NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Russian Government seems for the moment delirious with fear. The Generals by whom the civil authorities have been superseded have placed the great cities in a state of siege, and whole populations are, as it were, imprisoned. In St. Petersburg, the absurd order directing that a porter should be posted at every house-door, has been followed by another for- bidding internal movement without permits, and another directing all citizens to be at home by nine o'clock. The city wears the aspect of a brick camp which expects attack, the streets occupied by the porter-sentries, the inhabitants shrink- ing into their houses, the soldiers under arms and ready for immediate action. The Revolutionary Committee, it is stated by German witnesses, still issues its placards, still passes sentences of death, the Chief of Police, General Drenteln, having only escaped through his own decision in seizing a visitor at a lev4e dressed in a colonel's uniform, and is keeping up excitement by circulating imaginary plans of insurrection. One of these plans, seized upon a peasant, produced such an alarm that the Grand Duke Nicholas hurried with a whole division to defend the Winter Palace and the principal public offices, in full expectation of an immediate attack. It is said, probably falsely, that explosive materials have been found in the streets ; and probably with truth, that on one evening placards were posted up on the theatre, in the very face of the police posted to pull them down. The terror is universal, and the arrests, always futile, are counted by hundreds at a time, the Government apparently having decided to deport all the suspected into Asia.
