11 MAY 1844, Page 13

THE AUTOCRAT'S VISIT.

MORE than a month ago, it was positively announced that his most Autocratic Majesty the "Self-governor' of all the Russia's was to pay a visit this summer to her Britannic Majesty. But shadows of doubt and delay appear to be now thrown over this flattering prospect. " The present state of the Queen," says a diplomatic writer in the Times, " will very shortly preclude her gracious Majesty doing the honours of her palace."1'hen, " material obstacles" are hinted at, " arising from the melting of the ice" ; and moral ob- stacles from " urgent affairs on hand. In short, it is apparent that there is a hitch somewhere ; and moreover, that the real cause of the Czar drawing back from his journey is not discreetly to be named, while a plausible pretext is not easy to invent. Oh no, it is not the heat melting the ice in Russia that is the hindrance; it is the moral coldness congealing a less destructible ice here. All hope, however, is not extinct in the breasts of those who are curious to see foreign kings and other rarities. Lord BLOOM.. FIELD, who proposed a visit to St. Petersburg, is detained, lest the Emperor should arrive and find no field in bloom. This is hard upon Lord Btoomrisias : could not his office be delegated for the occasion to Lord DUDLEY COUTTS STUART, who might do the honoura with a peculiar grace to the Sovereign of Poland ? Or perhaps Baron ROTHSCHILD, or Sir MOSES MONTEFIORE, OUI of gratitude for the favours their nation have received at the Imperial hands, might undertake the task. A body-guard of Polish exiles may be enrolled to mount guard at Sr. James's while the Czar remains; and of course all Houndsditch and St. Mary Axe will be illuminated on the night of his arrival! Seriously, the Emperor of Russia is "an accident," as his better brother said of himself: he is what his position has made him— but that is not a thing to be admired. If he insist upon coming; of course our Queen will receive her guest as her own sense of hospitality and dignity demand ; and every attention will be paid to him by our nobility and gentry, which official connexion with the Court may require. But it is to be hoped that, on the part of the independent and right-feeling public, the customary lion-wor- ship will be abated. It would be well that the persecutor of the Jews and destroyer of Poland should be made to understand that he is among a people who cannot respect him, though they

have too much self-esteem to treat even an uninvited and unwel- Come guest with rudeness.