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THE ALBION
British, Colonial, and Foreign Weekly Gazette.
New York, Saturday, February 22, 1823DEATH OF EMPEROR ALEXANDER
New York, Saturday, February 4, 1826
The ship Howard arrived in the harbour on Thursday night from Havre, bringing London dates to the 16th, and Paris to the 19th of December.
Perhaps the most important news furnished by this arrival, is the death of the Emperor of Russia. This Prince is said to have died from an erysipelatous affection, and was in the 49th year of his age. Few men have acted a more conspicuous part in the theater of the world than Alexander, who was a principal instrument in the hands of Providence, for overthrowing and laying in the dust one of the most grinding and detestable systems of military despotism and violence that has disgraced modern history. He became a great man, perhaps, more from the force of events than from brilliant mental achievement, but he possessed the rare merit of using his good fortune with moderation, and employing it to obtain a firm and lasting peace -- a peace not for the exclusive benefit of is own kingdom, but for the world at large. To his own subjects, whom he found just emerging from barbarism, he was kind, generous and humane, and did much towards bettering their condition and advancing them in the scale of civilization. The feverish state of public mind in Europe for the last ten years, and the open designs manifested so frequently to throw off monarchical government, no doubt obliged him to do some unpopular acts; but we contend that crime and cruelty were foreign to his nature, and that few men have fewer sins to answer for.
We have said that the Emperor of Russia was mainly instrumental, (zealously and conscientiously seconded as he always was by England,) in preserving the peace of Europe. A year or two will test the accuracy of this opinion. His death, we fear, will not be without its effects. Let us see what the Grand Duke Constantine, with whose character the world is not favourably impressed, will do. Will he yield to the martial desires and national antipathies of his people, and make war upon Turkey, conquer it, and annex it, with the whole of Greece, to his empire? Such a project would be very palatable at St. Petersburg, for it was the favourite policy of Catherine, and required all Alexander's forbearance and love of peace to resist. Let us contemplate for a moment the state of Europe under the consummation of such an event, which every Russian will tell us must some day take place. What will have become of the balance of power for which so much blood and treasure has been sacrificed? Scattered to the winds -- dissolved with the power of magic. Europe will then behold Russia in the possession of the Mediterranean, the Euzine and the Baltic; she will feel the mistress of the north bestriding her like an incubus -- enfolding her like the coils of the boa constrictor; she will behold hordes of military barbarians once more coming down from the north to enslave and oppress her -- to lay waste her fair fields and destroy her fine institutions. But it will be said that the other powers of Europe, particularly England, will not permit this. Perhaps not, and the only good likely to accrue from such an attempt would be, that England would immediately take the unfortunate Greeks under her protection, and rescue them from the fangs of their ferocious oppressors; but then this would bring about another war -- that curse of the human species -- when the world might see England again expending her thousands of lives and millions of money to put down a despotism in the north, with the same profuseness that she did in 1815 to put down the despotism of the south. It is for these reasons that we lament the death of the Emperor AlexanderExtracts from the Paris Papers received by the Howard, from Havre.
DEATH OF THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
The following telegraphic despatch was transmitted from Strasburgto Paris on Saturday afternoon --
The French Minister at Berlin to the President of the Council:
The Emperor of Russia died at Taganvock after a few days' indisposition. The express which brought this intelligence left Warsaw on the 8th.
The Grand Dukes Constantine and Michael had not yet departed from that capital for St. Petersburgh.
His late Imperial Majesty was born Dec. 23, 1777, ascended the throne of Russia March 4, 1801, and became King of Poland June 9, 1815; on the 9th October 1793, he married Elizabeth Alexiewna, Princess of Baden, but has no issue. The Empress Mother; a Princess of Wurtemburg, widow of the Emperor Paul I, is still living. His Majesty has left three brothers, viz. 1. The Grand Duke Constantine, born May 8, 1779, and married Feb. 26, 1796, to a Princess of Saxe Cobourg, from whom he was divorced in April, 1801. In May of the following year he married the Princess of Lowiez, but has no issue. 2. The Grand Duke Nicholas, born July 2, 1796, and married July 13, 1817, to a Princess of Prussia, by whom he has one son and two daughters. 3. Grand Duke Michael, born Feb. 8, 1798. The late Emperor has also left two sisters, the one married to the hereditary Prince of Saxe Weimar, and the other to the Prince of Orange.
We learn that in consequence of Alexander's death, the three percents at Paris were done at Tortoni's on Sunday the 18th at 60f. and on Monday at 60f. 90c.
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