THE COMING WAR.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1686, 26 April 1883, Page 4

THE COMING WAR.

We have already said in these columns that the only Europeans who ever have definite knovMedgo of the future course of political events are the members of secret Societies. Long before Skobeloff spoke at Palis j long before the Cologne Gazette published the article w Inch has sertt the English Press mlo a fren/.y of prophecy and largo capitate, wo predicted the approach of trouble between Germany and Russia. While London journals, cleverly inspired by the 1 evolutionary pressman, were informing us that Krapotkin was enjoying idyllic leisure by the Mediterranean shore, we said tli.it Krapotkin was fitting from town to town like the storm bird that ho is. The prince has now been captured, and his papers prove that our information was right, and that the revolutionists are in full activity. They have not at present much power, they have a very great deal of useful information, and there is not a man of them who ib not awaiting the bound of the gun. These secret rulers never deal in conjecture ; their organisation is bo perfect that they see clearly where the persons described as statesmen only grope blindly. From the convict towns on the White Sea to Odessa, from Tobolsk to Diesden and Paris, their unseen machinery extends. While the police of St. Petersburg are blundering hither and thither ; •while Western statesmen are sitting in dignified ignorance, the revolutionist leaders are receiving accurate news fioin cities and towns and villages. Ordinary politicians rely on organs of public opinion, forgetting that the men who pretend to represent public opinion ha\ c no means of learning the tiuth. But the secret society men make no such mistakes ; their agents, especially in Russia, live with the people, work with them, suffer with them, and gauge their thought rightly. At this present moment there are about 8000 well born and well educated men and women in Rtibsia who are working in the factoncs, toiling in the fields, pliug in fei i y boats between obscure villages on the banks of the obscure streams ; .setting up the type of journals, drinking with the lower classes in vile vodka shops and sleeping in the dens where the pooler subjects of Holy Russia pig together. A sacied system of correspondence hi ings all these tin cads of propagandism to one centre, and thus the heads of Committees in iSvvitzeiLind or London know every passing tiemor that agitates the national mind. People in England ask, "Why should theic be Avar between Germany and Rnsbia?" The ] evolutionist aiibwcib, " I cannot stop to discuss whys and wherefores ; I only know that the people of Russia want war with Gei many, and that they Mill have w.it, whether o/Jicial 'Russia' likes or not." Then the common sense rcasoncr comes in, and icmaiks with 211>0P(2 11>0 P ( ' r gia.vity, "Russia is jubt rccoveiing fiom an exhausting war; her finances aie disco\ercd ; her population s»iifl'er heic and there from starvation. She cannot enter on a contest with a first-iatc power." The man of fact once more makes answer, " I cm bliow no mason for the wailike feeling that would satisfy the nmker of loi{iu books; I may, howevei, .say, in passing, that if nations leadened, there is not a leading statesman in Europe whoso ncrk would be safe. The Russian people in the ptesent case aie not moved by leason at all, but only by emotion." Wli.it has ljised the picscnt feeling in Russia wo do not .wiow : we only know that a blind, Molent hatied of (j!et many has become the idling passion in Russian society of all giadc, and that ykoliuloff spoke with the voice of a national m.ijonty when he deelaied that the Slave must cinsh the Teuton. Reason and foresight aie put aside, and i-agei ferocity has taken their place. When Skobeloft made his torn, the official classes were in doubt as to what steps they should take. It was after the young general was attacked by " contusion of the lieait" that the men of the sections and the Cabinet saw whoic to go. A curioutpositionhasnow ai i^on. Thefigntehcads of the departments and tlio leaders of tlic revolution aie both pushing to■\\aids one end. Tenon^m has ceased for a lime because the aeulo men who handle the vast and miuderous Russian caucus think pi opcr to leave the lubng classes alone. The moic the men who wield tl'c power ;ind Jinanee of Russia choose to pi epaie lor war tl'c mow the 1 revolutionists encoiuage them so that the national tendenrv is not lv ing stijcd \,y the slightest diag. r f a Radian of the advanced school heais wai mentioned, he only s.ijs, "The mlei hopes foi a piolongedleaseof powu : the eonspiiators hope to get lid of the (Jiinians, and to cause a icgenoiativc inaichy. Thus it is that wai is impending. The nevvspa{cr man in a foieign capital goes about gaddinn with junior diplomatists and ■with other new spa pu men ; tlicn lie telcgiaph.s home and infoimsus that " the clouds have parsed,'' and then the wntei ot leading ai tides tells us in slipshod English the glad tidings of gieat joy. .Neither the concspondent nor the sciibbling patagraph-monger knows anything about the inattei. They guess before the event, while the stiinngo and advances of national feeling aic totally darkened to them. No one can s.iy with an nppioaoh to nearness at what time the war will bieak out, but it is iapidl\ coming, and any mot niug may luing news of the final and momentous step. The Russians hilly expect to be defeated hcauly at liist, but they aie strangely contident. When reminded of the way in which the PmsHian hosts moved on Paiis they .smile. They say : " The cases ate altogether difl'eicnt. Yon ciush Pans and \ou paialyso the ecntial ganglion of Fiance. Jin t Russia is, as it weie, a cieatuie of another oi gaiiKsation. Ciush one ganglion and thcic aie still a himdted national ncivc-ccnti us unhaiiiicd. ' The zoological smile is peifcctly apt and tine, find no one knows better than Piinee Rismarck w hat a task (>ci many has before her. But at any late it is to be feared that nothing can now avcifc the catastrophe, and we can only wait the events which aic inarching towards us so quickly. — Vtn/t!>/ luni.

At a dinner lorently, jh connection with tlio West of Fife Ploughing Society, given at Dunchdl', near JJunfcimliuc, Mr Jlunt of Pittcnci ieff, a\lio occupied the chair, rcfci ml to the lcl.vtion.s of landlord and tenant. Most people wcie of opinion, he mid, thnt freedom of conti.ict hhould form tlic basis between the landowner and the f.umei, and that, as t\\p farmer sold the pioduceof the faun m the bestmaikets, the landlord should also have the privilege of making tlie best bai gains he could — (applause). That, however, did not seem to be the opinion of our Government, for Mr Foisler in Glasgow lately h.nd that the lii.sh Land Act was passed to prevent the landloids having the pull of the maikets. That was a most extiaoidinaiy.staiement to make, foi honmasteis, coalniiisterb, or shipowneus weve doing their best to have the pull of the market. Commercial men would think itAeiy extiaordinary were the Government to define the price of coal, non and cotton, and they would be the fiist to lise up in aims against the idea ; but yet these same commeicial men applauded Mr Korster to the echo, because the Government was mteifciing between the hiier of land and the owner in li eland. They in Scotland would not agree to be inteilercd with in this way, and he was bine that freedom of contract would continue to exist between the landowner and the fanner, and that skilful men would be able to maken fair return from the land— (applause). Landowneis did not not care to farm their own land, and as offers were given in to them for , their land, it was only light that they should accept the highest — (applau&e). — Mr Drummond, Pitcoithie, a farmer, said they had they best of the landlords in the weet of Fife, and with a little more sunshine, and the support they got fiom them, they would be alilo to battle with ' #)# entire world,— ft P< dgriwUmut,