TOLSTOY'S PROTEST.

Grey River Argus, 2 September 1908, Page 1

TOLSTOY'S PROTEST.

A. terrible impeachment of the Czar,'s government has been written by Count Tolstoy, and is published, ra the English translation, by the "Daily Chronicle.'.' There are four columns of it. Tolstoy declares that he has been struggling agains-t the I feeling aroused in him by the conI templation of the wofk of the Russian Government, but can ncr longer keeo down his anger. He strips the position of its excuses and pretences and leaves it horribly naked. "Everything 1 now being done in Russia," he cries, "is done in the name of the general welfare. ; in the name of the protection and tranquillity of the inhabitants of Russia. And if this be so, then it is also all done for me, who live in Ru.s. sia. For me, therefore, exists the destitution of the people, deprived of the first, most natural -right of man, thf. right to use the lancPon which he is bru'hr forme the half 7 rriilli6ii : men torn away from v wholesome' peasant life, and dressed in uriifbrms- arid taught' to kill; for me that false so-called priesthood, whose chief duty it is to pei vert" and conceal true Christianity ; for me all these transportations of men* from place to place; for me these hundreds of thousands of ' hungry woikmen wandering about Russiafor me these hundreds of thousands of unfortunates dying of typhus and! •sciuvy in the fortresses and prisons which do not suffice for- such a multitude; for me the mothers, wives and fjithers of the. exiles; the ' prisoners and those who are hanged arc suffer»n a- ; forme are these' spids and this bribery; for me the interment of ■thesis' ( dozens and hundreds of men who have-. heew shot; for" me the' horrlbie' \york goes onof these hangmen, at first onlistrd with difficulty, but now no; longer, so loathin.Q- iKeir work ; I f6r me exist these k-:-!}ov.s. ■ with well-soaped ' cords from vhrth hang- women, chil|(lren and peasants ; for" me exists this

terrible bmbitterment of man against his fellow'man." .Tolstoy feels .t sense of I ersonal responsibility fur all these hpfrors, and he" writes hjv protest in tip hope either of stopping them or of .beinfr made himself a vittim o ftyrahny, and so snapping his connection >vith them.