The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-15
ILLNESS OF THE CAR
LITTLE DOUBT THAT THE RUMORs
ARE BASED ON SERIOUS FACTS.
He Has Kept the Peace OF Europe for
Result I'm Evil for that Continent.
London Spectator

London Spectator
The report that Alexander III Of Russia
is i'll is probably founded upon serious
facts. The statement comes in from all
sides, and is not discredited by the cir
cumstances that every correspondent has
his own separate version OF the disease
from which the Emperor is suffering. To-
day it is Bright's disease, yesterday it was
apoplexy, tomorrow it will be a nervous
affection, and the day after internal cam
Ger. That is always the case when royal
persons are sick, and in Russia, owing TO
the dangers which attend every succession.
the most determined efforts would certain
ly be made to preserve a secrecy as to
details which. we may add, in the case of
eminent persons not on thrones, are often
published with heartless disregard of nat
ural feeling. What is it to anybody why
the Comte De Paris died at fftysix? 1t
is said, indeed, that in the present instance
all discussion as to the Cars health has
been officially prohibited in Warsaw, suffi-
cient evidence of itself, if the statement is
| true, that the inner group OF statesmen
round the throne are growing alarmed.
There is, moreover, no priori ground for
doubling the reports. The Car is an ex-
ceptionally powerful man, one of the
| strongest in his dominions. and such men
only possess intense vitality when they
spring, as happens occasionally, from fam
lilies with a habit of living on. Muscular
force and longevity are by no means iden-
teal. Living long has not been a habit of
the Romanoffs, whose position as lonely
autocrats, who can never have friends
| and can never be relieved of responsibility
for the immense world in which they play
Providence, gradually wears out their
-z~-- u f. co. N Dr,CCfon I'm
peror to be ever free, while awake. from a
sense of anxiety, which in the present
Emperor is r%edoubled, alike by his horri-
BILE position as the target for the ~"active"
Nihilists and by personal conscientious
ness.
The weight of that awful scepter would
bow down any ruler if frivolous as a Va
lois. and Alexander III is a man who
takes himself seriously, who believes in
his responsibility to God as deeply as any
English pastor, and who, while aware that
his mind is as unequal 10 his task as any
other mind would be. works on at 1T from
morning to night with unfalterinS con-
stancy. He has no chancellor. no grand
vizie-. but is his own premier and first
secretary. every affair OF any importance
IS submitted TO him and he has mastered
all departments, even those which. like
escapes q Cars control. The toll alone
| which falls upon him.. considered merely
as toll. is of the most pressing and severe
kind. and, of course. 1t is grievously In
creased by its necessary character. 1t IS
bad enough to be Viceroy of India, with
perhaps a hundred-we believe il is much
worcestershire orders to issue every week,
bu. the Viceroy is not a law to himself,
nor can his decisions as a rule involve
the moinentcus consequences for good or
evil which must constantly follow upon
the supreme orders from the Russian
throne. 1t is hard to imagine how a man
Bourbon of the feebler type. too thin of
Coincidence to feel the pressure ever es-
capes the insanity which struck the Julian
| Caesars or fails If ordinary disease at
tacks him, to collapse from overstrain.
WHY HE SHOULD LIVE.
There is probability in the reports of the
Cars illness, and we wish to point out to
our readers how strong their hope should be
that Alexander III should not only recover,
but recover fully. The English adherence
of the Russian system of administration,
which is in part justified by facts like the
treatment of all heretics and political oppo-
nents, reflects itself almost always-there
is a partial exception in the case of Alex
ander lin an oversevere judgment upon
the occupant of the throne. The driver Of
an express is not always responsible for
collisions. The present Emperor is a
strange man in a strange position; for no
Emperor of this century has been so little
trained for his work, or has been so nearly
a prisoner in his house; but by the confess
sion of enemies, as we'll as friends, he has
striven to do his duty, and he has per-
formed for Europe a service which deserves
her conscious gratitude. He has kept the
peace for fourteen years, during which he
mas had many provocations, especially the
Bulgarian one, which, TO him, as to all the
more fanatic devoteeS of Russia, has in it
some color of insult to the throne. 1t is
all very well to say that that is simple
work and that an autocrat can keep peace
as he can make war, by willing it; but
that is not quite true. The Car can, of
course, abstain from ringing that little
/ in QhSfQinlnQ ha NAV have m fanl nnl 20
subdue hostile public opinion. the remon-
stpanees t of his great iicers-Gener
officers. certainly expected war three years
aso-and the anger of the most energetic
single, party in the empire. that of the
utation most men desire, and to keep back
a people always. at least in one direction,
eager to advance. The Emperor. once his
defeated them all, and now. after fourteen
years of strain. still holds peace or war
in the hollow C his hand.
All the diplof SSts of Europe acknowl-
edge this. public swell as privately, and
whatever the MOI of the Cars strenu-
Gus action. Europe should be grateful to
temptations-one, and not the least, being
that the Car at the head of his army
would have been relieved from all attempts
at assassination. The most furious of Nj
| hilists would have waited passively for the
issue Of that great adventure. A weak
chains. nor could any successor to the EN-
peror's position. weak or strong, be equally
relied on. He might, If strong, wish for
war as the only road out of an intolerable
s"ituation-imagine an army protecting the
sides of the railway whenever you travel
and. if weak. would instantly be in the
hands Of a new, and probably an inexperl-
enced. body of advisers, who might go to
war as willfully as the counselors CT the
Mikado. 1t is because the present Car is
neither strong. nor weak, but at once self
distrustful and determined, that he is able
TO keep peace so continuously. To our
minds there is something wholly pathetic
in that heavy man sitting in Gatschina, half
Il prisoner, transacting in health and sick
ness a mass of vital business TO which he
is. and knows he is, half unequal, yet be-
cause he is responsible. doing it all, and
holding on infexibly all the while to his
beneficent determination We 6etest the
Russian system of government, but we
heartily wish the Car a speedy deliver
ance from his bodily difficulties and a full
restoration to health. Even a long sickness
would weaken his hands for good, and
there is no evidence that those into whose
hands his power would fall would pursue
his course.
CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.
There is always an idea in this country,
we fancy, that any weakening of the Rus