We fear that there can be little doubt now that
the Tsarevitch, like hislather the late Emperor of Russia, has been cruelly done to death. Even amidst all the horrors of to-day one is sensible of the extreme poignancy of this tragedy. All British men and women
will remember the long period of patient hope and disappointment in the Tsar's family whloh was rewarded by the birth of the Tsarevitch. Although the child oould.have hadno kind of conscious influence on the course of events in Russia, hewas destined neverthe- less to be the indirect cause of-much that happened. As Dr. Dillon has pointed out in the Daily Telegraph, one of the principal motives of the late Tsar in clinging to. his .autocratic power was the wish to preserve the inheritance intact for his beloved son. Love, care and anxiety for the boy were similarly the motives which caused the Empress to become the prey to influences about the Court which in the end developed into an unendurable scandal; The boy, by common consent, had vivacity and charm, and surely no member of any civilized nation can reflect upon the obscure grave of this poor child in the Ural Mountains without the profoundest pity.
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