In the midst of this infernal carmagnole, which it would
take a new Carlyle to describe, and which is entirely without pre- cedent in Europe, it does • not appear that the Government advances a step. Its agents do not even pretend that they have caught any of the chiefs of the Revolutionary movement. On the contrary, their fright appears to be based on their defeat. Extravagant precautions are taken to defend the Emperor, who not only travels in an iron-lined carriage, as Louis Philippe used to do, and clears all railway stations as rigorously as our own Queen does, but has 'decreed a state of siege over the whole of the Crimea during his residence in Livadia. The Government is even discussing a proposal for an international extradition of would-be regicides, and is employing pressure in several countries, notably Switzerland, to procure the seizure of Russian presses. The officials, in fact, are in a wild panic, and if certain stories of extensive arrests among the officers of the Guards are true, are displaying distrust in the most imprudent way. It is pos- sible, of course, that they are merely carried away like English- men under conviction of a Popish Plot, or French Terrorists in full expectation of a counter-revolution, but it is difficult to resist the impression that the Revolutionists see a chance in the Terror itself, and aided by their members in high office are stimulating the panic, in the hope that it will end in insurrection. Of the latter, however, there is as yet no sign.
