh
years of womanhood, 50 years of age.
"During my second sojourn in St. Petersburg, in
1849, for a period of tea weeks . . . What the
opinion was of the Emperor's health—what acts of his
came to my knowledge, which bespoke eccentricity—what
were the sentiments of his physician, Dr. Mandt, who,
hoincepathist as he is, and exorcising a most peremptory
influence over his master, leaves him, nevertheless, lin-
_ relieved, except by mystical drops and globules—what
transpired of political doctrines and opinions, or, in fine,
what I gathered afterwards at Moscow on all co-equal
points, must be left to your lordship's conjecture—not
difficult after all I have divulged. To go further would
be like a breach of trust, and of that I shall never be
guilty.
co" In all I have related there is nothing that had been
q_a t_lnitted to me as a privileged communication ; while
itu:iinte
theearative requirements of the moment calling for
under izte divulgement I hesitate not to make it,
Cons will berrreteonviction that my fears and anticipa•
"If so, the nurtehl y realised.
ful Severeien 50 vli.nethod of dealing with an all-power-
lar mode of transalcitV mast differ from the more regu-
and Government, vj
thhilsiness between Government
put her Majesty's Minister': purpose it is—namely, to
that I have determined ton their guard accordingly,
hands the present professionatinformtion, which must
your Lordship's
.-..ei
be considered as so strictly
J naana itia.l that I shall not
sign it with my name.
" That I have selected your Lordship as the channel
of my communication rather than the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, to whom more properly it should have been ad-
dressed, will at once appear natural to your Lordship.
In my capacity of once, and for some years, your Lord.
ship's physician (though not new honoured with that
title), your Lordship has known me personally, and i,
convinced that what my pen commit; to paper may be
taken as coining from an honourable man and your obe-
dient servant."
N.B. An acknowledgment of the receipt of this letter
Caine by return of post Lord Palmerston's handwriting.
M,

t an interview with Lord Palmer-
ston, February 23, 1854, on matters of a private nature,
hie Lordship was pleased to ask me before we separated
whether I still adhered to my opinion and prediction.
I replied that before July, 1855 (the Emperor would
then be 59 years old), what I had anticipated would
happen. " Let but a few reverses overtake the Em-
peror," I added, " and his death, like that of all
his brothers, will be sudden," It has proved so.
Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava, shook the mighty brain.
Eupatoria completed the stroke, which has anticipated
.112 Y prognosis only by a few weeks,

A. 13, G.