One hundred years ago
A TELEGRAM from Vienna of May 6th announces that the Czar intends to have himself crowned as King of Po- land, and that the laws, or rather, administrative ukases, now pressing so heavily on the landlords in Poland and the Baltic Provinces, are shortly to be relaxed. We have endeavoured else- where to indicate the importance of this statement, if it is correct; but may add here that, as regards Poland, it is far from improbable. Alexander III has a piety of his own, and is just the man to believe that coronation according to the old forms legitimised his power, and conferred on it something of divine sanction. The statesmen of Russia feel, too, very keenly the comparative suc- cess of the Hapsburgs in conciliating Galicia, and are not sorry to give the rival dynasty a gentle hint that the true 'Poland,' whatever its boundaries, is an appanage of their master. They may find, however, should the war go against them, that the nationality of Poland is still a dangerous fact, tempt- ing their adversaries greatly to interpose a Boundary Kingdom between the Ger- man and the Slay. The Hapsburgs would like half the Balkan Peninsula quite as well as Galicia.
The Spectator, 11 May 1889
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