25th August.
Wirx Cabinet-making all democratic Governments are more or less familiar, Parliamentary and administrative crises re common enough to call for little comment, put it is otherwise with the building of.a new Constitution. This is not a matter of everyday occurrence. Only one nation in Europe has had much experience in the. process, and that is Russia's ally and friend, France, In that happy land, there is probably no' Professor of History worth his salt who, between Monday morning and Saturday night, could not turn out a brand-new constitution fit for his own.country or any other, and far. more logically perfect than the clumsy old contrivance, half-patchwork, half-precedent, of which we British are rather given to be proud, but of which no one of us could give, offhand, any really connected ac-
In his new difficulty, therefore, it is quite possible that the Czar will '0 for aid to France. He could not better.. There are good points in the. British Constitution, which indeed may, to a certain extent, claim all. others as its offspring, and there are excellencies in that of the United States of America, not the smallest of which may be found in the dozen amendments to it.which have been found' desirable since the original constitution was drawn up. But for theoretical and logical perfection some of the. products of -French brains surpass all "others. "Unfortunately, however, perfect as they were, some of these master "pieces in practice were found. wanting, As Carlyle says, they wouldn't match. Now of all things it, is: necessary thet. a Constitution should be workable, that it should march, and the reason why we suppose that the Czar at this jaooture will, if an effective constitution be really intended, seek advice. from France is be-"cause. front bitter experience the French have learnt what is likely. to march and what is not. No teaching is 0 forcible as that of failure. His Bourbonic Majesty.of. 1789 accepted a Constitution te the sound of calvees "of cannon.. Bygones. were to be bygones. A new era begun.
"Grande Acceptation Constitution Monarchique echoed and re-echoed from street to street in excited Paris. Men vied with each other in the strength of their huzzas as, with a sickly smile, the Bourbon King rode by. They were less thoughtful than the Russians. The millennium had begun., The new' Constitution "had inaugurated it. The new Constitution, synonym of peace, plenty, and progress. How few thought that a path 80 carefully laid down should be the road to ruin, the direct way to the Reign of Terror. Absit omen.
A Frenchman having at_his finger ends all the causes contribution to that great event should better than anybody else be able to foresee the robable course of things in Russia, where, notwithstanding the immense differences between. the two cases, the position of affairs is comparable with that in France two centuries ago. In both the supreme power might be called autocratic.. In both there is to be considered a large number of noble families living tactically upon the State, and in th we have a vast body of ignorant peasants for some time writhing'under the oppression of their self-appointed " betters." The French Constitution was a failure because all three of these bodies were more or less its enemies. The King had no intention of observing more of its help: the nobles were quite deter-revisions than he could possibly
mined that their hereditary privileges were to be defended to the last gasp: and the people soon discovered that though some. hypocritical notice was being taken of their rights, the powers then existing had entirely forgotten that in. addition to right the people had might. The 14th of July was the beginning of their' exercise. of it. The success'of the present Russian experiment will probably be proportioned to the extent to which the Czar and his nobles have learnt the lesson of the-French Revolution.
"Flay it down as.an'- undeniable position," said a well-known statesman of the past, in a memorandum to the then Emperor of Austria, " that government in order to be strong needs more-than good laws, Besides sound principles, its mode -of action must be in harmony with its- position." Herbert Spencer in his essay on Political Institutions lays down the rule that we must not let our dislike to Governments of a certain kind blind us to their fitness for their environment. We must, he says, keep before us the truth that in human actions the absolutely bad may be the relatively good, and the absolutely good the relatively bad.
This is but another way of putting the homely saying that what is one man's meat is another man's 1 olson, We must, therefore, not be too prone to cry out if the new Russian Con: stitution is not so perfectly democratic as that of the United States or England. Circumstances differ, and that Government will best be suited to the genius of a people which best studies their condition, their capacity for progress, and their desires. It is much more likely that the Russian experiment will follow very" conservative lines than that ib will launch out into: wild-cat schemes more allied to socialism than to monarchy. We have as yeh but scanty knowledge of its proposals, and such as we do know depend entirely upon the spirit in which they are ied out for their success, Broadly speaking, the new Constitution will divide Russia into two classes, those who favour succession to power, however high or -howover low, by inheritance—the autocratic and bureaucratic side,—and those who desire Bower to depend upon fitness the democratic s: de, Hitherto the latter has found no voice. whatever, In a Parliament, however restricted, the people will be able. to make their voice heard. That should, in time, suffice, for political freedom is apt, to imitate the camel which putting its nose into the tent for warmth finally pushed its way in completely, ousting the owner. vigour of an individual depend "upon" the quantity and quality of the blood. When the tissues have boon at work, there are thrown into the blood waste products, and if these be inated but (through any cause) dé- ined in the blodd, they influence nutrit on the fa notion and finally produce organic disoaso."—*The Humanitarian." In cases of Scrofula,' Scurvy, Eczema, Bad Legs, Skin and blood Diseases. Pimples, and Sores of all kinds, the effects of Clarke's Blood Mixture are marvellous, Thousands of wonderful cures have been effected by it. Clarke's Blood Mixture is sold everywhere at 2s. 9d. per bottle, Beware of worthless imitations and sub-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.