[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I am glad
to see that you are not among those who have let pass the murder of the ex-Tsar without a few words of pity and commiseration in your last number. Those who think at all about human events must wonder at the complete silence with which his tragic passing away has been received, whether owing to action by the Censor, which is rather inconceivable; to sheer callousness, which has without doubt been one of the results of the blood-bath in which the world has been plunged these three years past; or lastly, to the feelings of dismay and consternation of our men of light and leading, who have found themselves once more completely ignorant of the inner history and course of events in Russia which has ended in such dire catastrophe: One of the few kindly and critical notices on the career of the late Tsar is to be found in a letter written by Lord Esher in the Morning Post last week. To those who call to mind the history and end of another mighty Monarch whose feet were also, how- ever, of clay, whose reign was shorter than his, but who certainly was the cause, and the direct cause, of much more bloodshed, misery, and disaster—to those it seems that fate has not been kind to Nicholas II. For the Emperor Napoleon III. managed to escape from the wrath that was surely overtaking him with a whole skin, and died amongst us in peace, and in the odour of sanctity, with all the appropriate signs of mourning and tributes of sympathy from his compassionate hosts and erstwhile allies. Truly says the preacher : "All is vanity."—I am, Sir, &c., A. C. B.
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