NICHOLAS II.. CZAR OF RUSSIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 11

NICHOLAS 11.. CZAR OF RUSSIA.

A CHARACTER SKETCH. (By C. do C. Williams). “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” In the case of his Majesty the Czar of Russia, how truly and sadly must this be so. His crown is certainly not one of gold, nor yet iron, but rather one of thorns. Added to tho loss of military prestige in tho awful and useless slaughter of his bravo troops abroad, and tho loss of his people’s trust, which promises to end in tho complete dissolution of his great Empire’s autocratic constitutions, framed and mainained at ,so great a cost sinco tho time of Peter the Great, is the torturing consciousness that lie is the worst reviled man on tho earth to-day. Truly, it is irritating to one’s tense of justice •to note the gathering pyramids of rubbishy slander that are being erected for the gaze of all nations by numerous scribblers, who, for the greater part, aro either ■ raving sensationalists, or misguided socialistic cranks for writing in the vein they do of a man they have never seen, nor over had one word with. Such action might bo excusable in Russian subjects, whoso passions are inflamed by the condition of things within. Russian dominions, hub is much to be condemned in those presumptuous outsiders, whoso standard for judgment on the personality of the Czar is of the most mythical substance. I will not waste space by repetitions of senseless abuse hurled at the unfortunate and over-tried Czar, hut briefly, as I see him, picture to New Zealanders his Majesty, not as he is by an overpowering force of circumstances, but as ’bo is by nature. In the first place, he is not the ooarso and tyrannical character of some scribes, nor yet the nervous weakling of others, but rather is ho of a refined, ideal, very sensitive and somewhat wavering disposition when amidst stormy scones, being one who will suffer intensely his subjects’ grievances, all tho more as ho is fully conscious of his temporary powerlessncss to quell tile hellish storms of civil and foreign wars, which his own peace-loving per-

sonality would never, and could never, have aroused. His is not. the spirit of war, but rather that, of peace in its internal nature; and when he. a tew years ago, made his peace proposals to the world, he was earnestly sincere—as sincere for peace as were Peter the Great and Charles XII. of Sweden for war. It might have been well for his nation, as well as for others in the approaching stormy future, ,if he had succeeded ,in his heart’s desires. But, “there’s a Divinity that , shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may,” and his Majesty Nicholas 11. has had this bitter lesson to learn, as the humblest individuals amongst us must do. “The best-laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley.” The result is that we have a truly noble ruler at heart, whose worst faults arc hut the natural expression of too long maintained unnatural systems, gradually wedged into a disastrous position which ho himself has had very little to do with creating. It would bo an easy task for mo to shift the blame of all the troubles of Russia on to other shoulders than those of the Ozar, but time will do tins and has, in fact, already partly done so. Neither the civil nor the foreign war is to be put down to tho desires or machinations of his Majesty. I see no ignorant, selfish, arrogant and awe-inspiring Nero in this monarch, but a humane, religious, and generous nature; and it seems to mo to bo ouite consistent with his ordinary thoughts to find him farewelline his troops, holding before their eyes for encouragement a picture of the crucified Saviour; and to learn that he receives from his stricken generals at the front petitions for his prayers. It is also quite in keeping with, his personality to find him enthusiastioallv rejoicing in the birth of his hahy son, and not only using the occasion of this coveted child’s birth to exercise his sense of forgiveness to some of his imprisoned subjects, hut to, visionary like, set himself to deceive himself with the poetic idea that national love of this child would still the approaching storms, to bo aroused by the ambitious, discontented and turbulent nature of man. Equally in harmony with his true character was the confident belief of his processioning subjects on that fatal Sabbath that he, the loving father of lovely children, would listen to and redress their grievances as subjects and parents. But they over-estimated, not his will, but his decreasing power; as we always over-estimate the £ower of so-

called and wrongly thought to be omnipotent rulers. Loving his country and his people as 1 know such a nature as his is capable of doing, I can well .understand and sympathise with his agony of mind and depression of nerve, for again I reiterate that Nicholas 11. is not a Napoleonic example of a builder and preserver of a nation’s greatness by violence and bloodshed at home and abroad, but rather would elect to havo measures of peace, and religious devotion to old-established rules, which might havo harmonised with the old, but could only produce discord in tho advancing Russia of to-day. Apart from the abnormal force of present cir- | cpmstances, the evolutionary amendments of time on the thoughts and ways of all men, apart from the smallness and helplessness of the peace party around him, and the greatness and powerful sway of the war party, his Majesty, Nicholas 11. of Russia, is not to be regarded as ignorant, thoughtless, material, aggressive, cold, and destructive, hut as spiritual, scholarly, thoughtful, retiring, feeling, merciful, and peaceful, who, himself really free to freely act, would have been a happy, whole-hearted and successful monarch in peace, glorious peace, the first fruit of heaven, as ho is an. unhappy, halfhearted, and unsuccessful one in inglorious war, the first-fruits of hell.