The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-01 00:00:00

ThE LAST DAYS of 010 EMPEROR

ALEXANDER. By RortEnT rezE, F.R.S.
The follewing extraet3 from a memoir of Alexander,
I'enpf:Tor of Russia, just published by Dr. lee, will he
read with deep interest. Coming from such a sou.ce
they are entitled to implieit credit, and must put an end
to all doubts as to the cause of tile lute Emperor's death.
Dr. Lee was placed in such a situation as to bd able to
ascertain, not only from the reports of the physicians cn
the spot, but from his own personal observations, all the
real eircumster ces accompanying an event which caused
a great sensation throughout the political world. Addi-
tional weight also is given to Lis testimony by the rank
which he holds in his profession. Dr. Lee is well known
to the public for his medical skid ; the important dis-
coveries which he has made in that branch of anatomical
science to which he has long devoted great research and
unwearied application, have given him an European
character, not likely to be fee !cited by any deviation
from the truth ; and the interest excited by the death
of that benevol(nt, wise, and patriotic Prince, has long
ceased to exist, so that it would hardly be possible to
furnish evidence of a more satisfactory character.
Alexander, it is admitted, had become weary of political
; he had been harassed by apprehensions of con-
spiracies of various kinds, and doubtful in their charac-
ter, and resolved to end his days in a remote region of
his empire as a simple individual, leaving the cares of
royalty to his brother, the present Emperor; for Constan-
tine, from some mysterious cause, had been set aside.
One of the outbreaks which Alexander feared took place
at St. Petersburgh; soon after, his decease, and was
speedily put down by the energy and presence of mind of
Nicholas, but, from all authentic accounts, no plots were
formed against his life, and his death is to be attributed
entirely to the fever so prevalent in the Crimea, and to
his obstinacy in refusing to submit to those remedies
which, according to Dr. Lee's account, could hardly
have failed of success. The picture of this royal pro-
gress is a melancholy one. At several of the places
where the Emperor stopped, there was scarcely any ac-
commodation stilted even to a common traveller, and oc-
casionally he was left with hardly any attendant but his
valet. These circumstances give rise to suspicions, but
the facts accompanying his death are so manitest, and the
author:ties on which they rest are so authentic, that no
stretch of rational credulity could attribute his death to
any but natural causes. On the xst nun tem examina-
tion of his body, not the slightest symptoms of poison
were visible, but all the symptoms of the fatal ague
which had carried off so many of his subjects. With
these r. marks we give the plain statement drawn up by.
Dr. Lee, which is prefaced by some interesting details
of the fever which prevailed in that part of the country,
and of the occurrences which took place some day's pre-
vious to the fatal attack of illness :
" During the month of September, 1825, the whole population
of the Crimea between the mountains and the sea, all the in-
habitants of " this terrestrial paradise," were condition, and. in the villages along the co in a very sicklyast between Your-
souff and Stmeis, saw and treated more than a hundred cases
of intermittent and remittent fever. Many who had been
suffering for months had enlargement of the liver and spleen
with jaundice and dropsy, The weather, during the whole
time I remained on the south coast of the Crimea, was delight-
ful, and none of those sudden and violent changes were ob-
served which so frequently occur in all the countries situated
along the northern shore of the Black Sea. There could be
little doubt that the fever which then prevailed on the coast
and in the interior of the Crimea, was produced by noxious
exhalations from the earth.
"After visiting all the most interesting places in the Crimea,
I embarked on beard Admiral Greig's yacht at Sevastopole,
on the 23d September, and returned to Odessa, with Count
F. Pahlen, on the Ist of October. Count Woronzow at the
same time set out for Taganrog, to meet the Emperor Alexan-
der, who had arrived there with the Empress a short time be-
fore, with the intention of spending the winter on the chores
of the sea of Azoff. Before reaching Odessa, Count Pahlen
was seized with severe shivering, headache, and the other cha-
racteristic symptoms of bilious remittent fever. The attack
was far mere violent and dangerous than in any of the cases
which had before fallen under my observation, and he narrowly
escaped with his life. Mr. Rose, an English gentleman, who
had been in the Crimea with us, was also attacked after our re-
turn to Odessa, and died, from effusion into the brain. The
health of a considerable number of those who had been on the
south coast of the Crimea at the same time, suffered severely
for some months after, and in a few fever appeared in a severe
form early the following spring. There was evidence to prove
that almost all of us had suffered from malaria.
" On the 14th October, 1825 (O. S.), at Odessa, I received
a letter from Count Woronzow at Taganrog, informing me of
the Emperor's determination to visitir request-
ingTaewpiornneahaendli)per
me to meet him
.r 1 Odessa thee afternoon of the same
I accordingly
day, with Generlaelftßashme.sa•skoff, Messrs. Marini and Artemieff.
We arrived at Nicolaef in the afternoon
Goroenigof!
whoth the 15th,
th,
justand re-
mained
re-
turned from Taganrog.
a few hours with Admire
It was a clear, beautiful night, the
road was excellent, and w e reached Bereslaw, the following
morning, at seven o'clock, where we remained (luring the day.
This is a large town on the west bank of the Dnieper, which
does not differ in appearance from the other towns in the south
of Russia. There were many shops or bazaars in it, full of
every kind of merchandise. Great numbers of waggons laden
with salt from the Crimea, were then passing through, and
large bodies of troops marching to join the army on the Turkish
frontiers. The country around was extremely fertile, but the
locust hail committed great havoc the year before, the peasants
and landed proprietors being in a state of the greatest distress.
We left Bereslaw in the afternoon, for the isthmus of Perecop,
and after passing over an extensive plain of sand like the
Llandes, near the Pyrenees, we entered the Crimea, and spent
the night at the German colony of Nahitchvan. Heref
order, cleanliness, and comfort, the poeulation rapidly all was
ing, and additional grants of land required. On quitii increasenegrethne these
intelligent, happy people, the following mei-eine
long in coming among the Nogay Tartars, were awllew‘Aas igno-
rance, poverty, and wretchedness. Light and dark
lization and barbarism, were here almost in contact. "Wecirvei-
mained two days and a night at Sympheropole, where I had the-
satisfaction of giving professional aid to the daughter of Count
Rostopschin, a name which will be preserved through all ages
in the annals of Russia.
" On the 20th we left Sympheropole early in the morning,
and passing rapidly over the steppe extending between the
town and the mountains, crossed these in a caleche, by the
new road which had lately been made to connect the shore of
Crimea with the interior. Many of the soldiers employed in
completing this arduous work aeared sickly and depressed.
Upwards of a hundred out of five from
fever had suffered
fever during the autumn, but in none had the disease assumed
al dangerous form. No less than a thousandsoldiershad been
employed in this important work the year before, and compa-
ratively few of them, it was reported, had suffered from
the effects of fever. The face of the country had changed
since our former visit to the Crimea. The woods along the
Salgir and on the Chatyr-Dagh were stripped of their leaves,
though on entering the valley of Alushta the trees were still
green. From the Isthmus of Perecop to Yourseuff, where we
arrived on the 20th, preparations were being made for the
reception of the Emperor ; the roads were being repaired, and
all the cottages and houses in the line were being cleaned and
whitewashed. The principal Tartar of the village of Your-
souff had been suffering severely frem intermittent fever for
several weeks, but the fits were speedily arrested by the calo-
mel and sulphate of quinine which 1 administered to him.
This latter remedy, which had never before been employed in
the fevers of the Crimea, often stopped their course so quickly,
that some of the ignorant Tartars were disposed to attribute
the striking effects to supernatural influence.
" The following morning we set out for Aloupka. It was like
a summer's day in England, the thermometer in the shade
being 17 deg. of Reaumiur (70 deg. Fahrenheit) tops
of the mountains were, however, covered with d.
ense The
clouds.
The road along the sea-shore to Orianda from Yoursouff never
appeared to me so beautiful before, and I could not pass Nikita
and Masandra without halting to admire the glorious scenery.
The woods had lost a part of their verdure, but there were still
many of the trees as green as during the autumn. The wild
vine, which climbs to the tops of the highest trees, and the leaves
of which were then of a deep red colour, formed a striking fea-
ture in the scene. The walnut and fig trees were still fresh and
green. At Aloupka, in the evening, we walked around the
gardens, the most romantic in the Crimea, where preparations
merehic bei
planting n
g made for forty lemon trees in the open air,
h had been imported the previous year from Italy, and
one of them, which had been exposed in the middle of the gar-
den to the intense frost the preceding winter, was in a flourish-
ing state.
We returned to the Tartar house which was pre-
pared for the E mperor. Boards had been placed around the
'front of it, and whitewashed. The walls of the two chambers
or bit Majesty's accommodation, had been surrounded with a
marvse white linen cloth, and very neat bed prepared. There
doer! two chairs a table, and a couch,
v,e had s and newly glazed win-
desired. a bueeten Put in. In that climate one could not have
Taster etMag ter habitation for a night, though it was a common
we.
shy
00: reten„,
to Yoursouff on the 233, and on the following
othile
taCr2t(itteo—q
iEnmtpheerohru'us
sceouturrierhsisarArliav
jeeds,tyanauddarartatenugtetadotanstil
to the I'M Emperor arrived at Sympheropole.. He went
arrived in the cathedral the following morning, and he
epmpantursouff about fhoiticrho'csliorc
Jkaminesthwreyalifete,rnanoodn
a,
faecw-
attend,
n't u. by General D.ie t •
tseh:rehtliir%e't•this aides-de-camp,
When he dismounted from his horse in front of
Yoursouff, Count Woronzow,
a, and myself, were standing in line to receive him.
life, trigh apparently active, and in the prime and vigour
ur of
rather Emperor stooped a little in walking,asdressedod seemed
in a blue
Inclined to corpulency. He w
tinguis, sitti.rto ut, wit
any general
epaeneraulettels,
ffi anederhadHneotshhinoogk tcoodoins-t
him from
Woree
first rmar by the hand, and afterwards " warmly saluted him,
warden one cheek, and then on the other.
ula one
hands with us all, and then inquired of
at Particularly about the health of the Count's chdren
Cerkie whom I hail seen not long before.
daring the- autumn, and if so, how I was pleased with it.
e--s"ing up to the mountains above Yoursouff, and then to the
m seas upon which the sun was shining, his Majesty, eai
e'aimed, Was there ever such magnificent scenery !
replied that the coast of Italy between. Genoa and Nice pre-
se ter the only scenery I had ever witnessed that could
de
ceMpared to it, a part of Italy which his Majesty stated he had
never visited.
" 1 set nut from Yoursouff on the morning of
the
ec2o6tht
to of
FtaberA before the Emperor, and rode along as
,mupka. It was a sultry day, and the scenery was rendered
in o
endeeored-
still more interesting to me than on all former occasions
sequence of the Tartars having come from all parts of thtoe
(.rimes to the Emperor, on his waY from Yoursouff
whereee he arrived about four o'clock. I was informedi
t.tat a Tartar female complained to his Majesty, at Orianca, of
her having been beaten and ill treated by the superintendent ;
When thegoffender was ordered to appear before his Majesty,
he threw himself upon his knees and implored fogiv.ei:
Alexatoler ordered hint to be arrested, and said,
with great s 'ty, that it was an eternal disgrace. to
injure e fee' severity',
sees eopeeielii one- in her situation,
e beieny rercgeee'Lru The Emperor was greatly pleased
with Orianda, immediately determined to purehas.;
econiinstate from Count Kisseioff, and build a palace there. Before
to Aloueka he visited the iaoyarils at Martvars, and
the Princess Gaiitzin at Musghor, distributing liberally to the
Poor in his way.‘` Count Woronzow, General Dieltitch, Sir James Wylie, and
myself, with one or two others, had the honour of dining with
7,he Experor on this occasion, the last lie was destined to enjoy.
wee Emperor addressed himself chiefly to Count Woronzow,
p,"° was seated next to his Majesty, and the greater part of the
is'inversation was carried on in French and English. Again
S-"is Majesty recurred to flue beauties of Orianda, and thanked
-5 Count for the acciuisition he bad that day made for him.