NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE sporadic disorders in Russia are taking a form which mayprove exceedinglyserious. The Reforming Committees have obviously gained the support of the railway employes, and on Tuesday and Wednesday the railway system through- out Russia was brought to a standstill, which the strikers say shall not end until their demands are granted. Those demands, to put them briefly, are a great reduction of hours for all men on the railways, and such a suffrage for the elections to the coming Duma as shall enable all workmen, and probably all peasants, to vote directly for the candidates. The strike has already cut off the great cities, including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Kharkoff, and Odessa, from the country round them ; has prevented the movement of their supplies of food; has arrested the transmission of corre- spondence, and the despatch of soldiers ; and, but that the telegraph stations are garrisoned, would have isolated them altogether from the world. Prince Khilkoff, Minister of Communications, and a man of remarkable energy, having to make a report to the Emperor, was compelled to drive the engine himself, and the Ministers ordered to hold a Council had to reach it by water. At every great station multitudes of passengers are unable to reach either their destinations or their homes, and are fed by the station managers. The very life of Russia is, as it were, arrested, and, as there is little rioting, it is hopeless to restore the circulation by military force.
