Although diplomatic controversies had created much ill-feeling between the Governments of England and Russia, the Queen and the Czar had ever maintained the friendliest personal relations. It was, therefore, with the deepest pain that her Majesty was informed, on the 14th of March, of the assassination of Alexander II. The Czar was returning from a military review near St. Petersburg on Sunday, the 13th of March, when a bomb was thrown, which exploded behind the Imperial carriage, killing several soldiers. The Czar jumped out of the carriage to see to the poor men who were hurt, and it was to this kindly act that he owed his death. Another bomb was flung at his feet, which exploded and mangled his body in the most cruel manner. The Queen did what she could to console the Duchess of Edinburgh, who was prostrated with grief by her father’s death. The Court was ordered to go into mourning for a month. Both Houses of Parliament addressed messages of condolence to her Majesty and the Duchess of Edinburgh. The nation, with hardly a dissentient voice, echoed the sentiments of their representatives, and the Press was filled with generous tributes of admiration and respect for the Czar Emancipator. It was now recognised that Alexander II. would live in history as one of the most enlightened and humane of European Sovereigns. The great act of his life, the liberation of the Serfs, had converted them into communal peasant proprietors, and put them in a more secure position than any other peasantry in Europe. His devotion to the highest interests of Russia knew no limits, and no European Sovereign has, in our time, excelled him in the skill and wisdom with which he guided and moderated the aspirations of his excitable subjects. It was notorious that he was forced into the Turkish War by a current of popular feeling he could not withstand. On the other hand, when engaged in the war he quitted himself like a man. Tales of his well-known kindness of heart and sympathy for suffering spread from the camps and hospitals through Russia, and invested him in the eyes of the Slav race with the mystic halo of a Divine Figure. His firmness and [Illustration: THE PRINCE OF WALES IN HIS ROBES AS A BENCHER OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE. (_From a Photograph by W. and D. Downey._)]