'2hth October.
Tue revolutionary party in Russia, says Mr. Carl Joubert in the current number of the "Nineteenth Century and After," are "capable of carrying all before them." All that is wanted is the word from the Executive Committee, It should be remembered in reading this article that our author was writing injall probability before the events at Liaoyang which made so profound an impression in Russia, an impression which more recent events have still further deepened. He was even then of the "confident pan that the upheaval is nearer than is generally anticipated." A hundred held in bondage: They will remain millions of people cannot for ever be quiescent only so long as they think that the lot of other men is no better than their own, but in the case of Russia this mental condition is rapidly being changed, for strict as is the censorship and harsh as are the laws against the spread of general intelligence by means of the Press, there is a large amount of forbidden literature smuggled into the country, and knowledge spreads daily. Awakening is the natural result. The censorship, stern as it is, can only delay the "outburst of popular anger for a time ab best, indeed if Russian character is like that of mankind in general, and there is no reason to think the contrary, every blacked-out column can but stimulate curiosity to an almost unbearable extent, and thus foster the desire for wider intercourse with the outer world which the authorities seem so desirous preventing.
It is often? said, in answer to re~ formers of the Kropotkin kind, that Russia is not fit for a constitution, that the necessary education on which constitutional government can alone be safely based does not exist. Doubtless this is very largely true. Russia is probably the least educated of all European States, not even excluding nest-ridden Spain. But whose fault is it? Nob that of the Russian people, who are keen enough to learn all that comes in their way. No; the fault lies with those who for ends of their own have done everything they could to prevent the raising of the masses in any shape or form.
The result is that many thousands ofthe very best men in Russia are revolutionists, not necessarily Nihilists, but opposed to the existing state of things and desirous of its reform if nothing more. Time was when the power of the angry people was as that of giant Polyphemus in the classical story, misdirected, blind; but this is so no longer. The revolutionists are organised under an Executive Committee of twelve, and the ranks of their adherents number among them, as we have said, large numbers of the best people of the country. Officers of the army and navy, even members of' the Czar's government, lawyers, doctors, university professors, and others of like respectability and res-Ponsibility, are known to its chiefs as ing ready, when the time comes, to cast in their lot with the reformers. Many merchants, manufacturers, and others engaged in trade, are also favourable to reform though for sufficient reasons they keep aloof from the movement ab present.
But the most important fact brought out by Mr. Joubert is that the revolutionists have a hold upon the army. An army has ever been the staff of tyranny mall ages and all lands. If this is to turn to a reed then indeed is Czardom nearing its end, and that it may be so seems likely not only from the facts given in the article to which we refer, but also from what has become generally known of the methods Russia is adopting with her forces just now. For example, it has been thought desirable to call up reserves for service in Manchuria and to keep at home the men who were with the colours when the war began. The reason given is that the reservists are much more saturated with revol lu tionary ideas than the younger men, and that for this reason if they are to be trusted with arms ab all ib will be safer (for the Russian Goveraoment), that they should be face to face with the Japanese. But if our author is to be believed, this is a policy which cuts both ways. He quotes from the letters of two Russian soldiers serving in Manchuria, and if there is any truth at all in what is there said, Russia has as good a chance to win in Manchuria as Great Britain would have had in South Africa had all her troops been Lynches. Men refuse to fight at all, they retire from important positions and their officers are unable to prevent them. One officer is reported as having blown his own brains out in consequence. "It is astonishing", says one, " how badly the naval guaner lays his gun!"
If this were so two months ago, what will it be now? It is easy with the light thus given to read between the lines of the telegrams which tell us of anxiety in St. Petersburg. All these things must be known, are known, to the Czar and his advisers. On the very day of the Plehve assassination there was placed in the Czar's private room a sealed letter from the Executive Committee, the terrible twelve who hold the destinies of Russia in the hollow of their hand. And yet nothing is being done, so far as can be seen, to stem the rising tide of dissatisfaction. One Gesler is dispatched by the maddened Finns. Another takes his place, and in so many words soothes down ruffled feelings thus: "If your behaviour is in accordance with my views of what Finnish behaviour ought to be, you will rest. in peace; if not, you will discover that I have a hard fist!"
It seems that the Czar is as variable as a weathercock, holding momentarily the opinions of the last Minister with whom he has conferred. Yet be is an autocrat, and might do much, Apparently he does not recognise to the full the danger he is in, It is not Russia that is likely to come to harm. There may be terrible scenes before a new heaven and a new earth shall have made a new Russia, and the present governing class should awake to that fact, but for Russia herself the way to a noble future probably lies through the gates of revolution.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.