THE SLAVS.
IN an interesting inset to Stieler's Atlas a sketch is given of the distribution of official languages through- out the world. The most pervasive of all the official languages is English, which appears over a considerable portion of every continent and monopolises one. But next to English, the languages which cover the most territory are the Slav, and in one respect their range is still more remarkable, as they are entirely continuous. The Slav languages—Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, Servian, Croatian, Polish, and so on, all closely connected with one another— are actually spoken over the northern half of Asia and in half Europe. Perhaps the most graphic way of stating this fact is to say that a man thoroughly conversant with one of the Slav languages, and with none other, could snake himself understood in travelling from the east coast of the Adriatic across Europe and across Asia to the Behring Sea. Another remarkable fact about the Slays is the vigour of their expansion during the last hundred years. During the early part of the nineteenth century educated Russians, following the example and precepts of Peter the Great, and to some-extent of Catherine II., seemed almost ashamed of their nationality and their language; the great poet Pushkin, for example, affected to say that "the language of Europe" was more familiar to him than his mother-tongue. Again, in Bohemia during the early years of the century the Czech language was almost extinct, so that, with a pardonable exaggeration, the Bohemian patriot Palacky, speaking to two of his friends, said that if the ceiling of the room in which they were should fall upon them and crush them, the Czech race would have ceased living. Even fifty years ago Bulgars and Serviaus were hardly known except to historical students, while the language and national traditions of the Poles were repressed with almost equal severity by Russians, Prussians, and Austrians. To-day all this is changed. The Russians, after being ruled on German methods, and also largely by Germans, for more than a century, seem finally to have advanced to a truly national development. From the middle of the last century the tenets of the Pau-Slavists have entirely modified the outlook of the Russian people, who, instead of being ashamed of their barbarism, have come to look on the Slav races as the people of the future. This process was largely aided by the policy of Alexander II., the Czar Liberator, little as he himself sympathised with the Pan- Slavist agitators. His emancipation of the serfs, and still more his campaign to liberate the Bulgars, Servians, and Montenegrins from Turkish tyranny, gave Russia and all the other Slav races a new conception of their might and their destiny. This process was continued by Alexander III., who more than any previous Czar since Peter the Great was in sympathy with the real nature and spirit of his people. This expansion of Russian national self-consciousness has been accompanied by similar movements in the other Slav races. The new strength of Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro, as we have aeen, was largely due to Russia ; but the Poles also, hitherto oppressed by other Slays as well as by Germans, have not only shown that their proud national spirit is not extinct, but have developed unexpected qualities of tenacity and political foresight, and, indeed, in a large province of the Austro-Hungariau Monarchy have attained the position of a ruling class. Perhaps, however, Bohemia shows the most wonderful example of Slav revival. This country, which seemed to have had all national spirit crushed out of it by German invaders since the Thirty Years' War, has entirely recovered its racial individuality. In Prague itself, the capital, German, if understood, is spoken almost with bated breath, so strong is the feeling against it; and the Emperor has actually acknowledged the Bohemian nation's claims to separate treatment, though he has never actually been crowned as King of Bohemia in Prague, as the Bohemians think would be the logical result of this admission.
The causes of this Slav revival, one of the most far- reaching, if hitherto neglected, developments in European history, are twofold. One is the awakening of national feeling in Russia, that mysterious "cloud of power in the North," as Chatham called it, with the life which this awakening brought for the Balkan Slav races ; the other is the institution of the German Empire, with the conse- quent gravitation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's interests from Germany to all the scattered races in its ewn orbit. The casual observer, influenced no doubt by the history of former centuries, still thinks of Francis Joseph's Empire as primarily German, and secondly Hungarian, with an admixture of other races which hardly count numerically or politically. But, as a matter of fact, of all the races in the Monarchy the Slays are the most numerous. In Austria proper, out of over twenty- six million inhabitants there are only nine million Germans and about a million Italians and Wallachians, while the remaining sixteen millions are Slays. Even in Hungary, in a population of over nineteen millions, the Slays account for over five millions, and the Hungarians do not form half the population. In the whole of ;the Monarchy the Germans are only reckoned at eleven millions and the Hungarians at eight and three-quarters. In view of these figures, it is at first sight a subject for wonder that the Slays have not more influence in the realm than they at present have. One reason for this is that they are still by no means a coherent body. In Galicia, for example, there are two Slav races, the Poles and the Rutheues ; and of these, the Poles, being the masters, have driven the Ruthenes into opposition to them. The Serbs of the Monarchy and the Croats, closely allied as they are in blood, are separated by their religions, the former belonging to the Orthodox Church, while the Croats are Roman Catholics. In fact, the Bohemians, the Poles, and the Croats, now almost dominant races in their own parts of the Empire, find sometimes as much cause for difference with some of the other Slav races as with the Germans and Hungarians.
There are, however, indications that the Slays in the Monarchy are inclined to make common cause with one another, and with the other Slays throughout the world, and to aim at a new solidarity of interests. A remarkable Conference of Slays has recently taken place in St. Peters- burg, which seems to point to a new form of union. During the Russo-Turkish War, and for some time after- wards, Pan-Slavism implied nothing more than the hegemony of Russia over all the Slav races. Russia by her sacrifices no doubt had great claims to the position, but lost them largely by her impolitic treatment of Bulgaria, and also by her severity to her own Poles. Now, to judge from the utterances of Dr. Kramarzh, the distinguished Czech leader, who has been attending the St. Petersburg Conference, there is no inclination even in Russia, still less among the other Slays, to identify Pan- Slavism with a militant support of Russia's expansion ; rather it is an impulse among the various Slav nationalities to modify their own differences, and work in common for the spread of the Slav spirit in European politics. This spirit is difficult to define otherwise than by a negative, that it is the very opposite of the rigid uniformity of the Prussian spirit. The Slays believe, as they have good reason to from the examples of the development of Bulgaria, the obstinate valour of the Russian troops in their ill-matched contest with Japan, and the states. manlike characteristics shown by the Poles in East Prussia, to take only a few recent instances, that their race has elements of strength and permanence which only require unity and co-operation to consolidate. They also believe that by such men as Glinka, Chopin, Tschaikovsky, Tourguenieff, Tolstoi, and many like them, they have already proved that the Slav spirit means a new message to the world different from what can be delivered by any other race. We in England have recently taken great interest in the gradual development of popular institu- tions in Russia. There is no doubt that this sympathy is much appreciated by the Russian people, who welcome our friendship, and do not share the fear expressed by some of our Labour Members that it implies a support of Russian absolutism. Quite as important for us politically is the gradual expansion of Slav influence in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Its effect will undoubtedly be to turn the eyes of Viennese statesmen from their accustomed outlook on Berlin, and focus their attention far more on the real mission of the Monarchy, which is not to be a German Power, but a Confederation of States united ty the common interest of protecting themselves against neighbours who could easily absorb any one of them separately, and thereby giving the fullest development to their Slav, South German, and Hungarian individualities. This is the policy which appeals chiefly to the Slays of the Empire, and one to which even the Germans in the Empire feel that the Slays are specially qualified to contribute. The friendly meeting' with other Slays in St. Petersburg has strengthened their hands in the pursuit of this policy, the possibilities of which should by no means be lost sight of by students of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.
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