The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-21
HEIR TO RUSSIAN THRONE
CZIR'S POSSIBLE DEATH RAISES
INTERESTING QUESTION:.
His Demise ut This Time Would be Very
Bitter as He is Hoping for the Birth of
Son Shortiy-DiscusstOn ns to
Whether POsthu Son Would
Inherit the Throne.
Inherit the Throne.

st. Petersburg, Nov. 20.-Death at
this time would be particularly bitter to
| the friends of Emperor Nicholas be-
| cause, it is known, he is again hoping
| for the birth of a son within a few
| months. 1t is an open secret that the
czarevitch, Grand Duke Michael, now
about twenty-five years of age, is not
a favorite of the emperor, whose su-
preme desire is to leave a son as heir
for the throne.
A st. Petersburg jurist who was
asked to-day whether a posthumous
the works of the best authorities
among them Professor Korkounoff of
the University of St Petersburg, and
Professors Gradovsky and Alexiefoff of
the University of Moscow, and gave
the following reply:
Existing laws do not answer the
question. The manifest of August %,
1926, affords a precedent in an affirma-
tive sense, but does not lay down a gen
eral rule, confining itself to regulating
the concrete case then existing. Nicho-
las I, in the manifest, declared that if
he should die while the czarina was en-
ceinte the heir apparent, then living,
must wait until the birth before as
6uming the powers and dignities of
czar, and that, If the child were a son,
the latter should inherit. The present
czar is equally competent to regulate
the case if necessary
''The present law of succession, de-
creeing primogeniture with preference
to male lines and to males of female
lines before any woman could succeed,
was introduced by Paul 1, whose
mother, Catherine II, did not respect
his rights and prepared a will but he
would have been disinherited had it not
been destroyed Immediately upon her
death.
Paul l attempted to give this law a
particularly holy character, decreeing
that all his successors at their corona
tion should swear to keep it invlolate.
Nevertheless his successors enjoy the
same unlimited powers as himself and
several minor changes have been intro
duced.
IF Emperor Nicholas should decree
the succession of, a daughter his will
would be the law of the land, although
it is not believed that he would under
take this. The sole features of the law
of succession which are considered alb
solutely binding ante-date Paul I. They
are the requirements that the czar
20 ha of ri hn6ny ralipion nd
that he shall not occupy any foreign
throne"
A medical practitioner of high stand
ing in this city who is not connected
with the state service, after analyzing
the bulletins from Livadia, told the
correspondent of the Associated Press
to-day that the illness of the czar had
taken an unusually favorable course.
apparently" he said there is more
anxiety abroad than there is in Russia.
This may be due largely to the sta
tistics of typhoid mortality in this coun-
try. But these are misleading. The |
with us is due to defective |
care, Russia having only one physician |
to every 10000 inhabitants. Furnished |
with one to every 5000 as in the United |
States, and the results with equal care
would be as favorable here as anywhere |
else"
The st. Petersburg bourse, which is
weak, was slightly affected |
when the news of the czar's illness was
first made known; but a prominent
banker asserted to-day that it had al
ready entirely recovered.