The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-22

Our dispatches give us the details of the
murder of the car of Russia, which has sent
a thrill of horror throughout the civilized
world. He died last Sunday at the winter
palace, St. Petersburg, at 4:3O O'Clock in the
afternoon. The explosion of the bono that
killed the car, also killed ali officer and two
guards, and many policemen aud other per-
soDs were injured.
Alexander II. succeeded his father Nicholas
to the throne in 1855. In the administration
of the affairs of the empire, he pursued a diff
ferent course from his father. He began his
reign with the determination to complete the
work Of civilization commenced in Russia by
Peter the Grear, and his efforts were given
entirely to the reform of the old Russian sys-
TEN. In these efforts he had to III inter-
the opposition of the old Russian or conserva-
Russia entered upon a new period of her
career. The principal event of his reign was
the abolition of serfdom, or white slavery in
the Russian dominions, which was begun in
1858, and completed III 1868, by which 20,-
100000 of ser!s were released from bondage.
The emperor steadily encouraged the freed
serfs to acquire property ; aided them in doing
so and endeavored to establish a SYST m of
schools among them, which, he hoped, would
in time, change their character fol the better,
and give to Russia an intelligent and indus
trious peasantry in the place of the former
DISCONTINUED and degraded slaves.
Another wise reform which Alexander in
stltuted was the admission of the Jews to
civil privileges and equality before the law
which was effected in 1862. The czar did
not syInpathize with the harsh measures of
which Poland had been the victim during his
fathers reign, and was anxious to embrace
that province in his reforms. He ~inaugurated
a number of reforms III that then unhappy
country, but the cruelty with which Nicholas
had treated them had made the Poles dlstrust-
full of his son, and the discomfort increased
instead of diminishing. Alexander, alarmed
at this, put a stop to his reform measures and
resorted to repressive ones. The world knows
the rest. BY the aid of Prussia, the strug-
CLING, heroic Poles were conquered and Po-
land was blotted from the map of Europe.
This took place in 1868. Poland ceased to
exist and Was absorbed in the empire. Under
Alexander, Russia has pushed her conquests
eastward, until she obtained from the Khan
OF khlva the entire eastern coast of the Cas-
plan sea. His war with Turkey-the inter-
position Of the other European powers to pre-
vent the utter humiliation of the Sultan, and
the treaty of peace that followed, are too
fresh il the minds of our readers to revert to
them.
Several attempts have been made IDOL his
life, and it has been said that lie anticipated
a violent death. During the last few years
his peace of mind had been destroyed by his
constant fear of the assassin. The Nihilists
had determined to destroy him, and he knew
it. He and his ministers were in constant re-
ceipt of threatening nlissives sent by these
professed annihilators. He well knew the
full meaning OF the words uneasy lies the
head that wears the crown"
Measuring Alexander by what he has done
for his people, he was not only a great man,
but a good man. Measuring linn by what he
might have dOne-as an absolute monarch,
with the resources of a vast empire at his
command-he sinks to the level of ordinary
humanity. But whatever the world may say
of him, he remains enthroned in the hearts
Of twenty million treemen, who look upon
him as their deliverer. The sepulcher that
receives the body of Alexander should also be
the grave of NlhilIsm. The christianized ma
tons of the world can only view with horror
a class or society Of men whose only fruit is
blood drawn by the knife of the assassin.