MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 127 



God preserve to us our family life ! And defend us 



** 



from such premiums upon selfishness and immorality I 

 The poor-laws are bad enough, but this is worse. 



But I am forgetting the group at the end of the table. 

 A word or two more, ere we part. 



The authentic anecdotes related of the late Emperor 

 during the Crimean war make it more than likely that his 

 mind was latterly affected. 



Hi a fits of ungovernable passion, even with old Nessel- 

 rode, were notorious. The victory on the Alma, which 

 Nicholas at first would not believe, abusing the officer 

 who brought him the despatch, was known by him for 

 some days before it was made public. An American 

 gentleman, who saw him almost daily among his troops, 

 told me that so changed had he become during that 

 short period, that, without knowing the cause, he had 

 remarked to several friends that the Emperor must be 

 severely ill. and that he looked like a dying man. 



The effect of his death was as if some great weight 

 had been taken off society. All acknowledged his power, 

 and felt the presence of a giant among them. But there 

 was an intolerable sense of bondage experienced by all. 

 .Liberty of speech was impossible. But since the acces- 

 sion of the present Emperor, men can breathe and speak 

 without fear of a secret police, of secret agents, or of a 

 journey to Siberia. The liberty of the press is every 

 day becoming more unshackled. The police laws, also, 

 which affected the admission, residence, and departure of 

 strangers, are being almost entirely done away with, and 



