24 DECEMBER 1887, Page 2

The contest between the small educated class in Russia and

the Czar's Government appears to grow more acute. Within the month," disturbances " have broken out in five Universities, including those of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and they have all been "closed," the lecturers being suspended. The ring- leader in two cases has been sentenced to three years' service in a penal regiment. Students cannot shake the throne of the Czars, but they can and do recruit the Nihilist ranks, and these move- ments mark the extent of the obscure unrest pervading Russian society. If we knew the number of officers convicted or sus- pected of disaffection, we should know one reason why many Russian statesmen think a great war expedient.