"The government of Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy; in other words, the Czar or Emperor, is the legislative, executive, and judicial power of the empire, which is the same thing as saying that his will is the law of the land. But it ought to be added, that certain traditions and rules are considered of binding force by the sovereigns; as the law of succession to the crown, established by the Emperor Paul; otherwise the Czar might select the next ruler; every sovereign, his wife and children, must be of the Greek church. The heir apparent is deemed to be of age at sixteen, which proves that a boy of this age may be good for something. The members of the imperial family cannot marry without the consent of the Emperor; and the children of any union without his permission cannot inherit the throne. The present Emperor is Alexander II., son of Nicholas I. and the Princess Charlotte, of Prussia, who was the daughter of King Frederick William III., and sister of the present king of that country. The Empress, his wife, is the daughter of the late Grand Duke Ludwig II., of Hesse Darmstadt. They have six children, of whom the oldest is the Grand Duke Alexander, heir apparent to the throne. He was born in 1845, and is, therefore, twenty-five years old. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Maria Dagmar, daughter of the King of Denmark. The style of the emperor is Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, &c. His sons are called Grand Dukes. The hereditary Grand Duke is often called the Czarowitz. The term _Czar_, which evidently comes from _Cæsar_, is variously spelled. In the Slavonic, which is the church language of Russia, it is _Tsar_.