THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1653, 7 June 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1879.

The accounts that hare reached us by the last mail of the state of affairs in Russia are something appalling to contemplate. The whole nation is practically in a state of seige. One will have to go far back into the history of modern Europe to discovor a parallel. Even during the worst days "of the Reign of Terror" the body of the Parisians kept on in tho even tenor of their way; the tumbrils with tho condemned passed up certain streets to the place of execution, those morbidly disposed individuals that followed them, did so, but life to the remainder of the citizens went on much as usual. Domiciliary visits for the purpose of seizing suspected persons were not nearly so frequent as is generally supposed, and the most competent historians have asserted that tho Commons had not at all a bad time of it in those days. Robespierre would relentlessly hunt down an opposing politician ; any one connected with the old nobility was in a precarious position, but the body of the nation was safe, and there never lay in the prisons of Paris a tithe of the number that now rot in the prisons of St. Petorsburgh, Moscow, Kieff, and other large Russian towns. Ono never heard of people not being allowed to go into the streets after nine o'clock without a permit, or of their being obliged to put out all lights at a certain hour. " Tho Reign of Terror "in Russia at the presont moment is of far more severe a nature than that which gave an evil immortality of fame to Robespierre, Honriot, St. Just, and the rest of that gang. Even the individual acts of atrocity which sullied the old French Revolution seemed likely to find their parallels in the acts of Russian officials. The massacres of September and Carrier's Noyades at Nantes were very terrible, but the slaughter by the military of the prisoners who attempted to escape out of Kieff: prison does not come far behind in grim brutality, and, at all events, Danton had the grace not to rejoice over the massacres, and Carrier's atrocities wero not approved of by the powers in Paris, whereas the director and officials of Kieff prison were not only much amused at their own barbarity, but wore decorated and rewarded by the central Government. And all this is the final outcome of the great constitutional reforms which the Czar prided himself on having introduced since his accession io the throne. Terrified by the glimpses he has caught of the dreadful depths of proletarianism, and thoroughly apprehensive of assassination, the Emperor has deprived his subjects of oven the semblance of constitutional liberty, and has restored that pure unmitigated military despotism which is only too familiar to students of the reign of the Czar Nicholas. Tho Czar, at all events, will net commit tho fault that lost Louis XVI. nis lift nd throne. He is not afraid of shedding the blood of his subjects, but he has determined to keep the upper hand, by all means, whether justifiable or unjustifiable.

In point of fact centuries of oppression are now bearing their fruit in Russia, as they did in France in the days of our great grandfathers. When a downtrodden people begins to feol its way to the light, the upheaval is always more or less terrible, and none the less so when the movement is guided by much of the intellect of the country, as the present agitation evidently is in Russia, where numbers of students, professors, and people of high social standing, are mixed up in the anti-government agitation. To imagine, however, that all who have cast in their lot with the Nihilists have done so on pure Nihilistic grounds, is, of course, absurd. In the first place pure Nihilistic theories are not at all likely to attract people possessing any property whatsoever, and, in the second place, the papers inform us that many are imprisoned on grounds not in any way connected with Nihilism. One man is seized because ho receives a certain edict with coldness; another because ho merely shelters a malcontent. Indeed, all who are not satisfied with the present Government are dubbed Nihilists, and treated as such. In this lies the danger of the situation. Nihilism, pui'e and Bimple, would have but little clmnce of success: it would never attain that gained in France by Communism, because it is more extravagant and Utopian, and tho sound part of tho nation would be utterly against it. A short and sharp military campaign against it would soon crush it out. But when the mass of the nation and muck of its intellect rises against a military

despotism, the case is far different, and the situation far more serious. The question naturally arises—could the present lamentable state of affairs have been \ avoidod ? As far as can be gathered it might have been, had the Czar possessed sufficient magnanimity and strength of character. Apparently pure Nihilism never threatened the Russian throne, but the Czar took alarm at a few somewhat obscure demonstrations, and above all was cowed by the fear of assassination. Ho first of all withdrew the right of civil trial in cases where the State was concerned, and then other repressive measures poured in like a flood. What the outcome of all will be is, at present at all events, an enigma. The military organisation in Russia is so powerful that it seems almost a hopeloss task for any body of men to struggle against it. But, should once the leaven of discontent enter the rank°, the Czar may at once throw up his hand. He has gone too far over to return to the constitutional dreams of tho earlier part of his reign. He mus f " ■ v either be a despot backed up b) otrong military forco or must resign his power in toto. They say ho is the saddest man in his whole empiro, and no wonder at it. Ho began his reign with high views on tho possibility of improving the physical and moral condition of his subjects, and the end of his attempt is seen in a country reduced to a state of siege, prisons crammed with prisoners of all classes, and thousands of men, women, and children awaiting deportation t% Siberia. Tho Czar must indeed smile bitterly when ho reads a certain anecdote of his predecessor, Alexander I. When that Emperor, after the Napoleonic wars, was on a visit to England, he was charmed with a number of tho institutions he saw aronnd him. The venerable grandeur of tho University of Oxford was so attractive that he stated his determination to build a similar one ; but, above all, was he pleased with our Parliamentary proceedings, and he said that, when he got home, ho would certainly " have an Opposition." The present Czar has one with a vengeance, but one that works by hand grenades, and not by notices of motion.