The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-06 00:00:00

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r TRICE SD.

THE LATE EMPEROR NICHOLAS.,, T
(Front Galignani's Meescilgee.)

After a short introduction relative to the birth,
marriage, and family of the Czar, the Constitet-
tionnel proceeds as follows :
" The youth of the Emperor Nicholas, whose educa- --
tion was directed by the widow of Paul I. was devoted
to the most varied studies. General Lamsdorf instructed

him in the military art, C()unCiliWAdeTunglnspired him
with a taste for literature, and Professor Storck taught
him political economy. From his earliest youth, he was
passionately fond of music, and even composed several
military marches ; and he affected a great love for
the arts, and did s ) with an ostentation which indi-
cated more of political calculation than true sym-
pathy for artists. He was especially devoted to the
theatre, which, during his whole reign, he encouraged
with, at times, excessive prodigality. In acting thus
he, however, gratified his pencham *en than his pride.
He wished to set himself up as a Louis XIV. not; only
for Russia, but for the whole of Europe, and particu
larly for France. There, as everywhere else, he played
a part dictated by his vanity. And, in fact, one of the
distinctive traits of the character of the Emperor Ni-
cholas was that habit, which he had contracted at an
early age, and which developed itself in an excessive
manner when he ascended the throne of the Czars, to
appear always like an actor on the stage before the
public, whose attention and favour he wishes to attract
and obtain ; his abruptness and his familiarities were
not natural ; everything in hie conduct was calcu-
lated for the effect which he wished to produce ; and
even in the slightest details of his character of sovereign,
it might be perceived that he was acting a part. Like-
wise, if he accomplished useful reforms in Russian laws
and administration, he also suppressed liberty of thought
too violently for him to be considered as a true friend
of the arts and literature. A sanguinary drama in-
augurated his reign. On the very day fixed for ethe
army taking the oath, Nicholas found himself in face
of a revolted regiment, seconded by a popular move-
ment, and hs first triumph was gained over his people
and his army. From that time he governed his
vast States with a despotism which frequently de-
generated into tyranny, and he ruled over men's minds
less by the prestige of his authority than by the terror of
his police. The reign of the Emperor Nicholas was for
a long time a series of prosperities and victories, and
everything smiled on the pride as on the ambition of the
son7of Paul I.'

The Constitutionnel here enumerates the most promi-
nent of these advantages, showing how the late Emperor
successively obtained a large increase of territory from
Persia and from Turkey • how the treaty of Unkiar-
Skelessi, in 1833. _enabled- -him to reign para•
mount over the Black Sea ; and how his protecto-
rate of Moldavia and Wallachia, obtained the year
after, opened to him the road to Constantinople,
at any moment that he might choose to direct
his armies towards the Turkish capital. The
Constitutionnel, after arguing that the immense influence
which the Czar had thus obtained in Turkey seemed to.
premise bun an easy conquest of Coristantinople,—the'
golden prize which the descendants of Peter the Constantinople,—the
always kept steadily in view—continues thus :
" Inclined by nature to despotism, jealous to excess
of his power, which he did not share with any minister
or any favourite in the government of his empire ; of a,
lofty stature and imposing figure which commanded re-
spect ; Emperor and Pontiff at the same time for. his
people, who bowed before his will as before the will of
God, he held an immense ascendancy over foreign cabi-
nets, after the revolutions of 1830 and of 1848. These two
revolutions made hire the living personification of the
principle of authority in the whole of _Europe. This
situation pleased his mind, which was but too much
disposed to vanity, and too much inclined to. demina.,'
tion. Ise had so accustomed himself to it that byper-
forming the part of the Providence of monarchies, he at
length felt like an actor who, from the long repetition of
a character, actually identifies himself with the per;
sonage whom he represent-. It is that which, in these
latter times, caused the misfortunes of the Emperor
Nicholas. After baying been for many long years the
counsellor religiously listened to abroad by all the
nionerchies, as he was at home the .director of 804
mind, he could no comprehend that the tate-orthingi
had changed, from the acces'ion cf a Napoleon to the
throne, and to the re-esiablishmect of the Empire in
France. Ho still thought himself the sole arbiter of the
destinies of Europe. fie no more supposed the possibi.
lity of any defection on the part of his allies than of
revolt amongst hi= own su'.jects. He rashly entered on
a course where he no longer met with anythingbut
unlooked-for obstacles, and where at every step he, met
with impediments whieb he never suspected. The sift=
cessive and multiplied checks given to his policy in
the East must have produced a very strong impres-
sion on the mind of Nicholas I. After a long reign
of prosperity, it is difficult to. support with impu-
nity two years of reverses, which are the fatal conse-
quences of two years of faults ; and it is not without
pain that in the decline of his cateer, he beheld vanishing
away with the reputation of intelligence and reason
which he had justly acquired during the whole course of
a happy existence the supreme influence which he had
accustomed himself to exercise over the general affairs of
the world. The son of Paul I. lived too long for his
glory, fsr he has died, deprived of the rank which he had
acquired in the opinion of Europe ; he expired in the
midst of the ruiu of all his hopes, bequeathing to his
successor a state of things in which it is as difficult to
conclude peace as to carry on war, and which can only
be unravelled to the detriment of the prestige of the Czars
and of the power of the Russians."