THE OPINIONS OF RUSSIAN NEWSPAPERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5582, 18 February 1879, Page 3

THE OPINIONS OF RUSSIAN NEWSPAPERS.

Pall Mall Gazette, December 23. The Russian newspapers furnish instructive reading at this moment, and it is a pity that some of the London journal-, which fill columns daily with the reports of country meetings in which the advantages of possessing an Indian Empire are reviewed by philosophical Radicals, do not give up some of their space to extracts from Russian papers showing how British policy is considered by the people whom, next to ourselves, it most concerns. Russian opinion, like English, has passed through several phases as regards the Eastern Question, It is at present rent between the Tschinn party who are trying to galvanize the people into enthusiasm for a new “ holy war,” and the people themselves, who seem to have lapsed into indifference about foreign questions. The conviction of journalists evidently is that Russia will soon be occupied with a more engrossing problem than how to retain her troops on Turkish soil and her influence at Constantinople. The Nihilist agitation is growing apace. The Czar’s Government, like a rider who has let the reins slip from his hand, feels that it has_ lost its control over the masses, and that since the bit is of no more avail whip and spurs are the only things that will serve. So, while comparatively independent papers like the Moscow Gazette, the Mir, and the Journal d’Odcsa are imploring the Government to turn its undivided attention to the internal crisis, official organs, like the Golos and the Juurnal de St. Petersburg, are endeavoring to lash their readers into a belief that another “ short and glorious’ ’ campaign is necessary before the empire can beat peace. Th elskra (Spark) akind of semiofficial Punch, publishes a significant cartoon, representing England under the form of a crippled soldier battling feebly with Afghans, Kaffirs, and Zulus, while Russia and Germany are coming up smiling arm in arm, with riding whips in their hand to drive away the cripple from bags of gold which he is defending, and which are marked “ India,” “ Colonies,” “ Commercial supremacy.” Austria, Italy, and France, sitting at a table with cigars in their, look on amused as if they meant to watch the fight? as spectators; Turkey, leaning on crutches, stands behind England, but grins knowingly at Russia and beckons to it to come on. The suggestion is obv.ious enough. It may be mere brag, or it may be a financial manoeuvre destined to keep the public mind off home topics while the Government patches up its credit; or, again, it may be the manifestation of a real war policy based on the secret treaties concluded with Germany on the one and Austria-Hungary on the other. The Socialist question is one that so deeply concerns the rulers of military States that it is not impossible—we say no more—that two at least out of the three Emperors may have agreed _ to stand by each other in any enterprise having for its ultimate object the re-establishment of autocratic ascendancy over discontented millions at present moved by a revolutionary spirit. One thing is certain, that if the British Government does not fall into any more Russian “ traps,” the Nihilist elements which are gathering visibly in force must soon convulse the Czar’s empire from end to end. The political condition of Russia is such that if once the hold of the Tschinn on the nation gets relaxed, the Government has nothing else to fall back upon. At Odessa tho_ other day the performance of Glinka's “ Life for the Czar” was interrupted by the loud hisses of students, who, on being expelled from the theatre, mustered in the streets and summoned a Hungarian band out of a teahouse to play them Radetzki’s revolutionary march. At Nicolaieff, in Cherson, an order from the Governor, enjoining the inhabitants to put out bunting on the anniversary of Plevna was responded to by a turbulent meeting in the market place, where resolutions were passed to the effect that the country had heard enough of wars, and now wanted peace. In the same town of Nicolaieff, only about ten days ago, a Nihilist editor, who was being conveyed to prison for having disobeyed a decree which suspended his paper, was rescued by a mob, among whom some soldiers were seen, and carried back in triumph to his office. One might multiply these instances of popular disaffection ; but all tend to prove this fact—that the rulers of Russia now stand on slippery ground, and are quite aware of it. M. Katkoff’s Moscow Gazette remarks gravely that the time has passed when the Tschinn can indulge any allusions as .to its coming doom. “As a governing institution,” he says, "it no longer answers to the requirements of the age, and the best hope of loyal Russians must be the hope that the Czar will return to the spirit which animated him when he emancipated the serfs, and by another Imperial stroke break the moral shackles which are fettering his whole people. Let him do this before agitators make the nation impatient, and render a work which would now be easy too difficult.” Things must have come to a critical pass whqn the most loyal of Muscovite journals can write thus. Other newspapers, which are less noted for loyalty, significantly hint that reforms must come very soon indeed if the flood-time is to be caught. Under all circumstances, therefore, the British Government, if it does not again play into Prince Gortschakoff’s hands, may be sure that this statesman will soon have his hands full of work. He and his friends have brought their country to a pass where its worst enemies may be well content to leave it, feeling sure that the days of brag policy may soon have an end.