RUSSIA AND THE NIHILISTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 899, 11 July 1879, Page 3

RUSSIA AND THE NIHILISTS.

( Graphic.) Unless the most important traditions of Western Europe are to be distrusted, the Russian Government is profoundly mistaken in its policy respecting the internal danger by which it is threatened. If the nihilists were a set of mere rascals, something nrght be said for the attempt to put them down by force. In that case they could have no real root in society, and might be exterminated or driven into submission. But they are very far from being the abandoned wretches described by official newspapers. It would indeed, be strange if no such party as the Nihilists existed in Russia. Personally the Czar deserves respect, but he is the head of an utterly rotten system of government. Every department of the administration is corrupt; the people are weighed down by burdens they are wholly unable to bear ; and all classes are familiar with dark deeds of tyranny of which they do not venture to make public complaint. How could it he expected that in a society such as this there would be general contentment ? The Nihilists only give voice to deep and prevalent dissatisfaction. Many of them, no doubt, are revolutionists ofanextreme type, but others ask no more than that the nation should be ruled in accordance with modern ideas. Were the party to be met half way it is possible that its power might be broken. A series of genuine reforms would at any rate detach from it all its more moderate members. But simple resistance will unquestionably only intensify the movement, and give more prominence to the extravagant faction represented by the would-be assassin of the Czar, Patriotic Russians look forward with despair to the immediate future, and it does not seem that their forebodings are much exaggerated. The Secret Societies become bolder every day, and now that they are being harshly persecuted they will be animated by a sort of religious fervour Many of the national conditions have a close resemblance to those which preceded the Revolution in France, and we shall have no reason to be surprised if they have a like result.