TOPICS OF THE. DAY.
THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA: THE recent news from Russia creates a feeling almost of hopelessness. Neither side is winning, and. both sides are either threatening or carrying out policies which directly. tend to social anarchy. The reformers are repeating their threats that interference with the Duma will be followed by an insurrection of the peasantry . directed against the landlords, and have so far terrified the Government that a decision which had been taken to prorogue the Puma has been again 'abandoned 'or delayed. It has in fact, been considered wiser to continue despising and thwarting the representative body than to coerce it into silence by any sensational blow. On the other hand, no concession whatever is made to the reformers. Arrests of their supporters are multiplied, until in the great centres the 'prisons will no longer contain the numbers sentenced to detention. Threats of military interference with all " demonstrations" are issued by the Governors- General, and we sadly fear that it has been decided to utilise the popular hatred of the Jews in order to strike terror into all opponents of the e.i.isting system. The official plan, it would seem, is to warn the lowest class that a " pogrom " or massacre is intended, and then to send an agent of the police to throw a bomb into some religious procession. This acts as a signal, the dregs of the population rise, and for a day or two the unhappy Jews are given up to massacre and plunder. The lower Russians of the cities regard the Jews as the citizens of Paris in August, 1572, regarded the Huguenots,— namely, as detestable infidels who are also potential rebels: A belief that the Jews are behind every popular commotion has been carefully diffused among the people, and is, of course, strongly confirmed by the orders issued to the police and the soldiers that during a "pogrom " neither shall attack the rioters. Why,- it is asked, should Christians be killed in order that 'Jew's may be safe ? Indeed, when, as at Bialystok, the victims, driven to despair, attempt to defend themselves, the soldiery attack them with the bayonet and fire upon their houses. The -rioters are practically paid men, for the Jews most imprudently keep their valuables under their own eyes, and the loot is publicly sold in the bazaars. The total result, as we saw at Kishineff, and now see at Bialystok, is that whenever the Chief of Police will lend himself to the plot, a St. Bartholomew is always possible, and is never punished by the authorities, who say that they cannot execute rioters whose motives are indignation on behalf of the Czar, and devotion to the Orthodox Church. The Deputies in the Duma do their best by speeches and deputations to the desolated or threatened' cities to defend the Jews, who, as they well know, look to them for protec- tion. But withotit help from either the Executive or the soldiery they are utterly powerless, and there is grave reason to fear that the entire Jewish race in Russia- rriore than 'five millions in number—may be exposed to wholesale murder and outrage, or else be expelled. The latter would probably be the course adopted, as it was in Spain, but that there is no Morocco to which the Jews can be conveyed. Neither Germany nor Austria will receive the unhappy race, the majority Of whom have neither the money, nor probably the knowledge, to convey themselves to the coast, whence possibly they could reach England, France, or America. Such seems, of course, wake a fury in the revolutionaries, vAlether Jewish or Christian, and from every part of Russia we hear stories of the assassination of leading police officers, or of other officials accused of exceptional cruelty. Anarchy, in fact, . prevails throughout Russia, except in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where as yet it is superseded by plans for vast strikes, which if carried out will reduce those capitals to the position of besieged cities.
As --yet, as we have said, there is no symptom upon which we can base a reasonable hope of ultimate pacifica- tion. The Duma, though self-controlled, and according to the best accounts not indisposed, if a new Ministry is appointed from its own ranks, to a compromise which would at all events save the dynasty, is whilst the Govern- -.tient remains in the hands of the reactionaries entirely powerless, even though apparently unanimous. On the other hand, the Government learns no wisdom. , The reactionaries who advise and control it are morbidly afraid of an Agrarian Law, which will at least reduce their incomes and impair their prestige, and seem, as we judge from many hints that are allowed to reach Berlin and Vienna, to have resolved to await a general rising, in the foolish faith that if it occurs they can lose no more than is now demanded. Their immediate plan, so far as it can be discerned by outsiders, is to suspend the autocracy, probably by declaring the Czar too ill to exercise his functions, to appoint a military dictator, and to deal with the revolutionaries as if they were invaders. If the troops adhere to them, this plan may momentarily succeed. The revolutionaries are not armed, and the modern organisa- tion of a military State renders the conscript Army practically irresistible. The journalists in Western Europe say this is not the case, because the necessary pecuniary means cannot be collected. BankrUptcy, they believe, is at hand. The financiers of Europe, they argue, will not grant another loan until Order has been completely re- established. That statement, however, is only partially true. The Treasury still retains the disposal of vast masses of most attractive property, many railways, enormous forests, the gold mines of the Ural, mines of other metals, and deposits of mineral oil scattered over many districts of Russia. Nor do we believe that in the worst emergency the wealthy Church of the Empire could or would refuse a demand for a loan. All, therefore, depends upon the troops, and the action of the troops remains as doubtful as it has always hitherto been. It is possible—or even, according to recent despatches, certain—. that in many regiments, especially of infantry, the soldiers will refuse to fire upon the unarmed people ; but that decision certainly does not cover the whole Army, the number of the Cossacks is very great, and soldiers dislike firing upon comrades in arms. It is quite possible, therefore, that the existing state of things, shocking as it may be considered in the West, may continue for months to come, until the peasantry, losing all hope alike in the Puma and in the Government, seize the land without the compensation which in the shape of quit-rent could now be easily arranged. It is when the peasantry rise that the loyalty of the soldiers, who are to the extent of ninety per cont. themselves peasants, will be brought to its supreme test.
We have ourselves but little doubt of the ultimate outcome of the existing anarchy. The revolution will win; but there is a new danger approaching. Up to the present moment, though the powers of the dynasty have been threatened, the dynasty itself has retained so much of the loyalty of the masses that it might easily have effected a compromise which would leave it its grand position, its enormous wealth, and, possibly, should it throw up a strong man, or be wise enough to choose a capable Vizier, would preserve much of its predominance in the adminis- tration, as the Hohenzollern dynasty has done. We cannot but fear that there is now danger lest, like the Stuarts and the Bourbons, the Romanoffs should be required to sacrifice all. They have lost much of their prestige already. The people begin to suspect them of incurable hostility to their great demand, the possession of the cul- tivable land; and once convinced of that, they may either rank themselves behind some Pretender, or in utter despair of Royalty set up a Republic. Most observers in the West regard this latter solution as impossible, and we do not ourselves, we confess, believe that Russia is ready for any . . expenment of the kind. But we must not forget that many Russians are of a different opinion. The unity of Russia, which so impresses mankind, is far from perfect, and a federal Constitution may, if all other plans fail, prove intelligible to the people, who have not, we are told, entirely forgotten that the autocracy was built up by the gradual conquest of many comparatively small princi- palities. It is quite useless to discuss projects of that kind, now entertained only by the wildest of revolutionaries; but Russia, it is plain, suffers grievously, and a hundred millions of people who suffer, when once in movement, are apt to march towards ends they do not foresee and have not seriously intended. Wise counsels may yet save all that is at stake—and within that " all," let it not be forgotten, is the safety of European international polity—but the worst symptom is the entire absence of clear intelligence at the centre. It may be doubted whether even now Nicholas IL clearly understands the condition of his vast dominions. He cannot know it of himself as a superior being might, and who of the group around him has the imagination to discern, and the disinterestedness to tell him, the whole truth ? People in Denmark may ; but among those immediately around him outsiders can discern no one with either the wisdom or the probity to play Necker's part.
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