The Position of the Tsar.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7868, 10 July 1905, Page 3

The Position of the Tsar.

J'THE END OF THE AITOCHACY

A remarkable article, entitled ' 'Tho End of the Autocracy." nppvurs in the May number of tho National U>view. II is /roro fir pen of the writer whose former contribution, ' The Tsar," .to the Quarterly Hcvicw, has caused some sensation. He begins his article in ahother violent attack upon the Tsar. "After each massacre of his loyal subjects, misnamed a battle," he writes, "the Tsar inflates his chest and tells the world that he is «v----dauntud still and will carry on the fearful struggle, to the end, bravely sacrificing ever nxwc blood and ever more money. Hruwry ? Is it his own blood, then '.' Ah, n>> ; that is llv ichor of the race of Rids—inviolate and inviolable, lb.- offers up only tlio life blood of other scores i>f thousands of his people !to whi#n his Voice is a decree of doom. And th l .' nv>ney he squ-iiiders is neither his own nor that of his bouse, but merely the boordid milliards of his Freich allies. For the prince of I>e«ce wages war by proxy, and is generous end brave at the expense of others.

" But now," the writer adds, the proxies arc growing tired of their respective parts. French investors decline tte honour of financing the campaign, while Kussiun people refuse to supply the food for the cannon. Not that Russians are growing faint-hearted. For a real king inthq Heroic ago tiiey would have died.willingly. For their country or a nobis idea they are capable of laying down their lives to-day. But Nicholas 11., at his best, fails to inspirit them. Devohl of faith, they l«hold him in unlovely, nakedness, stripped oi the garb of a h.ro." It is the iron will nf the Empr"-'? the article states, which stiffens tho weakness of the Tsar. She works bygentle methods,■but they are just the methods calculated to affict her husband, and hex itotinscl has nnre weight than that of any statesman in the whole of the Tsar's wide dominions. "A soft, feminine voicp utter Ing loving words, and bracing exhortations in the language of Shakespeare stimulutnl him to end'-.ivonrs Which took a wrong direction. . . . . Nicholas, having dismixs.-d his ambitious Minister, the halo of the Tsanirrai departed from him. and he thenceforward sulwnissi\ely barkened to the soft, sweet voice in thr boudoir, "Show them that you area real monarch, whose word is law.' "

An extraordinary story is told of the manner in which the publication of the Rescry>t> came close on the heels of the manifest!). V.*' writer affirming that the Tsar 01T.r.-d it to his Ministers in the belief that they would be divided upon its tcrms.nnrt was astonished when he found that tliey had agreed to accept it. "Xivei in my life," one of them afterwards remarked, "even ■were I t/t livo to be a century old shall I forget that remarkable scone. It burned itself into my memorv ; the sudden freezing of the features, the convulsive <]fiivrnn& of the lips, the sickly smile alternating with the frown, and then hfs last look when he handed back the paper, and, as our peasants put it, with his eyes, showed his leelfr." In conclusion the writer says tho autocracy must go. The lloudoir Council may no longer play havoc with the nation. If the Tsar's-think-ing a I'arliiiinent, a Council of Ministers, an inexperienced statesman, arc one and.all harmful, then'.he must be taught that a hole-and-corner <!o----vernmcnt.carried on by unkHown adjutants, knavish favourites, and disreputable quacks is incomparablymore so.