The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-13 00:00:00

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CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR
ALEXANDER.

,-

THE REGIMENT OF PAUL.

The great event of Monday, Sept• 1,, was a re-
view of all the Guard and of some regiments of the
Corps of Grenadiers by the Emperor, which cer-
tainly was a grand military spectacle.

The Pavlovsky, or the Regiment of Paul, pre-
sented an appearance which would be grotesque if
it were not imposing. All the mon—pray do not
laugh—have cocked noses. Every soldier with a
nez retroussee, who is of the proper height, is sent
to this regiment, which was formed by Paul in one
of his eccentric freaks, and a very 'determined pug
is eligible if it be accompanied by sunken eyes and
high cheek bones. But more than this—the men,
clean shaven, like all Russian soldiers, except on
the lip, wear their moustaches brushed upwards
towards their ears, which gives them a strange and
savage aspect. .This bizarre and ferocious appear-
ance is increased by the shape of their head•dress,
which is like a sugar-loaf with one side cut away
—an angular section' of a cone, with the round
side to the front. On this side the shako, or
whatever it is, consists of a brass plate ; at the
back it is of bright red cloth. From the top there
is a, curious tuft, or pompon, sticking out horizont-
ally, so, as to be parallel with the lower part of the
wearer's nose. The brass front is religiously pre-
served should ,it have been pierced by a ball, and
is worn only by des'erving soldiers. Some of them
have been perforated in two, three. or four places
in the.daya of Ciatherine 11. and in Suwaroff's
cam-
paign, where the regiment greatly distinguished
itself, and on the under part of each pate is en •
graved the name of -the soldier who wore it when
the ball of the eqemy came in such unpleasant
proximity to him. Should one of these plates be
worn out with age its form is scrupulously imi-
tated, and the holes renewed ..with the greatest
care. The regiment when at the march past al-
ways carries bayonets at the charge. Although the
look of tries() four thousand and odd men, all o
whom are over six feet, is very novel and striking,
and if they are half as ugly in the fight as they are
on parade they must prove most formidable anta-
gonists. They are dressed like the other regiments
of the Guard, with the exception of the helmet.
The Marines of the Guard were much admired,
but the greatest amount of interest was excited by
the bait slims of the Militia of the Imperial family,
which are raised entirely from the serfs on the
Romanoff estates. They are all sharpshooters, and
are armed with excellent rifles. Their dress con-
sists of a dark green frock, cut in the old Russian
fashion, loose trouser-, and boots coming up to the
knees, into which the trousers are tucked.
Wonderful s ories are told of the skill of some of
these men in the use of their arms', and of their
excellent shooting, which is accounted for by
the circumstance of their being generally from
districts where-the pursuits of the chase are still
common, and where animals of fine fur are sought
for by the hunter. The Finland Regiment, which
lost very heavily from sickness while it was quar-
tered in Poland, has now recovered its strength,
and the men, shorter but more squarely built than
the Russians, exhibit a marked difference in face
and expression from their conquerors; they are
ruddy and bright-eyed, and look very cheerful and
contented. Their officers are Finns, and the words
of command are given in the Swedish tongue.
The stream of men which poured past was so con-
tinuous and so dense that one might think all the
armies of the world were present. After the guard
came the splendid regiments of the corps of grena-
diers. It should be mentioned thatamong the finest
battalions of • the former are the newly-organised
Classeur.s, armed with a new rifle, and the Sapours,
who are a well equipped, useful-looking body.
The march past of the guard lasted one hour and
seven minutes—that of the regiments of the Gre-
nadier Corps occupied nearly half au hour. Each
corps was followed by its field batteries, all brass
guns, mounted on the well-known green carriages.
Each battery consists of eight guns, all of the same
calibre, namely, oue of 121 b. or 14tb., as far as one
could guess. It is intended to use only one kind
of gun for cavalry and infantry, for the Russiana
are of opinion that the light field guns have been
rendered useless by the use of the long-range rifles,
and they are adopting the system of artillery intro-
duced by the Emperor Napoleon into the French
army. Would that our authorities would open
their eyes to this question, and institute some ex-
periments in continuation of those begun in the
Crimea. The horses were splendid, and surprised
those Englishmen present who thought that no
good quadrupeds of the kind could be seen out of
England. The heavy roll of 12 batteries, with all
their pomp of spare horses, caissons, Ste., and the
march of the artillerymen, did not cease till 30
minutes had elapsed, and then, blazing with gold
and silver, the Chevalier Guard of the Emperor
came up at the bead of the 12 regiments of cavalry
of the Imperial Guard and of the line.
It is impossible to exaggerate the beauty and
condition of some of those regiments, and more
particularly one was struck with the appearance
of the horses and men of the Hussar Regiment
of Grodno. The Gerdes Cheval, the Grenadiers
of the Guard, the mounted Sappers and Ponton-
niers, the Cuirassiers, the Lancers, the Hussars,
and the Oossacks came in for their share of praise,
and puzzled one to decide which was the most im-
posing and effective-looking. All the horses were
turned out in marching order, with a bag of oats
at the saddle, and every third man carried behind
him a small copper stable bucket, which fitted to
the end of the roll of his great coat or blanket.
The Cavalry went past in a front of 65 file. After
they had saluted, each squadron wheeled round
to the left, and drew up in line, extending more
than a 'mile on the ground on the proper right of
the plain ; and now the very finest spectacle one
ever saw was presented in a manner as grand as it
was startling. When the squadrons had dressed
into a splendid line, a certain number of the officers
slowly rode out in front, and came towards ail
line of spectators, till they were withiii about 50
paces, when they halted, and took up points in a
line parallel to that of the Cavalry, who were
distant from them about 650 yards. Then at a
given signal the whole of this tremendous body
of Cavalry, uttering loud cheers, and flourishing
sabres or couching lances, burst into a gallop,
and charged full speed towards the people
and the Emperor's cortege. The effect was over-
whelming ; the earth seemed to shake under the
tramp of 15,000 war horses--stheir force seemed
sufficient to annihilate whole armies—they swept
over the ground like some prodigious wave or a
roller of the great Atlantic—in a second they were
close at hand, and it seemed as if nothing mortal
could check that glittering flood. The women
shrieked and fled, and some of the ruder sex turned
tail and sought refuge in the rear of the lines. The
alarm was groundless. The horses were well in
band, notwithstanding the great speed at which
they advanced, and on arriving at the line of offi-
cers the billow of Centaurs was arrested as if by
magic, and the front suddenly halted in wonderful
order amid the tremendous cheering of the people.
Such are the sights which Russia exhibits to Ger-
man potentates and their followers, and such are
the displays which have led Europe to fear her as
irresistible and unassailable. The recollection of
this Tory charge might perplex a statesman or dis-
turb the councils of a cabinet. The review was
now over, and the Emperor proceeded towards
Petrovsky, surrounded on all sides by thousands
of his subjects, the warmth of whose loyalty and
attachment was most evident and heartfelt.
The poorest mujik was permitted to come quite
close to the person of him who represented in
his eyqs the incarnate Deity, nor did the Gendar-
merie trample the crowd in the dirt or interfere in
the slightest way, except to keep order among the
droskies. As the troops marched past, they filed
off towards their respective quarters, heartily glad
to get away from the, choking dust and cold wind
which they had endured for six hours. The corps
of cadets, indeed, had marched over as early as 7
o'clock from a distance of several miles, but the
Emperor was considerate enough to prepare re-
freshment for them at the Petrovsky Palace.
The troops paraded on this occasion consisted of
16 squadrons of cuirassiers, 36 squadrons of light
cavalry, and 22 squadrons of Cossacks, 12 squadrons
of Pioneers a Cheval, and 1 squadron of his Ma-
jesty's escort. The infantry consisted of four com-
plete divisions of the Guard. Each division is com-
posed of four regiments, and each regiment contains
four battalions. There were therefore 64 battalions,
or about 50,000 men, of the Guard ; to these must
be added 20 battalions of rifles, one battalion of
sappers, and ono battalion of Marine Infantry of
the Guard, in all 90 battalions of infantry. Each
of these divisions brought its batteries into the
field, so that there were at least 116 guns on the
ground-L-some say there were 140 pieces paraded,
but I only counted the number stated above. The
aspect of the field may be imagined when it is re-
collected that there were more men present than
there were on both sides together at the battle of
Alrna, and considerably more than there were of