18th Dec.
THe 18th of December, new style, is the Name-Day of his Majesty Nicholas Il, Emperor of All the Russias, who, by the skill of the late Prince Lobanoff, assisted by some happy accidents, now fills the largest place in the eye of the world of any Continental Sovereign. Only two or three years ago the Emperor William occupied this eminence; the Czar has now attained it by a series of continuous diplomatic successes in Europe and the Far East, Yo govern the Russian Empire seems an almost impossible task for a young man not yet twenty-nine, although the administration of the country is obviously magnificently organised. Meanwhile it is easy to understand that so young and inexperienced a ruler of so vast a dominion must be seriously anxious to add no new responsibilities to those that are inevitable to his position; and in this we have a guarantee of the greatest value that Russia will do everything in her power to avoid wat.
certain that the young Emperor and his Czarina are as much touched as any one in England by the sufferings of the Armenians, and it must be most irksome to the Czar not to be able to put into force his traditional claim to be the protector of the Christians in ''turkey; but no one can say what would be the end of a hostile movement against the Sultan, and the risk of interference seems too great even to the ruler of All the Russias.
It is very certain that in England generally there is no active jealousy of Russia's recent successes. We have ourselves constantly urged the value of an understanding between England and Russis. England has ceased to cry out against Russia's eventual acquisition of Constantinople, and recognised that it is futile to expect that Russia, will be permanently contented to be without an ice-free port on the Pacific, The French papers have done justice to the correctness and fairness with which the English Press commented on the recent consummation at Paris of the Double Alliance. That China should have sold herself, as our Peking correspondent phrases it, to Russia, as the conventions we have been able to publish show she has done, does not make us anxious, as long as our commerce is not interfered with; in fact, it is our present object as much as it is Russia's, to see the integrity of China, somehow or other, preserved. We have abstained from showing any jealousy of Russia's establishment of her hegemony in Corea the leading principle indeed of our policy in China during the last two years has been, consciously or unconsciously on the part of our Foreign Office, complete subserviency to Russia. We very properly declined to join Russia in putting pressure on Japan at the end of the late war. We saw that it was mere bullying and it offended our love of fairplay. We did just as much for China, though without any recognition on her part, when we kept the Yangtze inviolate; but the benefit of that step was shared by all the nations that trade with China.
Except during the Crimean War, which is now generally allowed in Bogland to have been a mistake, there has always. been a great deal of friendly intercourse between England and Russia, The nervousness of our authorities in India has caused a temporary panic now and then; otherwise there has been a steady respect for each other on both sides, and there is every reason why this should continue, Neither wants anything from the other in Europe, and Asia is certainly largo enough for both of us, The Czar is closely related to our own Royal family, while the Czarioa, as the daughter of the beloved Princess Alice, is regarded almost as an English princess, 'I'he good wishes of the whole English people all round the world will go out to Nicholas LI on this his Name-Day, with every hope that he and his charming wife may have a long, peaceful, and prosperous reign.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.