23 JANUARY 1892, Page 3

A correspondent of the Standard, writing from St. Peters- burg,

declares that in one particular district, Cheiabinak, the people, especially the women and children, are dying of hunger, the unburied bodies of men and cattle being seen in every direction. One of his correspondents affirms that in one village hardly anybody had eaten for three days ; while in another, all the inhabitants had together partaken of the last sacraments of the Church, preparatory to dying quietly of hunger. No one would have invented that story, which is, more- over, exactly characteristic of the Russian peasants and their resignation, which may be called either beautiful or feeble, to the apparent will of Providence. The English disposition to resist anybody's will if it keeps them hungry, is more useful ; but there is power in the Russian disposition too. You do not easily get the better of the man who faces death in serene calm. The famine is evidently growing sharper, as it must do for three months at least, and we shall have frightful narratives of the desolation which has fallen on whole districts. The Jewish view of the matter is wrong, for it ascribes vindic- tiveness on their behalf to the Almighty; but one can hardly wonder at their belief that the famine is a chastisement on Russia for their persecution.