THE CZAR AND PERSECUTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2004, 6 February 1890, Page 3

THE CZAR AND PERSECUTION.

The Czar has granted three months’ of unsolicited leave of absence to M. Pobiedonostzeff, the Procurator - General of the Holy llussian Synod. The reasons for this (says a Vienna correspondent) are highly interesting, as they seem to foreshadow the disgrace of the so long powerful Procurator, and a departure from the regime of religious persecutions which he has so ruthlessly carried out. The Czar during his recent stay at Copenhagen received a pamphlet by the llev. Mr Dalton on the persecutions to which the Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces have been subjected by Pobiedonostzeff’s orders. The Em- * peror is said to have been deeply moved by the recital of the sufferings which Lutheran ministers have had to endure, and having touched upon the subject in conversation at the Danish Court, influences were at once brought to bear on His Majesty to bespeak a more kindly treatment for all dissenters from the Orthodox Church in Russia, The Czar promised nothing at the time, but he evidently remained under the impression of what he had heard, and about a fortnight after his return to Russia he wrote an autograph letter to the Procurator-General giving him three months’ leave, and instructing him to use that time in the preparation of a “full and convincing answer ” to Mr Dalton’s pamphlet. Subsequently M. Pobiedonostzeff tried to obtain an audience of His Majesty, but it was refused, and he was told that the Czar would not receive him until he had written his justificatory memoir.