FROM A PRIVATE LETTER.
St. Petersburg, 5th November 1863. The political events of the last week have been of a very exciting nature, and have formed a sort of crescendo movement. For the last fortnight everybody here has been looking for the long-talked-of Imperial manifesto. On Saturday last it was said to be in type, and its appearance was confidently predicted on Sunday; but Sunday came and still no manifesto. It was then said that the Emperor would communicete his manifesto to the troops at a grand review to be held on Monday; but when Monday came there was neither review nor manifesto. Monday happened to be a rainy day, and it was then supposed that his Imperial Majesty, in conjunction with the rest of the revolutionists of Europe, had a decided antipathy to rain, and that the wet weather had caused the postponement of the manifesto, upon which, it may be truly said, the peace of the world depended. Tuesday's Journal was perused with intense anxiety ; and if there was no Imperial manifesto, there was a moat elaborately-prepared article, recounting an immense array of alleged murders, and of other atrocities, which were, clearly, intended to herald in the all-important document. Upwards of two columns of the of- ficial Journal de St. Petersbourg were filled with outrages said to have been committed by the Turks against the Christians in the East; and this long array was declared to be only "a small part" of the cruelties now daily and habitually practised upon the suffering and persecuted members of the Greek Church in Turkey : and to such an extent Indeed was this lawless violence alleged to have been carried, that even the British Consul (!) in one place that was mentioned, "had stated his inability to afford the Christians the slightest protection or relief" I This was on Tuesday: on Wednesday, the unusual beading of "Nero* from the Banks of the Danube" met the eye
in the official gazette ; and there, true cough, was the confirmation of the rumours that had prevailed here for the previous five or six days—"Tso steamers and eight gun-boats, in proceeding up the Danube from Isroail to Galata, had, when near Issaktchi, been fired upon from 430M6 Turkish tatter. iesand the Russian Captain Varpakhovsky, and six marines, bad been killed, and forty-six more marines wounded." Now the issuing of the ji- perial manifesto was looked upon as very dose at hand ! The public mine had been properly prepared for its reception ; first by being well imbued with the alleged atrocities committed by the Turks upon the Christian population, (the collection of those details must have been a work of labour if not of love,) then by the publication, officially, of the commencement of hostilities by the Turks . —news which everybody knew had been in town for many days, and had even reached Petersburg through the London papers. The unmistakeable preliminaries left no doubt that the manifesto must indeed be near at hand ; and this time expectation was not doomed to disappointment. The precious document was given to the St. Petersburg world late on Wed- nesday afternoon and well would it, in my opinion, be for the Czar, if his autocratic power were able to confine the reading of this Imperial Manifesto to his own subjects ; for most assuredly, out of Russia none will hesitate to characterize it as one of the most barefaced and -unprincipled state papers that ever emanated from a country pretending to hold a pilule among the honourable and influential nations of the earth : the entire production Items to me a compound of fakehood and blasphemy; One sort of praise may alone be awarded to it—it is cousistent, but consistent only in errors; it is a fitting conclusion to a series of outrages upon honour, honesty, and good faith ; all perpetrated with unblushing insolence, and, worse than All, perpetrated under the mask of religion ! It was on "Wednesday late in the afternoon that this document was issued, in Ruse, from the Imperial Senate ; and on the following morning a French trans- lation appeared in the official Journal de St. Petersbourg ; at the same time a rumour got abroad that the Emperor had not abandoned his intention of formally communicating his manifesto to the troops. The morning of Thursday WS Vain rainy ; but I determined, nevertheless, to ascertain whether there was any and what truth in the rumour. I arrived at the Palace (where it was said the Emperor would address the troops) a little before twelve. The ordinary Palate guard oeastituted the only soldiers I could see ; but, observing a couple of phargers at the door of the Palace leading to the apartments of the Heritier, and perceiving also several officers hastening towards the Champs .de Mars' I 'was induced to extend my walk in that direction. As I approached this spot, I at once saw that something unusual was going on there : there were but very few people in the streets, and the drizzling rain both physically and morally seemed to throw a damp on everything around. The Champs de Mars is about half a mile from the Palace, and separated from it only by a long street, the Rue Grande Millionne; on arriving at the end of which, I observed the whole of the ,Champs de Mars apparently one entire mass of armed men—horse foot, and artillery. While I was gazing, with some degree, confess, of men—horse, at this immense mass of troops, (the like of which is never seen even at'Se Peters- burg except on the grand May review,) I heard horses close behind me. I was then standing in the middle of the road, with my umbrella up and, turning round, I observed the Emperor and a very large staff eloee behind me : I retired a few paces, put down my umbrella, and raised my bat as the Imperial cortege passed me. I was quite alone in my glory, and the Emperor very markedly returned my salute, fixing his eyes very steadily upon me—or my pretty English spaniel, who was standing patiently by my side. I followed on close behind the Emperor, and took up a position at the side of the Champs de Mars that commanded an excellent view down the lines. There is no denying the fact, that the Emperor was received on this occasion with greater enthusiasm by the troops than I ever before observe& In genera], each regiment gives a simultaneous shout as the Emperor approaches, and then there is a dead silence until he arrives at the head of the next regi- ment, when the peculiar try which sounds like "sdrave" is repeated : but on Thursday the shouts were sustained, and, of course, increased in volume as the Emperor proceeded; at one time, it seemed as if the whole or nearly the whole of the assembled soldiers were together shouting the svellsknown sa- lutation. No doubt, all this was to order; for in this country not even loyalty is permitted to be spontaneous. Having ridden ,once through the ranks, accompanied by the Grand Dukes and attended by a most numerous staff—consisting of from 100 to 120 officers—the Emperor took his place at one side of the Champs de Mars, about the centre, and facing the troops : they then marched before him, infantry, cavalry, and artillery ; amounting on the whole, as nearly 215 I could calculate, to about 60,000 or 65,000 men and 80 pieces of cannon. As the troops came round in quick time each Colonel approached the Emperor, and received from his Majesty's hands a paper, which I supposed to contain the manifesto issued that morning, eigned, probably, by the Emperor himself, with an intimation that the docu- ment should be read at the head of each regiment on its return to barracks. During the whole time of the inspection, which lasted from twelve till half- past two, the weather was gloomy, and the greater portion of the time the rain descended thickly : during the last quarter of an hour the clouds broke
a little, and there seemed a prospect of the weather clearing : but it was not until about an hour after this, and just as I reached home, that the sun burst forth. The troops were all in fall marching artier and in their great- coats : the Emperor and the Grand Dukes all wore ample military frocks without order or decoration of any sort ; and the whole inspection had this advantage over the great May review, that it seemed a more serious soldier- like affiur than I had yet seen during the four years I have been in Russia. The men all appeared to be in excellent condition, and their accoutrements and clothing faultless. The admirable manner in which the compact masses of infantry marched by—their long bright bay onets comieg out effectively against the leaden sky—seemed to call forth, and deservedly, the approba- tion of the Emperor, who looked on with untiring interest at the countless battalions defiling before him. TheRmperor, I thought, seemed sad. He is decidedly increased in bulk since [last saw him, about two months ago. The Independence Beige, a journal that is looked upon as devoted to the service if not in the pay of Russia, has lately contained some amusing ar- ticles with reference to the all-exciting Eastern question. Some of these articles display such an utter want of knowledge of the subject, and seem so lamentably ignorant of everything connected with England, that there cannot be the slightest doubt that they are the productions of Russians. One of these articles, purporting to be a communication from Vienna under .date the 19th October, is so preeminently ridiculous that I cannot refrain from mentioning its substance. It begins by statinathat serious diffi rences exist
between the French and English Ambassadors and Admirals which will
probably finish by giving Russia an ally within every camp oilier enemies. Next, if it should-really.come to blows, that the commerce anti industry of England would be more endangered than might seem probable at the first
glance • and that the closing of the port of Odessa might have more disas- trous effects on England than the doting of the Dardanelles on Russia. lut
greater than all would be the danger to England if the were to attempt to stop the commerce of Russia and destroy her marine. A simple ukase, low- ering the customs-duties in favour of Austria and Prussia and the Zollverein, would suffice to give a mortal blow (un coup snortel) to English industry and render these faveured powers at once the permanent allies of'Russia.
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