Expllanation of line in NII diary

[Maria the Beautiful]

In Nicholas' diary entry for March 16, 1917 he refers to the abdication of GD Michael - His manifesto ends with a four-tail formula (Universal, direct, equal and secret suffrage.  Can someone explain to me what this line means.   Thanks.

[Forum Admin]

it refers to the voting of the Russian people to decide their government = suffrage.  The ballot would be "universal",everyone can vote, direct, meaning you directly vote, each person's vote is equal and the ballot is secret.

[Maria the Beautiful]

Thank you Rob.

[Condecontessa]

Since I don't want to start a new thread about a question I have about NII's diary entry during his youth, I'll use this one.

Here's my question:

The book A Lifelong Passion on page 10, NII wrote on his diary about going in a break with Ernie and Alix and his Papa driving. Can someone please explain or show a picture of what a break is?

Here's the entry - "May 30, 1884. This morning Mama went to Petersburg. It has got colder today. Lunched alone with Papa. Went out with Ernie and Alix in the break, with Papa driving. Went for a walk."

Thank you for the help.  

[DNAgenie]

In England, a brake was an open horse-drawn carriage with four wheels. I think this is probably what he was talking about, as he must have known the word, but not known exactly how it was spelt.

[Condecontessa]

Thank you for the prompt reply DNAgenie!!!

Now I know what to look for. So the emperor AIII was actually reining the horses? What an amusing scene.

[Inok Nikolai]

A brake / break was a wagon or carriage used to train or break in horses, to accustom them to work as draft animals pulling loads.

Often a brake would be used to convey hunters, beaters, and dogs to the starting point of a hunt.

A brake could also be used for a simple carriage ride too — with just passengers out for a jaunt.

[Kalafrana]

'Shooting brake' is also an old-fashioned term for what is nowadays called an estate car.

Ann

[Condecontessa]

Thank you for the replies. It's great to learn what words mean in the royal diary entries that are not commonly known today.

I even came across "eighteen-place char-a-banc" on the young NII diary entry. I had a hard time looking for an example but finally found one abeit the pic was kind of small.

There was an entry on which NII was insulted because he wasn't included with the Darmsdatds for a char-a-banc ride. He stated that felt insulted.

[Inok Nikolai]

If you drop out the hyphens from the French form, and just look for "charabanc" as one word, you should be able to find entries on it and pictures on many sites.