AS MINISTER TO RUSSIA-1892-1894 11 



closely, said to me, &quot;He knows nothing of his empire or 

 of his people ; he never goes out of his house, if he can 

 help it.&quot; This explains in some degree the insufficiency 

 of his programme for the Peace Conference at The 

 Hague and for the Japanese War, which, as I revise these 

 lines, is bringing fearful disaster and disgrace upon 

 Russia. 



The representative of a foreign power in any European 

 capital must be presented to the principal members of 

 the reigning family, and so I paid my respects to the 

 grand dukes and duchesses. The first and most interest 

 ing of these to me was the old Grand Duke Michael the 

 last surviving son of the first Nicholas. He was generally, 

 and doubtless rightly, regarded as, next to his elder brother, 

 Alexander II, the flower of the flock; and his reputation 

 was evidently much enhanced by comparison with his bro 

 ther next above him in age, the Grand Duke Nicholas. It 

 was generally charged that the conduct of the latter during 

 the Turkish campaign was not only unpatriotic, but in 

 human. An army officer once speaking to me regarding 

 the suffering of his soldiers at that time for want of shoes, 

 I asked him where the shoes were, and he answered : In 

 the pockets of the Grand Duke Nicholas.&quot; 



Michael was evidently different from his brother not 

 haughty and careless toward all other created beings ; but 

 kindly, and with a strong sense of duty. One thing 

 touched me. I said to him that the last time I had seen 

 him was when he reached St. Petersburg from the seat of 

 the Crimean War in the spring of 1855, and drove from 

 the railway to the palace in company with his brother 

 Nicholas. Instantly the tears came into his eyes and 

 flowed down his cheeks. He answered: &quot;Yes, that was 

 sad indeed. My father&quot; meaning the first Emperor 

 Nicholas &quot;telegraphed us that our mother was in very 

 poor health, longed to see us, and insisted on our coming 

 to her bedside. On our way home we learned of his 

 death.&quot; 



Of the younger generation of grand dukes, the bro- 



