i§


i


THE  CROWNING  OF  A  TSAR.  137

Nicholas  II  begins  his  reign  with  the  good  wishes  of
the  entire  world.  Monarchies,  empires,  and  republics,
alike,  united  to  wish  him  ~bon  voyage  on  his  momentous
journey.  From  Germany,  from  France,  from  the  vener-
able Queen  who  has  reigned  longest  in  the  history  of  Eng-
land's throne,  from  our  own  President,  and  from  many
other  rulers  of  nations,  great  and  small,  he  received  mes-
sages of  warmest  greeting;  and  above  all,  the  great  heart
of  the  common  people  with  a  single  impulse  felt  that  it
has  in  the  kindly,  smiling  face  of  this  youthful  Tsar  the
promise  of  a  reign  beneficent  and  just.  He  begins  his
reign  with  a  mind  well  endowed  with  all  that  modern
education  and  foreign  travel  can  do  to  widen  and  to  en-
rich his  outlook  upon  life;  he  has  the  history  of  the  past
to  govern  his  thought  of  the  future;  he  has  by  his  side
a  wife  as  sweet  and  queenly  as  any  woman  in  the  wide
world;  and  with  all  these  he  has  the  splendid  generous
impulse  which  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  we  live  gives
to  any  man  that  seeks  it — a  spirit  of  brotherhood,  of
catholicity,  of  high  endeavour,  and  of  lofty  ambition.
