Tr has been rewacrl again that certain crimes recur at par= ticular periods. At one time poisoning is in vogue, at another time wife-beating. Sometimes it is the fashion to try and upset railway trains, at another to "burke" or gavotte unwary passengers. In Ireland it is always "the mode" to shoot landlords. At present the criminals are going in for high game and are taking to regicide. The crowned {beads of Europe are uow marked out for destraction with peculiar vindictiveness and pertinacity. At the very time when we are reading the details of the attempt of Otero Gonzalez on the life of the King of Spain we get a telegraphic report of a fresh assault on the life of the Czar and his family. It is a commonplace to speak of the Government of Russia as despotism tempered by assassination, and we know that two of the present Ozar's predecessors, Peter the Third and Paul the First were strangled, and Alexander died not without suspicious of poison, though there is no positive evidence on the subject. We cannot, however, place the attempt on the life of the King of Spain in the same category with the attempt on the life of the Emperor of Russia, Though Otero had accomplices, his attempt does not show the settled purpose of hate and the rooted murderous intention which are displayed by those persons who have twice essayed to take the life of the Czar. The attempt to blow up the railway-train and the more recent effort to destroy Alexander in the saloon of the Winter Palace are indications which it is impossible to disregard of deep the so-called Nihilists to bring about a change, The ominous signs which indicated the great French Revolution are re-appearing in Russia with terrible distinctness, and some violent change is to be expected before long. In semi-barbarous countries and dark ages the comet and the lurid star are held to be the heralds of revolution and occasionally, as at Peking some two years ago, the appentance of fantastic or curiously-tinted clouds is believed to indicate coming trouble. The belief often produces the event. But the observer of political phenomena in an instructed ago need not look to the heavenly bodies to see the signs of political combustion and anarchy. For years the forces have been at work which are now exploding. It is not ensy to trace the exact connection between the doctrines of the early Nihilists Chernvisherski and Dobrolubof, who began by speculations on cosmic phenomena, and the political movements which are now agitating St. Petersburg. Nor is it necessary now to go back to the origin of the movement. It is a life and death question, and it is clear that every day separates Court and People wider from each other. It is jad that the peaceful inclination of the present Government and the willingness ito make terms which the leniency to Mirsky attested, have come too late and have failed of any practical conciliatory jreault. The January number of the Contemporary Review points out that all hope of reconciliation must now be regarded as over. The attempt on the Czar's life during his railway journey was regarded as finally destroying the chances of peace. " Liberals especially, "though not deceiving themselves as "to the real state of things, wished "ardently that nothing might occur "to disturb the intentions of our "rulers to go back to the prior laws, "Now everything is lost again, and "no one can guess when we shall "return to the regime of comparative "liberty." If this was trae in the middle of December, how touch more true is it now after this further proof of the vengeful and desperate inteutions of the Nihilists, They are declared now to be irreconcilables. They have not only drawn the sword, bub fang away thescabbard, Meantime we hear of vast military preparations, and the Czar may attempt the old artifice of escape from domestic peril by rushing into a foreign war, We do not think, however, that he will again be able to take the field, At any moment the fortune that has hitherto failed the conspirators may crown their attempts, or the Czar may succumb to the wear and tear of body and mind which he is compelled to undergo. Then in all likelihood the new ruler would address himself to carry out that reforming policy which Alexander cannot venture on, and which the Revolutionary party will not accept from his bands.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.