Soon after Alexander had been gathered to his fathers, a commotion, at once political and military, took place in Russia. In southern Europe people are not sufficiently acquainted with the character of the noble family of the Czar: there was a degree of enthusiasm in the filial affection entertained by the Emperor Alexander for his aged mother, and the deepest respect existed in the hearts of Constantine and Nicholas for their elder brother Alexander. His death took them all by surprise, and upon his tomb burst forth the military movement prepared by the secret societies, and by a generation of young officers, dreaming of the old Sclavonian independence. Was the accession of the Emperor Nicholas likely to make any alteration in Nesselrode's position? One powerful reason which operated against any diminution of the minister's influence was the respectful admiration of Nicholas for the policy and the opinions of his deceased brother, and being also inexperienced in business, he considered it indispensable to surround himself with the men who had been acquainted with the politics of Russia ever since the great epoch of 1814. These men of traditions are essential to governments; they preserve the history of all the precedents in the cabinets; they know what has been the conduct of Europe during a long series of years, what are the springs by which she has been actuated, and the acts she has been called upon to concert; comprising information of the most essential utility for the comprehension of treaties and the conduct of negotiations: besides this, it was impossible to deny that Nesselrode was possessed of very great ability in unravelling events, and had always shewn an enlightened, though passive obedience, to the wishes of his sovereign. The Emperor Nicholas, then, being desirous of continuing the policy of his brother, to whom could he better address himself than to the man who had had the direction of affairs during the last fifteen years? Nesselrode also enjoyed the esteem of the Empress-Mother; and what power that remarkable woman had exercised over political affairs! She alone always manifested a sovereign contempt for Napoleon--she alone swayed the mind of her son Alexander, even after Erfurt; and, according to the patriarchal fashion, all her children appeared, to a certain degree, to do homage to her for the crown, as if they owed the supreme power to her from whom they had derived their existence.