The report that a secret Provisional Government has been established
sounds a little absurd ; but the first action attributed to it is very clever. According to the state- ment which appeared textually in the Daily Telegraph, this Committee pledges itself to pay all interest on National Debts contracted before Sunday, the 22nd inst., when the Czar declared war on his people, but to repudiate utterly any debts con- tracted after that date without Parliamentary sanction. The effect of this, if it alarmed financiers or the investing public abroad, would be to make peace imperative, and very soon to compel the calling of a Parliament with control of taxation. We only notice it, however, as a sign of the times in Russia, as we can see no proof that any Provisional Government exists, or that there is any real connection between the persons who drew up that statement and any effective forces in Russia. No revolution can be made there by the intelligent alone.
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