The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-26
HEIR TO THRONE OF CHAR.
What Effect the Birth of a Son Will
 Have on the Policy of the Govern

What Effect the Birth of Son Will Have on the Policy of the Govern
 ment
 Daily are the Russian people expect ing the arrival of the long promised heir to the throne of Russia, and it is possi-
 ble that soon all the anxieties in con- nection with the succession of the Rus sian crown will have been terminated by the birth to the emperor of a son, to whom the morbund Grand Duke George would, of course, be obliged at once, to surrender his title and statutes of czare- witch.
 There is no doubt too, that if the em- press gives birth to a boy it will not only vastly improve her position in Russia, but will likewise modify the en- tire policy of the government. In fact, the birth of a boy is regarded by many as destined to prove the inauguration of a new and more enlightened and pro- gressive era for Russia.
 There are two rival parties at the court of Russia. The one headed by the
 
 of war; the minister of education, the minister of foreign affairs, and the pro- curator of the holy synod belong, rep resents everything that is reactionary. despotic and anti-liberal in Russia. The other party, to which the emperor him. self inclines, is headed by the young empress and includes the progressive and enlightened minister of finance Count von Witte; the minister of rail- roads, Prince Hilkoff, who spent so much time in this, country, and the Grand Duke Constantinovitch
 All the orders and decrees in a liberal sense that are issued by the czar and his minister of finance have until now been quietly and silently disobeyed ig- nored and even opposed by the vast ma jority of the Russl,n official world, which, convinced that the present em- perors health is frail, does not wish to incur the ill will of the dowager czar- ina, who, in the event of the czar'e death without male issue, would become virtually supreme throughout the em- pire her second son being incapacitated from reigning by the state of his health, w Michael, although he has attained his legal majority, is still too much of q boy to be otherwise subject to her influence.
 If, however, the empress gives birth to boy. then she would remain the principal parsonage in the empire the entire minority of her son in the event of her husbands death l
 From this 1t will be saen that the birth of a son to the emperor would | furnish guarantee to the official world 1. Russia that there would be ] a continuance. in the event of his death, | of the liberal policy which he is en- to inaugurate, and that the | officials can execute the orders of the | czar without any fear whatsoever of | retaliation at the hands of the dowager 1 empress.
 It is necessary to explain this in or der to make people understand the ex- traordinary anxiety with which people | both in Russia and abroad are awaiting he event. It will be terrific disap- ooirtment if she gives birth to another girl, whereas if it is a boy the czar will become for the first time since he as- ,ended the throne master of his people n fact as well as in name. For his will Ee executed and the apparent contradiction between his ut erances and the policy of the Russian government, which has created so many loubts as to his sincerity, will cease
 Let me add that the emperor and ,mprese of Russia are now established tt the lovely Peterholf palace on the hores of the gulf of Finland, and that t is there that the confinement of the 7oung czarina will take place. The imperial couple propose to remain ther until the month of August when they will proceed to Spala, their country seat n Poland, for some shooting. They we're to have gone on from there to the native city of the em- ,ress, but this trip is likely to be aban- loned, owing to the seizure of the Grand Duke of Hesse with smallpox. So they will go straight on from Poland to Li- yidia, in the Crmea Marquis de Fon- enoy's Letter In Chicago Tribune.