KILLED BY ORDER OF A REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 148, 23 June 1879, Page 4

KILLED BY ORDER OF A REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE.

The London correspondent of the New York Herald, writing under date of sth March, says :— "The cable will have informed you of the strange proclamation which was placarded on the walls of Si. Petersburg in reference to the murder of the Governor of Kbftrkoff. Tbe documents conveyed the open dec! ration that tbe death of the Prince was the work of an emissary of tbe Nibiliat9, and that tbe blow was inflicted in revenge for the actß .of cruelty attributed to him at the time of the disturbances fcirong the University fitadents. Prince Krapoikine, ns you will remember, attended ' the ball of the daughters of the nobility ' io Kharkoff. He was returning from the festivity at about eleven o'clock, end had almost reached tho Government House in his carriage, when, in rounding a afreet corner, ha waa shot with a revolver by some person who, apparently, hal stepped lightly up on the step of the carriage in order to take deliberate aim. The Prince was lying back in the carriage, nnd received tho bullet through his cloftk and left epnulet, nnd tbe farther course of the ehot splintered the collar-bone and penetrated d eply the unfortunate Governor's breast. On reaching home the best medical assistance was sent for, but the state of the Prioco was critical from the beginning, and he died. That tbe Nihilists were at the bottom of the affair was not doubted from the first; (he placard already mentioned, and later a printed proclamation distributed through Moscow, and probably throughout (he whole Empire, made it cleor that tbe Governor of Kharkoff was assassinated by orders of a revolutionary committee. The printed proclamation read us follows :—' Tbe Russian Socialist revolutionary party lias disposed of ooe of its deadliest enemies— one of the most inhuman gaolers of its condemned and imprisoned brethren. On the 9th of February Prince Krapotkine, the Governor of Kbaikoff, waß dangerously, and no doubt mortally wounded with a revolver. This execution was carrier! out by a Russian Socialist revolutionary organisation, which is also responsible for all executions in 1878. As on the last occasion, that organisation bega to lay before the public, frankly and sincerely, the reasons that have compelled it to have recourse to the revolver. Krapotkine bad committed the following crimes : (1) At the end of fast year he sanctioned and ordered tbe barbarous treatment to which political prisoners were subjected in tbe prison of Kharkoff. (2) He felsely reported to the Minister of the Interior, on the subject of the last disturbances at the University of Kharkoff, that the police had been attacked by the students, whereas in reality it was the latter who, by his own ordere, had first been flogged by coeeack whips. (3 ) He is directly responsible for tbe ferocious and barbarous treatment of political prisoners at Borisoglobsk, and bis name is intimately connected with the history of the central prison in that town, where be was guilty of tha following acts:— (a) After the invalid prisoner Plotnikoff bad been put in obains the other- prisoners transmitted to Krapotkine a memorial, in which the revolting conduct of the chief gaoler was set forth. The gaoler, irrigated atUhis.Btep, deprived the prisoners of the .privilege of obtain jng food from outside, reduced the time for taking exereiee, put chains on sick prisoner*, abolished their extra rations, and at last caused the openings over tbe cell doors to be boarded up to ihe exclusion of all ventilation. In reply : to, tbe prisoners' memorial, Prince Krapotkine issued tbe following order : I' Although the chief gaoler was not justified in putting chains on tbe prisoners who bad undergone toe-period of probation, nevertheless, as a punishment for insulting the gaoler by making a complaint to the Governor, the refra,otory prisoners shall be locked up in ,|he black hole of the prison for periods of one to three days j while those who have already passed tbe required period of probation shall be restored to the list of prisoners undergoing probation, end be pot in irons." (b) On the 3rd July, six of the political prisoners resolved to put an end to the insupportable existence to which they were condemned unless some relaxation of the prison discipline were granted, and determined to out short their misery by starving themselves io deatb. Prince Krapotkine not only rejected th,eir petition, but after they bad. passed seven days without tasting food, and after, several of (hem were no longer able to rise from their beds, ha sent to the prison an officer who deceived them by falsely promising compliance with all their reqoeste, and tbua agaio condemned them to a continuance of ! tbe wretched existence which they had re- : solved to terminate. By a series of similar measures Prince Krapoikine reduced the prisoners to a condition which was' equivalent to that of being burned alive. Such are the crimes committed by Krapotkine. * * • » Such are the causes and considerations that have compelled the Russian Social. ist party to sentence one of its enemies to death. Death for death,' execution for execution, terror for tenor ! This is our; answer to the threats, the prosecutions, and the oppressions of the Government. Should the latter persevere in its old course, the bodies of Keyking and ' Mezentzdff will not have turned into dust before?the Government • will hear from us again.