The Czar, towering in green and gold, as tall as
Solomon Lobb, has come and gone again within a week of weary sight- seeing. He has seen Aldershot, the Albert Hall, Windsor Forest, Westminster, the Royal Academy, Woolwich (especially its big hammer), the Corporation of London, the Crystal Palace, and the Thames from Gravesend to the sea. The French papers are anxious to discover that the visit had some political signifi- cance, and that he has indicated his determination to preserve the peace of Europe,—which means (what a change!) to protect France against Prussian aggression. But the Nord semi-officially denies, and, we do not doubt, truly, that the visit was one, in any sense, of policy. Some who saw him, when he was not in active movement or conversation, were struck by the increasing aspect of sadness which grows upon his countenance, and by the extent to which he has aged with the last ten years. It is to be noted that the Duchess of Edinburgh is placed, in the Court Circular this week, among the ladies of the Royal Family, next after the Princess of Wales, and is described as "Her Royal and Imperial Highness," and also as, in a parenthesis "(Grand Duchess of Russia)." Will she precede the Crown Princess of Germany, when that ambitious lady next attends her mother's Court ?
