The Portland daily press., 1900-11-21
Discussion AS To The
Succession.
Grand Duke Michael Was Favor
lite of Emperor.

So. Petersburg, November 2o.--A med
ical practitioner of high standing in this
city, who Is not connected with the state
service, after analyzing the bulletins
from Livadia, told the correspondent Of
the Associated Press today that the ILL.,
ness OF the Gar had taken an unusually
favorable course.
Apparently" he said, "there is more
anxiety abroad than there Is IN Russii
This may be due largely TO the statistics
Of typhoid mortality In this country.
But these are misleading. The mortality
with us Ia due to defective care, Russia
having only one physician to every thirty
thousand inhabitants. Furnish her with
one to every hvs hundred as In the
United States and the results. with equal
care, wotsgd be as favorable here as any
where else"
The st. Petersburg bourse, which is
chemically weak, was slightly affected
when the news of the Cars illness was
first made known, but a prominent bank
er asserted today that 1t had already en-
tirely recovered.
Death at this time would be peculiarly
bitter to Emperor Nicholas, because he is
again hoping for the birth Of son with
in n few months. 1t Is an open secret
that the Czarevitch Grand Duke Michael,
now aeout twenty-five years of age, is
not favorite Of the Emperor, whose su-
preme desire Is to leave a son as heir to
the throne.
A St. Petersburg jurist W no was asked
today whether posthumous son would
Inherit the throne. consulted the works
Of the best authorities, among them Prof.
korkvunoif OF the university of st.
Petersburg, and Professors Gradoovsky
and Alexieff of the university of Moscow,
and gave the following reply:
"Existing laws Go not answer the ques-
ton. The manifest of August ~, 1926,
affords a precedent in an affirmative
sense, but does not lay down general
rule, confining itself to regulating the
concrete case then existing. Nicholas !,
in the manifest declared that IL he should
die while the Czarina was enceinte the
heir apparent. then living, must wait
until the birth bafore assuming the pow
ers and dignities of the Gear, and that.
II the child were a son, the latter should
inherit. The present Gar is equally COM
petent to regulate the case IL niece .sary.
"The present law OF succession, decree
ing primoReniture, with preference 20
male lines and to males OF females lines.
before any woman could succeed, was in
troduced by Paul 1, whose mother Cath
crime ii, did not respect his rights and
prepared a will by which he would have
been disinherited had 1t not been de-
stroyed Immediately upon her death.
paul l. attempted to give this law a
particularly holy character, decreeing
that all his successors at their coronation
should swear to keep 1t inviolate, Never
theiess his successors enjoy the same I'M
| limited powers a. himself and several
minor changes have been introduced.
"If Emperor Nicholas should decree the
succession of daughter his Will would
be the law of the land, although 1t is not
believed that he wonld undertake this.
The sole features of the law of succession
which are considered absolutely binding
ante-date Paul 1. They are the require.
ments that the Gar shall be of the Orth.
odox religion and that he shall not occu
py any foreign throne"
"The Cars slight relapse is attri-
buted," says the Moscow correspondent
OF the Daily Express. Ito an injudioious
dietary"
DIR. Erbfuhrer, q German specialist,
writing the st. Petersburgh Tiedonosit
says that the Cars temperature Is so ao-
normal that 1t might deceive xperts and
he has some misgivings that the physici.
ans attending may have been misled In
diagnosing the disease.
The advices received at Oophenagen
from Lividia continue satisfactory.