NICHOLAS TCHAIKOVSKI.
[To me EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—In some of the English papers notice has been taken of the arrest in St. Petersburg of Nicholas Tchaikovski, Russian Liberal who has lived for the last thirty years in this country respected by all who knew him. His family, who have been brought up to be British subjects, have little hope that they will see him again. But there is no doubt that the more it becomes known in St. Petersburg that interest is taken in this country in his fate, the greater the chance that it may be alleviated in some of the many ways in which a sentence in Russia can be mitigated in the execution. Many people in this country did not realise before the publication this year of Prince Urussov's "Notes of a Governor" how much influence public opinion in Great Britain has with the authorities in Russia. If you should see your way to help his friends who are acting in his interest, you would have the sympathy of many English- men who did not even know him. In Thursday's Tribune there is a notice of Tchaikovski ; and in a telegram from New York it is also stated that many well-known citizens who had a personal regard for him signed and presented to the Russian
Ambassador a petition in the hope that all possible clemency might be shown towards him. Similar steps are being taken in this country too, and I shall be glad to give such informa- tion as I can to you or to any one interested in the subject.—
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