The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-09-05
THE GAR TO THE QUEEN.
The First Embassy Sent from Russia to
England, in 1856.

FROM THE GAR TO THE QUEEN.
The First Em5ass Sent from Russia to
England, in 1856.
at this moment IL may Tot lie min
teresting to note that it was during the
reign OF the first car, Ivan ", sur
named Groin ii. G., the TERRIBLY, that
the earliest relations on record of
friendly negotiations between England
and Russia too place. 1t was, in fact,
in 1856 that the first official embassy
was sent to the court of st. James, and
Il discourse of the honorable receiving
into England of the first ambassador
from the Emperour of Russia in the
we're of Christ, 1856" was printed by one
IIakluyt n few years later. Sad TO say,
the voyagcrs encountered the full per-
lis of the sea-even to the length of be-
ing wrecked off the inhospitable coast
of Aberdeenshire, and the following
quaint a%ccoun of the s~hipwreck is pre-
served in a contemporary Historic of
Scotland" by Joseph Lesley, Bishop of
Ross:
About this TYNE (the end of the
year 1850 thair come ane gretship, and
with her n pink, furth of Mnscovia,
bowin towards Ingland with ane am
bassador from the emperor of Musco-
via, quhilk and pink was driven be
fret storInes and winds apoun the
northeast of ScOtlande, at Kynardis held,
within the %countrey of Buchane, quhair
II greet nombre of their cumpanie was
dronit and both the shippes, the moist
PART of his guilds losed be the wrake
of the scy; bot the ambassador him
selfe was saved, with a gret part of his
companie, and was WE'LL entertenit be
the countreymen, and conyeyit theirfre
to Edinburgh to the quNene regent,
quha efter guild intertenement caused
the Lard Hwme accompanie him to Ber-
wik in the moneth of Februar thairef-
ter"
Some account of this first embassy
Is also mentioned by Holinshed in 1857,
and although its purpose was undoubt-
eddy a commercial as well as political
one, 1t was n well-calculated stroke of
lolicy on the part of Ivan, and the Ger
taine letters tenderly conceived" as
we'll as the princely present were man
iiest tokens of amity and friendship,
not only between Ivan ". and Philip
and Mary, but between the subjects of
10th realms. These said "tenderly con-
ceived" credentials unluckily persisted
in the disastrous wreck, and the pres
ents sent by the car were, sad to re-
late, "spoyled by the Scots after the
shipwracke." 1t is, however, recorded
that they were of the most lavish de-
scription, comprising rich sables, some
Of them entire skins, exceedingly beau
tiful, with teeth, ears and claws; fou
living sables, with chains and collars;
lusaruls and furs, "worn onley by the
emperour for woorthinesse." Also, n
'large and faIre white jerfawcon for the
wilde suzanne crane, goose, and other
great fowles, together with a drumme
of silver, the hopes gilt, used for h
lure to call the sayd Hawke"
After a stay of only some weeks in
London (Which seems strange, consid-
ering the trouble he had Of getting
here), the envoy took his leave again.
charged with all m of gifts for
"our cousin" the car, such as rich
cloth of tissue, scarlet, violet in grain,
and fine azure CLOTH" also "a notable
pair of br%igandines, with a murrian.
covered with crimson velvet and gilt
Males. Item-a male and female lions"
Later, however, during E~liZabeth's
reign, we lear OF another Russian am
bassador. His name was Feodor Pisen-
ski, and it was through this gentleman's
lnstrumentality that Ivan ". endeav-
ored to secure the hand of Lady Mary
Hastings, daughter of the earl of Hunt
ihgton, as his eighth wife. The lady,
who at first seemed willing, refused on
second thoughts" to share vans
throne, and her reconsideration of the
offer may not have been wholly discon-
nectRd with certain r~ecollectfOnS of
Henry Wis various consorts and the
d~isagreeable incidents which went to
rhorten some of these ladies' lives. Still,
Ivan, as long as he lived, seemed to have
hsnkered after the good will of Eng
land. On one occasion he wrot 10 ask
Elizabeth whether, in the event of his
l,eing forced to leave his own kingdom,
I've would find a refuge in this country,
and on another occasion he expresses
through Sir Anthony Jenkinson 1.-THE
English ambassador) his desire that
England and Russland might be in all
as ne"
There is no doubt that Ivan, In spite
of the atrocities which characterized
the latter years of his reign, was a
clever and astute ruler. He appears to
have sought every means of elevating
the condition of his country, both by
introducing the arts and manufactures
of more civilized nations, by encourage
ing commerce, and by conciliatory re-
ception of foreigners at his court. To
Ivan is due the introduction of print
ing into Russia, although the printers
in the beginning met with so much
opposition, owing to the j~ealousies of
those whose business it had been to
copy books, that they had to fly the
country. They, however, returned to
Ostog, where they printed the whole
Eible, and a copy of it, formerly belong
ing to Ivan, is now in the British muse
UNI. Sir jerome Horsey, he English
ambassador, has written in the fly leaf:
This Bibell in the Slovenian tonge had
owt of the emperor's librari." Ivan
", as 1t has been already observed,
was the first Russian ruler to assume
the title of tsar or ear, which name is
IL reality a Slavonic form of Caesar
London Globe,