WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1432: DEATH OF THE CZAR.
By Edward Farr
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

History - BritishHistory - Modern (1750+)History - RoyaltyHistory - Warfare

About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

DEATH OF THE CZAR.

On the 2nd of March the people of London were astonished by a telegram that the Emperor of Russia had died that morning. Seldom was so profound and general a sensation created. It was believed by nearly all persons that the war would be speedily brought to a close, as he who had created it had passed away. It was not then generally understood that the Emperor Nicholas was the representative of the feeling and opinion of the whole Russian nation. His ambition, love of conquest, aggrandizement of territory, did not pass beyond the degree in which these qualities were cherished by his people. The desire to propagate the Greek church by the sword alike possessed emperor and subjects. The war, therefore, continued, although the successor of Nicholas—Alexander II.—was, as alleged, a mild prince, more desirous to draw out the resources of his empire by peace than to extend it by war. At all events the conflict continued to rage, to the disappointment of all who hated bloodshed, and felt for the miseries of their fellow creatures.

It was alleged that the death of the Emperor Nicholas was caused by the defeat of his arms at the battle of Eupatoria. On the 17th of February, forty thousand Russians attacked the Turkish army under Omar Pasha, then quartered there. The occupation of that place by the allies was a great hindrance to the operations of the Russian armies, and was dangerous to the Crimea and its communications with the southern provinces of the Russian empire. The emperor had, therefore, ordered it to be carried at any cost. He, no doubt, felt humiliated that the Turks, whom he had so recently attacked in their own territory, should now, in their turn, be invaders, and he burned with indignation at this affront to his power. By this battle his soldiers were defeated, his ambition and his hopes blasted. He began at last to see the magnitude of the war he had provoked, and the perils with which his empire were environed. He drooped from that hour. A severe cold, taken in the persevering discharge of his high functions, hastened his dissolution.