The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-16 00:00:00

Nicholas of Leuchtenburg.

The Archpriest Baya-

noff, confessor to her Majesty, assisted at the cere-

mony, the Metropolite being a monk, and under
the rules of the Greek Church prohibited from corn-

pleting the sacred act.

November 12,

Yesterday, as the day before, was spent by the
Court in a quiet way, the grand levee and other fes-
tivities having been put off indefinitely. It being
Sunday, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
accompanied by Sir Andrew Buchanan, Lord
Hamilton, and the members of his suite, attended
Divine service in the spacious and elegant chapel of
the English residents in St. Petersburg. The church
was completely filled, the congregation including
many Russians and Germans, in addition to the
members of the English colony. The presence of
his Royal Highness was respectfully acknowledged
by the English and foreigners present. This morn-

ing a deputation of the English residents, headed
by the treasurer of the English factory, solicited
permission to wait upon his Royal Highness and
presented the following address :
"To HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS ALBERT EDWARD,
PRINCE OF WALES, K.G., &c.
"May it please your Royal Highness,—We, the under-
signed members of the British factory and British residents
at St. Petersburg, impressed with feelings of devotion to
our Sovereign and attachment to our country, are desirous
of presenting to your Royal Highness our tribute of repect-
ful homage on the occasion of your visit to the Court of St.
Petersburg.

" The auspicious event which has brought for the first
time in the annals of history an heir to the throne of Great
Britain to Russia is one in which our heartfelt sympathies
are enlisted. Grateful for the many advantages we enjoy
under the Government of the beneficent Emperor who rules
this land,we gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity now
afforded of giving expression to our earnest wishes for the
happiness and prosperity of the Imperial family, while we
hail with satisfaction an event which, by uniting the Heir
Apparent to the Throne of All the Russias to the Royal
House of Denmark, establishes in the person of the august
Consort of your Royal Highness a tio between Russia and
Great Britain of the happiest augury for friendly relations
between the two countries.

"As residents in St. Petersburg, interested for the most
part in commerce and manufactures, we are in a position
to appreciate the manifold advantages which extended trade
cannot fail to afford to both countries, for it is no imagi-
nary bond that draws the two nations together, but a com-
munity of interests, based upon an interchange of services
which the greatest agricultural people and the greatest
manufacturing nation of Europe are capable of rendering
to each other.

" We recognise the happy influence which the many im-
portant social and administrative reforms inaugurated
during the present reign must inevitably exercise upon the
development of the internal resources and foreign trade of
this empire. We know that these signs of a coming pros-
perity will be as gladly welcomed by our countrymen in
England as they are by the British residents in St. Peters-
burg, and the friendly feelings of our most gracious Sove-
reign towards Russia evinced by the visit of your Royal
Highness to this country will be as fully appreciated by
Englishmen as they doubtless are by the Russian people.
"St. Petersburg, Oct. 20 (Nov. 1)."
His Royal Highness made a gracious reply, the
exact wording of which I hope to be able to send
by to-day's post.
The following proclamation, just divulged, an-
nounces the marriage to the people of Russia :
" We, Alexander, by the grace of God, Emperor and
Autocrat of All the Russias, King of Poland, Grand Duke
of Finland, &c., announce to all our faithful subjects, as
follows :

With the blessing of God the marriage of our beloved
son and successor Cesarewitch, Alexander Alexandrovitch,
with the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorowna, daughter of
the King of Denmark, has been solemnised to-day in the
cathedral church of the Winter Palace, in our presence,
and in that of an assembly of secular and ecclesiastical per-
sonages.

"Confiding the destinies of the newly wedded couple to
the guidance of Providence, we announce an event so gra-
tifying to our paternal heart to all our faithful subjects,
and call upon them to join in our fervent prayers for the
welfare of the beloved couple. We pray God Almighty to
bless, in His all-wise mercy, their Royal Highnesses with
the enjoyment of full, lasting, and unalloyed happiness, to
our joy, and to the joy of our most beloved Consort the
Empress Maria Alexandorowna, of our whole Imperial
House, and of all Russia. ---

"Given at St. Petersburg, on the 28th day of October
:November 9), of the year 1866 since the birth of Christ,
in the 12th of our reign.

"ALEXANDER."

A special favour, which, while it benefits a consi-
derable portion of the inhabitants, is, at the same
time, an important political act, has been conferred
upon Poland. In a manifesto, bearing the date of
his son's marriage, the Emperor abolishes all the
various taxes, rents, and imports hitherto paid by
the townspeople of Poland for the usufruct of the
lands cultivated by them. It appears that the
townspeople of that country, under the feudal insti-
tutions still prevailing in it, have been so long obliged
to rent the greater part of the land allotted to them.
Thou the land allowed them in olden time could
not be taken away, they were, on the other hand,
prevented from purchasing it, or from entering into
new and more favourable contracts with the owners.
The latter, consisting of the nobility and the Crown,
had, in the times when arbitrary oppression was the
order of the day, exacted a large variety of imposts
from their urban farmers no less than from the
peasantry; properly speaking, which had become
permanent, and, though liberated for a long time
past from the grossest obligations of personal serf-
dom, the large proportion of townspeople living by
agricultural pursuits were in every other respect not
better off than the rural retainers of the King and
the magnates. For the last two years their condi-
tion has been even less advantageous than that of
the peasantry, the latter having been allowed to
acquire their lands very cheaply, while the former
remained in their old relations. By the new mani-
festo the favour conferred upon the villagers is now
extended to the other portion of theinhabitants also
—an act whose bearing will be better understood
when I say that one-fourth of the inhabitants dwell
in towns, and that one-fourth of all townspeople
derive their only means of livelihood from tilling the
soil. Of the 452 towns among which they are dis-
tributed the Crown and nobility have a pretty equal
share. The Crown now renounces all its rights and
privileges on this score without any compensation
whatever. Of the annual payments due to other
landed proprietors one-fourth is cancelled, the
remaining three-fourths, multiplied by 16f, consti-
tuting the capital accorded them in lieu of the
former rent. This capital will be partly liquidated
in cash and partly in stocks, bearing interest, to be
paid by those benefited, but transmitted by the
Government. It is evident from the above that
the measure will be viewed in a different light by the
various classes of society whom it concerns ; but, as
the nobles are hostile to Russia and the lower orders
more or less indifferent to politics, this Government
believes it ha% the less reason to delay a reform de-
sirable on economical grounds.
The Emperor has given 10,000 roubles to the
poor on the occasion of the late auspicious event.