The Arizona sentinel., 1886-12-25

CharIes-Frederick William.
 Alexander ILL, Czar of all the Rus sians. we are informed, has shown un, mistakable symptoms of insanity. This is'rather startling, coming as it does, SC close upon the incidents attending the forced deposition of the late King oi Bavaria. King Ludwig, it will be re. membered, was deranged for several years,s and completely wore out the pa tience of his coGrtiers and officers by his innumerable eccentricities. But the strangest feature of the case is that, after his removal and suicide in Starn- berg lake, the individual who fell heir to his position is also deformed in mind. Although Ludwig was bad enough, his brother and successor, Otto l., is much worse. Ludwig was not so insane but that he had frequent lucid intervals, but Otto is apparently without reason at all times. As an evidence of his nd.tion, we are informed that he is continually under the restraint of appointed keep CTS, and is allowed to appear in public only upon special occasi ions.
 But lunacy in royal families is no novelty, as all readers of history are aware. Kings are just as liable to be- come insane as are peasants, and dis ease of the mind will taint the blue blood of monarchs as readily as the more sluggish stream that courses through the veins of the serf in his hov- el. In the royal family of Russia this fact has been signally exemplified. Alexander III. is not the first of his race whose mind has become clouded by hallucinations Indeed, short re- search will develop the fact that over one-half of the present Czar's predeces- sors have been either lunatics or mon sters, and in numerous cases, both.
 Among the early Muscovite rulers was Ivan the Cruel, who bore a prom ineht part in the history of Europe in the sixteenth century. He did much for his country in the advancement of art and commerce, aORll as for its ex- tension by force of arms He it was that concluded the advantageous treaty with Queen Elizabeth, after the dis covery by the English of the northeast passage to Archangel. But at length his mind fell into morbid, suspicious condition, and for quarter of cen tury he was a misery to himself and a terror to those surrounding him. The least movement of a servant or courier was, in his distorted vision, an attempt upon his life, and his suspicious were always re- lieved by the death of the supposed of fender. At one time he labOred under the idea that the people of Novgorod had entered into plot to deliver their city and the surrounding country to the King of Poland. As a punishment for this imaginary offense he issued a ukase that condemned to death sixty thousand inhabitants of the unfortunate ty. From the advices received concerning the condition of the present Czar one would infer that in his suspicious he somewhat resembles his remote ances- tor, Ivan the Cruel.
 In the seventeenth century we find that the strain of mental deformity in the family of the Czars had become so strong that, of the four sons of Alexis. only Peter, afterward called the Great was of sound mind. And even the hu- manity of the latter could not wholly atone for his numerous acts of cruelty. He was unforgiving to such a degree that he ordered the execution of his own son.. Alexei, and punished with imulaca- ble fury all who had been implicated in the reasonable plots of the young Prince. His life, too, it is stated, was brought to miserable end by habitual dissipation and excesses.
 Catherine H., the last of the four rulers in the female line. while not an Imbecile, was so weak-minded that she gave up the entire control of the Rus sian Government to her scheming favor lie, Gregory Potemkin. Her son Paul, who ascended the throne in 1795, was always weak in intellect, and after re yning five years became SO deranged that his subjects strangled him in order to get rid of him. Alexander l., who was crowned after the assassination of his father, was of such a humane and benevolent disposition that he was styled ''the Northern Telemague," but, according to Thiers, even in him were found traces of hereditary insanity. His brother Constantine was afterward excluded from the throne on account of a predisposition to insanity.
 The cause of the tendency of the CZars toward infrmity of mind is not readily discovered. Whether it is produced by sense of the dangers with which they are at all times encompassed through plots and intrigues, or whether it is the result of unlimited authority, is uncer- tain, It is cur ous fact, however, that the same taint may be found in the