a 'Governor-Generalship, and put on a war footing instead of in a state of siege; the state of extraordinary protection was applied to Yalta, town and district; that of increased protection was prolonged for a year in the provinces of Penza and Koursk, and extended to the province of Samara. The Imperial manifesto of August 11, 1904 a year before the granting of a Constitution-abolished corporal punishment where it still existed-i.e. in the army, the navy, and amongst the peasants, whether Russian or alien. Yet in the middle of November 1906 we read that General Meller-Zakomelski, the new Governor-General of the Baltic Provinces, has abolished the corporal punishment hitherto administered by the "punitive" expeditions. Comment, surely, is needless. Now, this arbitrary, extra-legal procedure, by "administrative order" or otherwise, calls for special attention, for it has always existed in Russia alongside the established law of the land, and has been, with a few notable exceptions, such as the trial of the regicides in 1881, the rule in all political cases since the abortive trial of Vera Zasoolitch in 1878, for the attempted assassination of General Trepoff. It cannot be gainsaid that this abominable system is responsible to a vast extent for the exasperation that has culminated in the present crisis. As Joubert pointed out long ago, the natural demand of man is not liberty but justice, and it is only when justice is denied that liberty assumes in his eyes the position of supreme importance. The Russian Socialists or a large section of themavowedly turned the current of their activity to political channels only because they found by experience that political revolution was the indispensable preliminary to the success of their social and economical propaganda. Hence their partial alliance with the Radicals, whose political aspirations

and ideals they despise, save only as a means to quite other ends.

What,

It is a mere truism, of course, that no man can safely be trusted unchecked with arbitrary power-witness recent experience in Africa, where representatives of the most civilized Powers (England, Germany, Belgium) have proved it over and over again. then, can be expected of comparatively barbarous Russia? The secret history of "justice" by administrative order will never see the light in its entirety, for the records must necessarily fail; but enough is known to make us shudder at the hideous cruelty of a system that puts the liberty, the lives, the honor of thousands of men and women in the hands of their fellow-creatures in circumstances that tempt them continually to the abuse, whether to serve public aims or gratify private passions, of the power thus wickedly conferred. How pitiable it is to recall the humane wish of Alexander II., expressed on granting the judicial reforms of 1864. "My desire," said he, "is to establish a justice that shall be swift, righteous, merciful, and equal to all!" Had that wish been fulfilled, it can be no exaggeration to say that Russian history would read very differently, and if, fourteen months ago even, Nicholas II. had given justice such as this, instead of only promising it once again, the wild struggle for liberty that has since shaken the fabric of the Empire to its foundations would not have taken place; or, at worst, would have assumed a much milder form. It is lamentable that not one of the many counsellors who in turn have swayed the Emperor's mind had the sense and courage to urge so obvious, so righteous a means of conciliating public opinion; or, possessing these qualities-of which however, there is no hint-lacked the persuasive power to ensure its accept

ance.

It is evident from the above that the

improvement claimed by the Government and its adherents is at best only comparative; that lawlessness still prevails; that the spirit of revolt is by no means quelled. On the er hand there are very definit. signs, and even proofs, of reaction in certain directions; while in others, more doubtfully, its existence is eagerly claimed by the Government and the Right. Reaction, indeed, amongst those of naturally Conservative tendencies who were led away by enthusiasm at the first cry of "liberty," but have since taken fright at the red spectre they helped to evoke, is so natural as to need no confirmation. We know that it could not be otherwise.

Such bloody deeds as the murder of the Grand Duke Serge, of M. Plehve, of General Minn-the individual assassination, that is, of highly unpopular men-met with general approval, and doubtless drew many to the ranks of the revolutionary parties. Rightly or wrongly, it was held that they deserved their fate. The assassins, however misguided, displayed a heroism and self-devotion worthy in itself of the highest praise, and no one suffered but the appointed victim. But terrorist acts such as the throwing of bombs in crowded streets, on the railways, at M. Stoleepin's residence, in many cases with only robbery in view and quite regardless of how many innocent people-men, women and children—might suffer, have, coupled with the alarming increase of mere hooliganism, had the opposite effect, driving back hundreds and thousands to the Conservative, or at least to the mildly Liberal fold.

Such recusants belong mostly to the bourgeoisie-the shopkeepers, clerks, petty employees, &c., who in Russia, however, are far fewer in number, proportionately to the total population, than in any other civilized country— but they include, too, a goodly contingent of representatives of the higher

social classes. Equally naturally, the landed proprietors, alarmed at the inclusion of expropriation in the programme even of the more moderate Left, have repented by no means leisurely of the Liberal attitude they assumed in such haste. It is admitted by the organs of the antiGovernment parties that the Zemstvos have gone over to the Right, and partly even to the Extreme Right. The admission, indeed, was made already on November 6 last, on the second anniversary, that is, of the famous Zemstvo Session of 1904, when the demand for a Constitution was first publicly formulated. Loyal addresses are now the order of the day, and the Zemstvos recently set about the expulsion from their ranks of all former members of the Dooma who had shown themselves partisans of the Left, or simply unsound on the question of land; the process being carried out, according to a writer in the "Tovarishtch," in the most systematic and ruthless manner. The nobility of Toola, for example, exIcluded M. Mooromtseff, late President of the Dooma, and when another of their members, M. Levitsky, protested. applied to him the same drastic treatment.? In the so-called "frontier" provinces no such exclusion was necessary or possible, for the simple reason that no such democratic elements existed-in the Zemstvos, that is a fact due to the totally different conditions there obtaining; landowner and peasant being of different nationality. This local peculiarity gives the former a great advantage, for, being thus sharply divided from the peasant by race as well as by class, there is no question for him of compromise, and no complication of issues can arise. Thus in the Baltic Provinces the German Baron, formerly the bête noire of

2 Prince Dolgorookoff was in like manner expelled by the nobility of Koursk on the demand of Count Dorrer.

the Russian Chauvinist,

now

finds adays his best friends in the Russian authorities, his zealous protector in the Russian commander of some "punitive expedition." And so the whirligig of time brings about its revenges. The Teutonic knights and their descendants lorded it over the Lettish and Esthonian peasantry from the first year of the thirteenth century until quite recently, and all the time the Church, both before and after the Lutheran Reformation, was likewise wholly in the hands of the Germans. It was a favorite policy of the Muscovite party during the last reign to egg on the peasant of the three provinces against his alien landlord and alien pastor, and favor him in every way possible at their expense. It was their hope, if the pun may be forgiven, that, in case of German invasion, every Lett would prove a hindrance. An Orthodox propaganda was inaugurated by M. Pobiedonostseff, who realized fully the prime importance of religion in cases of the kind. Nor had he far to seek for the aptest of illustrations. The Finns of Finland proper were converted to Christianity by the Swedes, and in due time adopted Lutheranism. Their

Own brothers of the regions to the north of Moscow were Christianized by the Orthodox Church. The former have proved themselves absolutely impervious to Russian influences; the latter have been, or are being, Russianized; slowly, indeed, but surely and completely, as any one who has travelled in the provinces of Novgorod and Olónetz can hardly have failed to observe. It cannot be said that the above-mentioned efforts of Russia in the Baltic Provinces met with much success, for the inhabitants are a stiffnecked generation, and, cordially as they hated their former masters, they had no mind to abandon their faith, or change one yoke for another. And now, if the Baltic nobility have any

sense of humor, they must be hugely tickled by the turn of affairs. Their castles-such of them as are not burnt -are garrisoned by Russian soldiers; they and the Lutheran pastors protected by them against the insurgent peasants, who are being "repressed" in most merciless fashion by their quondam friends and would-be converters! Whatever happens, it will be long indeed before Lett, Livonian, or Esthonian recalls the anathema he now breathes against Russian and German alike.

It seems, then, that the reaction so far affects mainly two classes only, the bourgeoisie and the larger landed proprietors, both of which are naturally Conservative. Their defection, therefore, can hardly be looked upon as seriously altering the situation. It weakens to an unknown extent the Kadets. but can make little difference to the Extremists, who despise the one class as much as they hate the other. And it is doubtful to what extent the "Liberal" Government of M. Stoleepin, standing as it does in "splendid isolation"-the butt of all parties and the friend of none-will benefit by the change. In any case the Government is not so foolish as to rely upon it for success in the electoral campaign, and this brings us to the measures taken by the Premier-in spite of his declaration that the Government is outside all parties and that the elections will be allowed to proceed according to lawto secure, if possible, a preponderating "Right" in the new Dooma and to propitiate the great mass of the people.

In accordance with the Fundamental Laws promulgated at the time that the first Dooma was summoned, no new legislation can take place without the consent of that body, and as M. Stoleepin poses as a strictly Constitutional Minister it is impossible for him to contravene so elementary a principle of Constitution

manner.

--

alism, even were the Emperor willing to go back on his word. But the Electoral Law, as read and acted upon last year, resulted, as we know, in the return of a large majority of most undesirable persons Constitutional Democrats, Labor representatives, Social Democrats, and worse, The new Dooma must, if possible, be very differently constituted. The anti-Governmental Left must be reduced to more modest dimensions; the Right must, if possible, secure a preponderance of voting power. Yet the lawM. Stoleepin professes a mighty respect for the law-must be observed. The problem, on the face of it, looks difficult enough, but the Ministry, with that ingenuity which in Russia so often takes the place of statesmanship, solved it at the first attempt in a simple and, as it believed, most efficacious Amongst the paraphernalia of Government in Russia there exists a Senate, whose main function is that of a Court of Cassation, but which also acts as interpreter of the law to the nation. It occurred, or was suggested, to M. Stoleepin that here was a way out of the difficulty. The Senate was set to work to "interpret" the Electoral Law, and with highly gratifying results. A series of "Explanations," dated October 20, 1906, with later additions, deprived by a few strokes of the pen whole classes and categories of the population of their suffrage, and needless to say almost entirely to the detriment of the Left. Thus the peasants who had acquired land through the intermediary of the Peasants' Bank, whether as members of the commune or as individual owners, were declared incompetent to vote as district landed proprietors. They are put on a level with the ordinary members of the village commune, and can therefore only vote at the village meetings instead of both there and at the landowners' district assemblies, as last

year.

The effect of this in reality is to rob their vote of all significance; for it will, in most cases, only go to swell quite uselessly the presumably Liberal majorities by which members will be elected to the Volostnoi Skhod. It is computed that as compared with last year this will lessen by 52,000 the number of voters, mostly Liberal, in the said assemblies. The same interpretation applies to the Cossacks, a large and important element in the rural population. Further, only actual peasants, tillers of the soil, may vote in the village meetings, the "Explanations" being directed against those very numerous absentee members of the commune who, though they pay their share of the taxes, work at trades or industries in towns, and are naturally more enlightened and therefore more liberally inclined than their stayat-home fellows. Again, by a slight change in a single word, the Senate has made a disability, applicable, it was held last year, only to the lowest class of State, municipal, railway, and Zemstvo employees and servants, to all railway men in general-a highly intelligent class, responsible for the great General Strike of 1905. And in other directions the "Explanations" tend to diminish the number of presumably Liberal voters.

Another measure is the order contained in a circular of the Committee of Ministers forbidding whole categories of people to belong to or take any part in political organizations stigmatized as anti-Governmental, including, of course, the Kadets or Constitutional Democrats. This prohibition has been applied amongst others to the employees of the Zemstvo of Moscow, who have entered a vigorous protest and declared their intention of appealing to law. It has been applied to the Ksends, or Polish priests, as servants of the Ministry of Foreign Cults, and, it is said. to the whole Russian clergy, as ser

vants of the Holy Synod. strength of this circular, too, pronounced by eminent jurists to be illegal, all employees and servants on the network of railways having their centre in St. Petersburg have been forbidden to take part in any political organizations, and the Governor of Moscow in his zeal has gone further still, applying the same prohibition to all elected members of the Zemstvo and municipality.

As the Fundamental Laws gave the right of verifying and deciding as to the legality of any doubtful elections to that body, it would seem strange that the Senate should be called in to interpret beforehand the Electoral Law. were not the reason sufficiently obvious.

Still further measures having the same end in view-to put it plainly, the packing of the Dooma-are the refusal to recognize any longer, or permit meetings of, the Kadet party, and the prosecution of those of its leaders who signed the Vuiborg Manifesto with its misguided appeal to quasi-passiveresistance, a tactical blunder of the first magnitude. Many of these same leaders have determined not to offer themselves as candidates for election to the new Dooma lest they should be afterwards declared disqualified, and the representation of the party suffer thereby. But the new men, whoever they may be, will hardly speak with the same authority as the old.

In the second category, measures designed to propitiate the masses, we have the ukase of October last giving actuality to the liberty of conscience and of public worship, conferred on the Old Believers on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1905, which should go far to convert these long-suffering sectarians into strong supporters of any reasonable Government. They number over 11,000,000, and are undoubtedly, as is asually the case with the persecuted

An Old Believers' church-we retain regretfully the clumsy appellationbuilt in commemoration of the act of grace above-mentioned, was opened at Moscow, on October 29, 1906, in presence of several high officials of the Government, and it is not to be anticipated that the persecution of the past two and a half centuries will ever be renewed. Rather, indeed, may we look with confidence for reform in the Orthodox Church itself, whose adherents are already lamenting that the sectarians now have more liberty than themselves, and that in the struggle against nonconformity, being deprived henceforth of Government support, they must rely entirely upon spiritual and moral influences! A more desirable consummation, surely, could hardly be hoped for! The Old Believers are now at liberty to form communities of not less than fifty members, build churches, and serve God in their own fashion, without interference from any one. The Orthodox White clergy, which includes the whole of the parish priests, are, on the other hand, abjectly dependent on the Consistory, composed, as is the whole hierarchy of the Established Church, exclusively of the Black or Monkish clergy, the legal rights of lay-parishioners to interfere in Church matters being in practice a dead letter. The parish priests in all the tens of thousands of villages in the empire are little above the peasants themselves in social class or education; marriage for them is compulsory; their families are naturally large; and they are dependent for their living on the fees they have the right to exact from their parishioners for the performance of the rites of baptism, marriage,