OUR LONDON LETTER.

[iROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Loxdon, April 20,

THE CORONATION OF THE CZAR. Tiie atmosphere of affectionate loyalty in which Her Majesty is preparing for participating in the forthcoming happy domestic event (Prince Leopold's marriage) forms a striking contrast to the baleful surroundings in which a neighbouring potentate is preparing for his coronation. The Emperor of. Russia is going to be crowned at Moscow, and thither he has commanded the attendance of all the great and noble of his vast empire. But he appears to be afraid to go himself, and his position altogether is one which makes one think how nice it must be to be a Czar, and how " taking one consideration with another," an Emperor's is not a happy lot. ' The gorgeous cathedral, which was being prepared for the sacred and imposing ceremonial, was found to be mined, and therein were intended to be stored hell's fires for the special behoof of the Father of the Faithful of Holy Russia. The railway line over which he was to travel was here and there also duly mined, and altogether his loving subjects seem to have intended a warm reception for the hes.d of their ciril and religious system, and a lively and brilliant celebration of his coronation. Meantime, he is lyinc; perdu, in a spot where he feels himself safe from the attentions of his affectionate people. When his Empress takes an airing she drives alone, for coachmaa and carriage, as well as roadway, are viewed by him with suspicion, and the Czar of all the Russians is as much afraid of coining out of Gatschina as a rat out of its hole. This comes of '' skivering the people." He. is evidently a man of ao courage, and, like all cowards, he is cruel. General Strel-, nikoff was shot at Odessa, and the two assassins were arrested. The Emperor ordered them to be shot at once, without trial. Then, on second thoughts, he ordered them to be tried, and tried they were, and sentenced at midnight, and shot forthwith. This Jedburgh justice was as promptly met by the death of Shoukanoff, another officer of the Czar, killed immediately by the Nihilists a3 a rejoinder to the Czar, and so the game of vendetta goes merrily on. When will people of Jingo proclivities learn that " skivering the people" does not pay, that concession of liberty and just rights gives peace, and honour, and power; while violence breeds violence, and' brute force generates brute force, armed with the deadly arid subtle powers which science and the progress of intelligence have placed so much within the reach of the despairing. " Such, I hold," says the Chelsea philosopher, speaking the midnight musings of his Professor Teufelsdrockb. at the North Pole—" Such, I hold, to be the genuine use of gunpowder that it makes all men alike tall. Nay, if thou be cooler, cleverer than I—if thou have more mind, though all but nobody whatever, then canst thou kill me first and art the taller. Hereby at last is the Goliath powerless, and the David resistless ; savage animalism is nothing, inventive spiritualism is all." Carlyle's professor found convincing logic in his Brummagem pistol as he courteously addressed the Russian smuggler, "Be so obliging as to retire, friend, and with promptitude," and it would be sound philosophy based on modern advancement, if the disciples of Jingoism, whether in Russia or elsewhere, who would "skiver the people," would remember that two commonly can play at that, and that a thimble full of dynamite is more than a match for a bushel of bounce.

THE CONDITION OF RUSSIA,

Of Russia itself the political condition is about as confused and confusing as its social. At one moment we are told she is on the eve of rushing headlong on Germany, then the most pathetically effusive expressions of loyalty and friendship are transmitted from one Court to the other, and a Minister of Teutonic origin and warm German sympathies is appointed to the place of the veteran and stubborn Gortschakoff, and the jubilation is rudely arrested by the report that a worse than Gortschakoff himself, in the person of Ignatieff, is appointed ambassador even to Germany. The peace and the Panslavist forces that rend the Russian Court are alternately in the ascendant, while the ruler, who should give iorce and firmness to Russian polisy, is in hiding from Nihilist bombs, and nobody knows what the chances of an hour may bring forth—peace or war. Meantime, the cruel outrages on the Jews continue almost unchecked, and in the capital itself thousands of industrious traders are obliged to dispose of their business by forced and instantaneous sale, to flyaway to enrich America with their industry.

THE PRINCE OF WALES AND THE COLONISTS.

The spirit which His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has infused into the movement for the establishment of the Royal College of Music shows what Royalty can do when well directed. The third of the total amount received has been subscribed in a month. Still, the Prince relaxes no effort, and he has just held a meeting of "gentlemen connected with the Colonial Empire " to enlist their influence in extending the movemeat to the colonies. His address was a judicious blending of business and compliment, and the old blood of the old colonists, who here form a coterie of selfassured complacency, being a cross between a Mutual Admiration Society and the spirit of the three tailors of Tooleystreet, tingled as they learned how this Royal Highness "recognised with pride and admiration how much the enlightenend enterprise and perseverance of our colonial fellowsubjects have already contributed to the greatness and wealth of the Empire." The Prince knows human nature, even in its colonial developments, and I have no doubt that his words will take. For here is an opportunity of not only promoting a great cause, but one full of the possibilities of of St. Michael and St. George, or perchance of the humbler form of an autograph or a smile. Let Auckland wake up. Now she may fiddle her way to honour and preferment.

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

The more practical portion of your readers will learn with even greater satisfaction that the frozen meat trade is every day assuming more defined form, permanent storage for the reception of frozen meat from the colonies having just been opened at the Victoria Docks. There has been a field-day, and, as is the wont, no doubt a luncheon. The Agents-General aud High Commissioners have aU been there, aud duly expressed their admiration. There are two machines and a variety of chambers, about a dozen in all, capable of containing a vast array of refrigerated carcasses, and of unlimited exten-" sion. This last great want in the trade being now supplied, there is no longer danger of cargoes being either sacrificed or thawed prematurely, and this first of a long extending series of storage premises should give confidence to those who hold that the refrigerating business is destined to be the great stimulus to colonial development and wealth.