The first act of the Sovereign, now crowned, has been
to announce publicly his preference for M. de Witte, the giant Minister of Finance, who has put the Russian Treasury straight, who has determined, it is believed, to introduce a gold standard, an immense operation, the effects of which will be felt by every class in the Empire, and who arranged that singular coup, the guarantee for the Chinese loan. He has not been created Chancellor, but has been made "Secretary of State "—that is, we presume, first among the Emperor's Ministers—in a highly laudatory decree. He is of German or Dutch descent, and he must be a strong man, whose favour with the Emperor may profoundly affect the policy of the ,next few years. Still, it must not be forgotten that the power of deciding on advice rests with the Emperor alone, and that his is as yet to Europe an unknown mind. He mast have sanctioned, but the Treasury probably suggested, the remissions of penal sentences and of arrears of taxes with which the Czar endeavours to diffuse satisfaction at his Corona- tion among all classes of his subjects. An order restricting the censorship, or exchanging it for a strong Press law, would have done more for Russia ; but upon that subject the policy of the Government seems to be unchangeable. Until it is changed there can be no final check upon sub- ordinate oppression or official corruption.
