NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MHE Government took a wise, a courageous, and a straight-
forward course on Thursday afternoon when the question of the King's visit to Russia was raised in the Commons by the Labour Party. The truth is that those who opposed the visit in the alleged interests of Liberal principles and Liberal institutions bad no case whatever. For ourselves, we may say that we yield to none in our desire that •Russia shall be endowed with a free Constitution, and her people fully emancipated from the tyranny which the bureaucracy exercises over them- in the Czar's name ; and if we thought that stopping the visit of the King would free the Russian people, we should, as friends of Russia, do all in our power to oppose that visit. It is, however, patent to any one whose senses are not clouded by the claptrap and rhetorical fantasies with which the Socialists, the Labour Party, and the extreme Radicals are wont to bemuse their minds in matters of foreign affairs, that the meeting at Reval must help, not injure, the cause of liberty in Russia. Those Russians who sincerely oppose reform because they think that it will mean the destruction of the Monarchy and religion and the overthrow of all the national institutions are a powerful and numerous body. But such men cannot but be reassured at the sight of our King, who is a standing proof to the world that the utmost democratic freedom may be secured without the abolition of the kingship or the ruin of time-honoured institutions. A practical political reformer in Russia, if he were wise, would like to exhibit the British King in every province in the Empire in order to convert the Conservatives to his views. That this is the opinion of the wiser minds amongst the Russian Liberals is shown by the comments of the Russian Press, and by the remarks which Mr. Bernard Pares makes in a striking and important letter which we publish in another column. Mr. Pares, as we note there, is thoroughly well informed on the matters, of which be writes, and is in close touch with the leaders of Liberal opinion in Russia.
