THE NIHILIST PROCLAMATION.
THE Proclamation of the Russian Revolutionary Committee, of which the Daily News published a copy on Thursday, does not suggest that the political capacity of the Nihilist leaders is at all equal to the administrative capacity which they show in the organisation of their horrible plots, and in the marvellous diffusion of their revolutionary appeals. The secrecy
and skill with which they carried out the elaborate engineering work of the mining of the railway before the recent attempt, and the wonderful resource displayed in the distribution of their political invectives against the Emperor, under the very eyes of the police, of the capital, prove that the Nihilist Committee contains very capable men, in the smaller sense of the word "capable." That is, it contains men capable of conceiving a very audacious design, of providing against all the manifold difficulties which its execution involves of ensuring the fidelity and secrecy of numerous allies, and of finally executing it without flinching, though not with- out mistake. It appears certain that a double mistake was made on the recent occasion,—one of them probably inevitable, as the order of the Czar'3 train and the baggage train was changed some time after the start from Odessa,—but one cer- tainly avoidable with sufficient care. It seems that both the trains travelled by the line of rails which was not undermined, though the usual cburse would have been to travel by that which was. The result was that, though the explosion did great damage to the train, it did not kill a single person in it, as the mine exploded was not beneath, but only near it. Of course, this fact ought to have been as easily visible to the conspirators as the approach of the train itself. And had they had sufficient presence of mind, they would have stopped the whole attempt, as one certain to put the authorities on their guard, and unlikely wholly to succeed. This, however, was the only administrative mistake made ; and a decision formed in an instant by violent and reck- less men is hardly likely to be a prudent one. In their revolu- tionary proclamation, however, announcing and glorying in their attempt, they show how completely men of great but narrow Capacity for special designs may fail in the larger capacity requisite for true political designs. The Nihilist proclamation is at once violent and weak. It does not look facts in the face, and it does not even exhibit that solemnity of purpose and manner by which alone conspirators, who are confessedly using the instruments of terror which they call upon their oppres- sors to abandon, might hope to attenuate the popular feeling of the moral inconsistency of their conduct. They revile the Em- peror for the whole of his official life, declaring that even the emancipation of the serfs was a mere sham which ended With the words in which it was nominally accorded. They proceed with a general burst of vague declamation :—" The present reign has supported by every means all those who rob and oppress the people, and at the same time systematically exterminated all who are honest and devoted to the nation. There is not one village that has not supplied martyrs who have been deported to Siberia, for supporting communal interests and for protesting against the Administration, From among the intelligent classes tens of thousands drag in an interminable string to Siberia, to the mines, exclusively for having served the cause of the people in the spirit of liberty, and in order to attain a higher level of civil development. This ruinous process of extermination of every independent element is at last simplified. Alexander II. is the usurper of the nation's right, the main pillar of reaction, the chief author of the judi- cial assassinations. Fourteen executions weigh on his con- science. Hundreds of sufferers cry for vengeance. He deserves to die for all the blood he has spilt, for all the suffering he has inflicted, He deserves to die, but it is not alone with him that we have to do. Our object is the national welfare." They then explain what they are aiming at :—" Our task is to emancipate the people, and make them masters of their fate. If Alexander II. would recognise what a dreadful calamity he is inflicting on Ressia, how unjust and criminal the oppression he creates, and, renouncing his authority, would transfer such to an Assembly, freely elected by universal suffrage, and pro- vided with instructions by its electors, then only would we leave Alexander II. in peace, and forgive him all his offences." And if Alexander will not grant this free Parliament, elected by universal suffrage, then the "implacable struggle" is to go on—as long, of course, as "a drop of blood" remains in their veins.
Nothing could show less political sagacity than this pro- posal. The chances are that if an Assembly "elected by universal suffrage" was convened in Russia, the result would show itself by hundreds of thousands of "the intelligent classes," instead of tens of thousands, "dragging in an inter- minable string to Siberia, to the mines." So far as we can make out the situation in Russia, the misery of the peasantry is not the source of the revolutionary feeling, but rather the impotence of intelligence,—that impotence being most painfully felt in the utter incapacity of the educated to move the peasantry. That Nihilism is strong in the great cities is obvious. That it is weak in the villages is also obvious. And universal suffrage in Russia, if once appealed to, would, whatever else its effect, assuredly side with the peasantry against intelligence. Of course, to give enormous power to almost bottomless ignorance is very dangerous, and one could never foresee all the consequences. But so far as one can foresee, the Czar's party, in such an Assembly as the Nihilists here propose, would probably be much larger than any other party. It would be the party of the priests and the party of the communes, no less than the party of the throne. And it might well result in the annihilation of the Nihilists by a fierce and brutal popular persecution. Indeed, we strongly suspect that the despair and unrest of educated Russia are in no slight degree due to the emancipation of the serfs without any corresponding development of the liberty and political life of the middle-class. It is the stirring of the life below which has rendered the hopelessness of the life above so intolerable. That the Revolutionists are not fully aware of this, and talk, as such men always talk, as if they were fighting for the people,—who would be the first to disown them,—is very true. But universal suffrage, if it produced anything but anarchy, would certainly produce results even more intolerable to the Nihilists than the present re'ginte. What they need is more outlet for their own energies, and a better understanding with the peasantry beneath them. A really educated clergy would do much. An attempt to bring the communes into political co-operation with the middle-class, by the help, say, of provincial assemblies of representatives and notables, would do much also. But the leap into universal suffrage would be a leap in the dark with a vengeance ; and would prove, we suspect, such a leap into annihilation as even Nihilists would. fail to appreciate.
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