NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ANOTHER and most audacious attempt has been made to assassinate the Emperor of Russia. On Tuesday, the 17th instant, the Czar had fixed seven o'clock for dinner, at the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, and his guests, including the Duchess of Edinburgh and the Prince of Bulgaria, were assem- bled, and the hour for serving the meal had just arrived. By some accident, which is variously explained, his Majesty was a few minutes late, and the dining-room was still empty, when an explosion was heard, which shattered the guard-room be- neath it, and blew a great hole, ten feet by eight, in the dining-room itself, destroyed the table, and killed the cook. A quantity of dynamite had been exploded beneath the guard- room, and fifty-three men of the Finland Guard had been injured, of whom ten were killed ; while the Czar, at whom the blow had been aimed, had escaped unhurt. The engineers employed to investigate, with General Todlaben at their head, report that a great mass of dynamite, 126 lb., had been fired by a wire connected -with an electric battery placed in a cellar in a neighbouring house. No one doubts, of course, that the plot was arranged by the Revolutionary Society, which has so repeatedly threatened the Emperor's life, but of the persons implicated there is as yet no trace. The Winter Palace is a vast building, inhabited, when full, by several thousand persons, and it had for some time been suspected that among them were many Nihilist agents. The movements of the Czar have been regularly reported to the Society, his habits have been carefully watched, and plans of the rooms occupied by the Imperial family were known to have 'been prepared. Only on Monday forty suspected Nihilists had been arrested in the Palace, and the explosion is believed -to have been the return blow of the Secret Society.
