28th December.
Tue demonstrations that have taken place of late in Russia, the resolutions passed by the Zemstvo and the Moscow Town Council, and the general desire for reform shown by the educated classes, who, as we said yesterday morning, have been "struggling for the political freedom that every other civilised nation, in-according, i ave' not left dhe Czar cluding Japan, enjoys, and prospers marvel The appointment of the reform leader, Prince Sviatopol Mirski, to succeed the reactionary Mr. Plehve as Minister of the Interior, was a welcome sign; and now, as will be seen in the lon Reuter's telegram that we pubbs! this morning, the Czar has become a reform leader himself. He will have no change in the form of government in Russia, but he urges serious and most salutary changes in the administration, all in the direction of greater political freedom, including one of the most valuable provisions of all, the revision of the Press Laws. These reforms are not yet decreed; they are only proposals whose possibility and the means of carrying them out the Czar's Ministers are to consider and report on. The reactionaries and the bureaucracy may be trusted to oppor them tooth and nail, and it would not be surprising if we were to hear of police-fomented outrages committed to frighten the Czar and turn him from his purpose of the moment; but at any rate the movement, which must succeed in the end, has received a great impulse from this decree, and the fact that the Czar has thought it wise to declare himself convinced that the time has arrived for essential innovations in Russian legislation will be jo weleomgd by every true
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.