The Russian Government has published a most extraordinary account of
the plot which culminated in the attempt to assassinate the Emperor Alexander. This plot—allowing for the exag- geration of the official style—was a Socialist one, and had for its objects the extirpation of the nobility, the redistribution of land to be held in common, the extinction of religion, the annihilation of the idea of property. The first step to be taken was the murder of the Czar, and the conspirators included in their ranks many Poles, a great number of Russian students, and, we imagine, many peasants. All this is very dreamy, but if we remember right, Ithese were, and are, the plans of the Roskolnik sect, and it must
be remembered that Russia is Asiatic, and Asiatic secret societies have almost always been " nihilists," i. e., have declared morals, property, authority, and sobligatioes dill al$se mere ideas. The secret theory of the Igboias, 1be great Aliessultnan wet whose tenets were recentlylprosseclin Qaurt tin Bombay, went quire eager as that.
Previous page
