The Bereg, the new official journal in St. Petersburg, states
that of all "propagandists" of Nihilism discovered between 1873
-and 1878—that is, before the assassinations began-80 per cent. were the sons of nobles, merchants, officers, and respectable citizens, and only 20 per cent. workmen and smugglers. Of the educated 80 per cent., one-third were from the higher schools, and more than half of them, again, students of science. Of the females discovered, 39 per cent. were from gymnasiums, 25 per cent. from the midwifery classes, and 17 per cent. from the medical classes. Nihilism, in fact, is a revolt among the educated, and the Bereg draws the deduction that the education is bad. It recommends more toleration for Dissenters and Jews, and says that persecuted sects are always ready to furnish revolutionists, a truth it might extend to the religious position of Catholics in Poland. It hints that laws will shortly be passed admitting Dissenters to all the rights of Russian subjects. If the Government had the nerve to extend the same system to the Jews, it would find that half the bitterness against it in the European Press -would disappear. It should, however, accompany the decree by another,—that all Jews, in their own interest, should adopt the European costume. Their separateness in dress, both in Russia and Roumania, constantly marks out the Jews for mob suspicion.
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