NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THERE is something which strikes the imagination strongly in the arrest, effected in Paris on Thursday, of the Russian anarchists. Far in the North-East, secluded in a fortified palace and ringed in with soldiers, sits the Sovereign of a hundred millions of people, whose will makes the Balkans uneasy, alarms Austria, disturbs Germany, and keeps all Europe expecting the outbreak of a great war. At the same time, in the slums of Paris, fifteen men and women, born that Sovereign's subjects, are manufacturing with all the skill of experienced chemists, bombs with which to take his life, bombs which can be carried in the pocket, yet which,
• when they explode, shatter trees. For aught the great monarch knows, other Russians in other capitals are manufacturing more bombs; while in his own dominions his enemies are so active, that if he strolled on foot through his capital he would hardly return alive. It is a strange situation, and one which can hardly make a Prince love his fellow-creatures, or think that it consists with his honour to surrender his absolute power. The Nihilists accomplish nothing by their system of terrorism, not even the killing of their victim, who survives wrecked trains, explosive bombs, and assassins armed with revolvers, as if he bore a charmed life. The Czar may live on for half-a-century yet, growing every day more bitter against the " Liberalism " which begins its war on oppression by a campaign forbidden by the universal conscience.
