The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-12-23
Gar Growing.
The Barbaric Pomp of a Russian
Coronation.

Inc DarDaTlc pOu1p anu pdIduS ol d nus
sian coronation, as well as its celebration at
so great a distance from the seat of Govern
ment, always necessitates great preparations,
but never has so long Al interval as this
been placed between the accession and the
solemn browning of the Gar. The very
much shorter delay which occurred in hold.
ing the Emperor Nicholas coronation was
considered very remarkable at the time The
claims and the necessary remuneration of
the Grand Duke Constantine, the natural
heir to the throne the pretended disinclina-
ton of Nicholas to take his brothers. place,
and the military insurrection which immedi-
ately followed his proclamation, all contri-
buted to put off the official recognition of the
new monarch. 1t was on the oath of De-
cember. 1925, just three weeks after the
death of Alexander, that the affected scru-
pies of the Grand Duke were overcome, and
ne positively c nsented to accept the crown,
but not till the Bird Of October, 1926. when
(the chief c~onspirators having been executed
or exiled) it was considered that the country
was properly purged of its treason that he
put on in the Cathedral of the Assumption
at Moscow the crown o. all the Russias. 1t
used to be once thought in Russia that the
Car WIS not properly the
"LoRD's AMOUNTED
Until he had actually received the sacred
oil on his head at the hands of the Russian
patriarch and the reason assigned for not
burying the Gar Peter Iii in the Church of
St. Peter and St. Paul in the citadel of St.
Petersburg with the other Russian Emperors,
his predecessors, was that he had never been
crowned, and so was not entitled to the
funeral honors paid by immemorial custom
to a Russian sovereign. When Paul Came
to the throne he paid his murdered father
the respect th,t had been denied him in his
lifetime. The funeral ceremonies were gone
over ag,in, and the coffin which contained
his remains crowned with much pomp and
solemnity The great Catherine had allowed
as little time as possible TO elapse between
Peters d~ethronement and death and her
own coronation. She was off to Moscow
before the breath was well out of her poor
consort's body, and, by dint of a lavish dis
tribution of brandy and Iubles, brought m
thing lie a cheer as she made her entrance
into the old capital. The next day she
started back again with a feeling of intense
relief. She looked upon Moscow as a place
to be crowned in and nothing else, and re-
GREETED every m spent away from
Peuerhof and Gatschina and the varnish of
western life.
EVERY CAR,
Too. that has come after her has fattered
and feared and ~studiously avoided Moscow.
:. 1t is the Rome of the NORTH" cried Nine.
de Stael in a sort of ecstscy; but the Rus
sian Emperors themselves have rather COM
pared it to a Nineveh or a Palmyra, with
its Asiatic magnificence and its uncomfort-
able crown. Nicholas professed a great at
r. A. Ia .o~,3I an .n1aa1 hn-
came a Prince who set his back at all
western reforms and innovations. But for
all that, he took up his residence in the
Kremlin Just as seldom as the Cars his
predecessors, who never disguised their
destination of the gloomy palace and prison
combined. There was an air of independence
about the Muscovites that he never really
liked at heart-a free and easy bearing
which has grown and grown out of liberty
into license, and again out of license into
rebellion, until its unpleasant proportions
are quite sufficient to explain the reluctance
of Alexander iii to %sojourn for even a day
in the hotbed Of nihilism. At Peter the
Greats death Catherine |, as she was after
ward known,
CLAIMED II THRONE
In the right of her corona ton at Moscow in
her husbands lifetime. The ceremony had
been performed on May IS, 1874, in the
presence of the Cars niece. Anne Duchess
Of CORTLAND, and the Duke of Holstein, his
intended son-in-law. In a manifesto pub
lished on the occasion, Peter. after stating
that it was customary with Christian mon
archs to crown their consorts, and instance
ing among the orthodox Greek Emperors
Bas hides, Justinius, Heraclius and Leo, the
zL1o=o1Hor ba ,oDniD1al the co1nfrv IF tho
Empress services in the late war, and es-
~pecially of the courage and generalship she
had displayed at the battle of Pruth. For
these causes, and in virtue Of the power
which God has given US. we have resolved
in acknowledgment OF all her fatigues and
good Offices, to honor our coTfsOrt with the
imperial crown" On the coroaalion day
the Car walk d before her on foot IN the
procession, and in the cathedral placed the
crown on her head with his own hand. A
short time afterward it was all that Peters
advisers could do to restrain him from send
inc the same head to the block on account
of her amorous intrIgues with the u%nfortu-
nate young cavalier, Moons de la Cro;x.
One Mr.. Fletcher, who was present in a
diplomatic capacity at the coronation of
Feodor |, wrote an interesting account OF
THE CEREMONIES
Used on these occasions in the sixteenth
century. "In the great Church of Our
Lady, says the secretary to the British en-
bassy, within the Emperor's castle, is
erected a stage whereon standeth a screen
that beareth upon it the imperial cap and
robe of very rich stuff. When the day of
Inauguration is come there resort thither
first the patriarch with the metropoltances.
archbishops. bishops, abbots and priors, all
richly clad in their pontificalIbus Then
enter the deacons with the choir of singers,
who, so soon as the Emperor setteth foot in
to the church begin to sing: Many years
may live n-ble Feodor Ivanovitch Then
follow certain prayers after which the pa
triarch commander certain abbots to reach
the imperial robe and cap, which IS done
very decently. and with great solemnite;
then putting on the same, he blesseth the
Emperor with the cross The like is done
by the metroPolites, archbishops and bishops.