NOTES AND COMMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7765, 17 March 1905, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENT.

j Th.' London S|vcUilur tlor.-s jiol mi' il.'rstand "in so J 'fill': r\'I?F.ST many Hioiifrhd'ut' - IN IiI'SSIA. ni.-n Mii-vc that 1 til" |>roi>ivss of Ilio ' mnvsi in Cnssia will hv fatal to Hie 1 j a at o<T;K'\". or why tli.-y fliv so pos- < M-ss.-d with tin* notion that if ihal •rival cataclysm occurs, liussia will ' 111' weaker for its occurrence'. Wlioiv. f it risks, is the ground for thinking, S as a mnntier of grave persons villi- 51 I out d'jyljt secretly think, tlmt nn v LUianciyaud i pxilJ Its I'ltUu <g

] weak or unambitious ? She might ion the co|itrary, prove terribly j strong. Russian Liberals obviously ; believe that the newly i-nfrancl'-ised | people would be jealous of their pristige even in the Far F.ast, and I many of thvm suggest tlwt tin; war i with Japan would be carried on with a new energy if the people wore but enfranchisv»d. Even if that were not the case, owing to a certain horror of the; "•yellow devils " which has sprung up among the Russian masses, Russia, boiling xv.it h excitement., xvith all millions sei fr.v and ■her men of genius, of vlvnn f-'la- hi. many, at last; relieved from »t'lv ht>.\:vy weight above them—at preseiu, they are like frogs under a flagstone—might liivd in conquest the readiest outlet for her energies, ami by a grand war. say ior Constantinople, might, rouse to crusa-ding height the enthusiasm of her masses. I'nless liussia actually broke up into some form"of federal Slate, which is hard-' ly within the range of political possibilities, any Government of Russia, whatever the name ol the dynasty, ! or whatever the form of its Constitution. must desire to reorganise the army, and to olyiain something ol that military prestige without which armies are only collections of men in uniform. Men talk glibly enough of 1 lie grand financial crash which : might follow any revolution in Rus- " sia ; but hoxv many millions were " there in the treasury of the Torror- * ists, or of the Directory' which fol--1 In wed them, when they commenced * the col/;iliest of the States around France, and when Napoleon, oppress- * ed bv the national poverty as well 1 as by his own ambition, declared his 1 intention to " make war support " W ar," and to relieve rather than ex- ' haust the national exchequer by his campaigns ? liven anarchy in Russia night not destroy her strength 1 except for a short period. There is much in the Slav of the French ner- ■ vous excitability ; much, also, of '' that craving for external repute s which used to be the French motive ! ' power. Nothing is certain yob, and ® political prophecy is often political folly : but the able ]>ersons xyho l'anrv that the disorder in Russia tends towards a millennium of peace and nrosperitv in Europe may be, as they c - often lnive been before, bemuddling Jj themselves with dreams.