A Russian on Russia's Needs.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXI, Issue 5873, 27 January 1903, Page 1

A Russian on Russia's Needs.

To ce> tain observations by the St. Petersburg correspondent oi ; " TJie Times," Prince Mestchersky replies a§ follows7-—^ ';' „; My extreme Liberal'friends'dry upon the house-tops, "Open schools everywhere." I reply—-before you open a Eotfool,mafcasure 1 that it has a good master; for the nonexistence of a .-chool is.a lesser evil than the existence of one "with a bad toaster,; My friends;4ainand that every cook should have the right to send his son to the University to study the sciences; at the expfihsi) of th 6 State. But I say that the Universities and? all higher-grade schools can only/be opened to the pick of our youth, and that the masses must have- other ■SQhools. pf .varied; fcypes'/adnpted to the needs of' pVacticaV life. Is this obscurantism ? My' extreme Liberal';frieads,>withoiifc troubling themselves about the'historical' conditions under which ,the polifieal'deve- ' j lopment of Kussia takes place, declare that the only means of making her happy is to transform her autocratic government into-, a constitutional syßteni. For my own part, 11 affirm that, fronira patriot's point of view, I it is quite as questionable to transform m a day an autocratic system centuries old into fi constitutional system, as it .^ould beHdifficult for an Englishman to induce hig fellovtrcountrymen to take an autocratic system m preference to their Parliamentary one. From the point of, view oft- practical politics one n9ed not be a Conservative as I am myself; a man: need but love his country?; like a good and intelligent citizen to foresee that the only kind of Constitution whiqh a State liko Eussia could have without previous preparation is the farcical syßtem which, masquerading as a Constitution, is debasing France, and whiebj if transplanted to Eussia, would substitute for a single autocratic ruler, noble by race and instinct, 1 good and just within the limits of what is humanly possible, 900 tyrants and despots, picked up from the street, and capable of all enormities under the shield of absolute irresponsibility. The Russian people has two enemies, j One-is (he intellectual Liberal; who arraigns I the autocracy m order to fasten upon it the I responsibility for the obstacles which. I national development m Russia encounter^ on its course. These obstacles are there* suit of the bureaucratic centralization which is growing greater every day m the hands of the trkmovnik' (officials) of the administration. The t.kinovitilt, who represents Russian centralization, is the second enemy of the Russian people. Well, the intellectual Liberal is simple f-non^h to believe that on the day we att.inod 0 ha possession of a Constitution, Kussia, would be rid at ono stroke both of I tho yoke of autocracy and the..yoke of bureaucratic centralization. It is a gross and fatal mistake. Russia would all the benefits of autacracy—tl-.-ii S-s certain but its defects would bo multiplied a hundredfold m tho horde of tyrannical deputies who would seixe upon 'htilegif.ldt.iVe power, and who to assure and eon=olidnte their de» spo'.i?m, would l>e obliged.to give, the yoke oil burr-tiucratic centralizntiory;for greatet' si length to crush t.lio people m the provinces. The Sussm) pe<ple wouM be condemned to become lie""victim of a con?i.'iv:u;y < i'seiue 'JfO (;<-puti<p, allied with tl:e lMiiJion (lliciiiis of the. bureaucracy- a wnsj.irncy fr; m wldcU a (onstitutiocnl .•M-vtreign will ie puwe.iles's to save it. That is the fixi-il, iuwvilable into m store for us- u> t deliberately plan, but resu'ting qivtcnaluraly .from the ioiv.u of cir..uni&Uiiice.s; A. Kussian Sovereign devotes himself to Ms dtstiyy, astc a sacred mission'; but proviaciallfuasla lives a life of such confusion." that r.c-t merely-'is it incapable of furnishing representatives of the people, but it has not even the primal elements of ,individual independence wherewith to withstand.the wave of bureau« enstio centralization, which is i-ver gather* ing new force. This is \*hy, if there is 8 yoke which hinders Russia from a life' of self-do velopment, and-one from which slw prays to be freed, it is certainly not that of an absolute monarch, but simply and solely that of bureaiurr.-ttic ceutrali/.ati*.n. This yoke paralyses her liberty, her strength, and her people, over the whoie expanse of her wide dominion. When forcA is there m Russia which cao combat and .overcome, tljis .hydra? I have pointed out already that so far from the deputies, under a Constitution, beinft able to do this, they would, inevitably make the yoke of the bureaucracy heavier than ever. Evidently the only force which can rescue Russia from the yoke of bureaucracy . and centralization is that which has saved her from the yokeof the Tartars, from that of internecine war~-the power of an absolute Sovereign. ■ . • •'- He alone can by a stroke of the pen, by a resolute and firm exercise of authority, give the awakening of self-government to the provinces of Russia which lie m drowsy bondage under the yoke of the bureaucracy ; he alone can demolish the labyrinths of J|s centralization aiid call everyf gpvernjijenfc (section of the country) und«r tHfe direction of upright^ able, and liberall^-m&ded lead-* eas, to the task 'of: intellectnal^'br maun*! labour allotted to.each of its inhabitants. The! accomplishment of this work woulfl be the salvation of Riissia,but would it not alsb.mean>itlie -creation of the only solid basis for such a reform of the Russian governmental edifice as would give the absolute Sovereign councellors helpful to him m all the problems for which he needed [ their assistance ? * Such are my opinions. Are they those of obscurantism or bureaucratic despotism ? '