The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1867-06-15 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1887.  THE BAFFLED ASSASSIN.  We to•day give a full account of the recent attempt to assassinate the Czar of all the Rassiana. and we are certain that we speak the seatiments of all our readers when we add ourcongratulation@ to those which are everywhere expreasel on the pr. vidential escape of the sovereign from a cruel death. We need not here refer to the dr:tang of this mad-brained crime. How narrowly both Emperors escaped will be seen by our account. The clothes of the Czar and of his eldest son were stained with the blood that followed the assassin's bullet, and the Emperor of the French Is id -his unifarm he. grimed with smoke. The unhappy criminal, in his 115E1110 hiltr4ll to the Czar, had overdone his work; his deadly weapon burst jest becansc he wished to make the death-stroke more sire. The French criminal hwy. which allows the examination of the prisoner himself, is much more adapted than our own to elicit the truth as to the motives of a criminal. and the circumstances under which a crime is perpetrated ; and we shall doubtless ere long know all that can he elicited with regard to this attempt at iissassinaRon ; but meanwhile we e.trmat t)0 much rejoice that the aSSISSiII'S 11.111 a has been foiled by the Hind that rules and guides all. The leading motive that urged the assassin wan flonbtless patriotism. as this wretched man I understood it, lie is a Pule, young, ardent, and I efithusiastic, anti lie looked upon the Emperor of Russia as the incarnation of oppression. Russia has long been the oppressor of Poland, it is trne. and no one who has read of the struggles of the Polea for liberty, and of the tyranny and oppression of Russia, caul deny that the battle which has been an long continued has bees to it great extent a battle between Right and Might. But the Emperor Alexander has not Leen the citric of this oppression, nor indeed the npholder of it. He has effected 111111Iy retentive in his own country, and has done tench to alleviate the burdens that have been cast upon the Poles. But supposing lii it he has been the worst enemy that Po.and ever hal, this is no reason why he should be assa-Anated. Alexander would have been sneccelled, had the assassin's blow struck home, by another sovereign who would have carried out the same policy, and who would perhaps have found consolation for his country's wrongs in more rigorous measurea against the countrymen of the murderer. Poland inlay yet have a glorious ham before her, but it is not by the assassin's hand that that future can be forestalled. And the compatriots of the wretelm' fanatic who essayed to murder the Czar, at the risk of the lives of others utterly diaconfleeted with Russia or Poland, know this. full well. Among the names of those who have congratnlated the Emperor on his escape are those of namerous Poles; not that they sympathise with the policy of Alex Leder, but that they repudiate participation with a murderer. With those who rejoice at the escape of the Czar we rejoice. but we earnestly hope also that the lesson will not be lost upon him. May the life thus spared be devoted not only to the good of his own country, but to the amelioration rind the condition of that portion of the Pales who have the misfortune to be placed under the iron heel of Russia.