The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-18

therefore a grandson-in-law of Queen
Victoria. True, Sergius has an elder
brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir, who
has number of children.
But by the statutes Of the imperial house
OF Romanon Vladimir, although next
brother to the late ear, is debarred from
the succession as are also his children,
because his wife, sister of the Grand
Duke of disadvantages (who COM
mitted suicide the other day al Cannes)
absolutely refused to abandon the Luthe-
ran faith in which she had been reared
and to become a convert to the Russian
church. She is the only foreign princess
welded to a Russian prince of the blood
who has shown such obstinacy an OBJ
stinacy which IL is difficult to ascribe to
religious grounds, seeing that she is of
all her Muscovite Hnswomen the most
fast" in her speech and behavior, being
responsible more than any one else for
the introduction into the salons of the
great world at st. Petersburg Of the rou-
lette table as an indispensable article of
furniture.
The reason for this statute excluding her
husband from the succession is not diff
cult to explain. The car, it must be re-
membered, Is not only the temporal but
also the spiritual autocrat of the Russian
people, to whom he stands. from a rellg-
ious point Of view in precisely the same
position as Pope Leo does toward the Ro-
man Catholics. It would obviously, there
fore, be improper for a potentate occupy
ing the highest ecclesiastical and spiritual
Office of the empire, a digntary whose
sacerdotai powers are such that he can
communicate not as a mere layman but
as a priest to be married to a hereto,
and 70 have his sons and daughters reared
and educated by her. and subject 10 her
influence.
Therefore. vladimir. his wife and his
numerous children have no rights to the
throne whatsoever Grand Duke Sergius
and his lovely wife are childless; next to
them, therefore, in the line of succession
would come Sergius younger brother, the
widowed Grand Duke Paul. a man so
TAN that he is Obliged always to carry his
bed about with him, none that he finds
in the hotels being sufficiently long to ac-
commOdate his abnormally gigantic stat
ure. His wife was the eldest daughter of
the King and Queen of Greece. and on
her tragic death, the result of a carriage
accident at Moscow. she left him with
two children, a girl and a boy, the latter
Of whom bears the name of Demetrius,
and was created a colonel i'm the army and
invested with the command OF the cele-
brated Souyorow Grenadier Regiment at
the time of his baptism, when only a few
days old. These two motherless children
are being brought UP as II they were her
own offspring by the Grand Duchess Ser
gius. and il Is the little 6-year-old Deme-
trius who would therefore follow his faith
or in the line of succession.
After him there would come at least
twenty or thirty more grand dukes Of the
imperial house. who would all have to die
without leaving any male issue before the
rights of succession OF the present car $
two little daughters could be brought to
the throne. They would. however, come
before their aunts, the Grand Duchesses
Xenia and olga, daughters OF the late
car, and sisters, consequently. Of the
present emperor.
Russia has not always had the success
sion to its throne governed by this sys-
TEN. Indeed Il was discarded by Peter
the Great in order TO enable him 10 distin-
herit his disobedient son Alexis. and he
decreed that the succession should be de-
termined by a testamentary disposition Of
the sovereign. This plan was followed I'M
al the early PARK OF the present century.
Alexander bequeathing his throne TO his
youngest brother Nicholas I. dlsinheriting
the latter's senior. Constantine, until
Nicholas himself. taking note OF the fact
that emperors ia bequeathing an heir to
the throne invariably bequeathed a civil
war az the same time. reverted to the sys-
tenn discarded by Peter the Great. which
A. I'm force to-day.
The Sale system. which governs the
rights OF succession IN Prussia, Sweden
and Norway, Italy Denmark Belgium
and the Balkan states, as well as Saxony
completely excludes all women from the
line OF succession. and 10 such an extent
is this carried that were the King Of
Belgium TO lose his only surviving nep-
hew, Prince Albert, he would be compell-
ed by the terms OF the Belgian constitu-
ton TO adopt some foreign prince, with
tho consent OF the national legislature. al
though he has three daughters. one OF
them sim unmarried and several nleree
This Sale law prevailed in Spain until
abrogated In the third decade OF the pres
ent century by King Ferdinand VII IN ia
vor OF the Cognate or CASTLE system In
order TO permit his infant daughter TO sue
coed. under the title Of Queen Isabella n.
instead Of bis younger brother. Don Car
los. grandfather q the present Spanish
protender OF that name, II likewise was
IN force IN Austria until the reign OF En-