THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1879.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5441, 25 April 1879, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1879.

Some great change—perhaps some terrible break-up—seems' to be impending in Russia. Every few days now the "telegraph' brings some new and portentous I Only a few days ago we heard'of an attempt on'the .'life of the Emperor ; aud the .Russian monarch, it '- must be remembered., is not like ordinary despots', for! the Czar is not only the .political hea-d of-the State, but the spiri-tual-head, mid "the divinity that doth hedge a king ,, - still, lingers in Russia—or, at: any rate, lingered there Political 'demonstrations, ending in sanguinary 'affriiys with tho .military', appeal- to have beebine chronic, and they occur in bo 'puny quarters as. to. indicate a widespread, tfisii'flectjon. ". In one place it is a popular outbreak to rescue piiliticnl- prisoners ; in another it is a procession of .University students, singing songs: of liberty. And that they are quelled in blood only seems to multiply such, demonstrations. The latest telegram from St. Petersburg, dated April 20, mentions another thing of the kind : —" A very serious riot has occurred at Rostoif. Great excesses were committed ; the troops were called out, and restored order." And tho the; telegram adds, "Russia is virtually in a state of siege"—that being the Continental expression for what we term "martial law." Though the Muscovite has been heretofore a much-enduring man, he is also a very obstinate one, and it is r Tory likely that the additional repressive measures -which have been just ordered from St. Petersburg may fail in their effect. There have been conspiracies before now in Russia, and the Czars have sometimes died by cord or bowl, if not bv bullet. But these. assassinations pn> ceeded from palace intrigues and ambitious designs upon tho throne within the Imperial family itself. They were personal, not political, and were carefully cloalved from the observation of tho populace. And as for the political conspiracies—even : -when like that of Mouravieff, their object was , liberty—they were exclusively the work of the nobles. But now the revolutionary movement appears to have taken root among tho .people. Time was when persons professing the doctrines of the Nihilists, and who would dare to lift their hands against tha sacred Government of the Czar would have been torn to pieces by the multitude. Now we hear of the mob in Odessa rescuing a number of Nihilists who were being conveyed to prison ! Recent events have * had, indeed, a great effect in Russia. The failure of tho Turkish enterprise was a terrible shock to the national pride The halt of the army when in actual sight of Oanstantinople, the goal of the expedition, and which, though unfortified, their leaders dare to take possession of ; the fact that Russia is to have no extension sf boundary for all her fighting and heavy losses in that quarter ; and oven tho more refcent circumstance of her inability to mccour her ally, the fugitive Afghan prince—all these are things which could lot remain concealed even in Russia. Fhe returning soldiers would make them Endwn,j.. ia ftienf'-if: cthere were not the evolutionary agents to contrive the

means of having them fully interpreted. It upsets the old notion of invincibility— the popular trust in the Czar. Then followed the frightful calamity of the plague, which a superstitious people would surely look upon as a special condemnation by Heaven. And evou without the effect on tho public mind of all those things, the popular feeling could not be exactly as it was fifty years ago. All modern ideas have not stopped short at the Russian frontier. They have entered and spread more or less in the empire. So long as the G v 'rnmont can rely on the army, they will be able to quell those insurrectionary movements. Hut tha contagion of the new sentiments may possibly touch the army. The Russian soldier, the most ill-used and hardlytreated in Europe, may not continue to be, what he is proverbially, patient, submissive, and devoted. There are two revoluntionary movements going on —the Sciavic, or national, which includes men of all classes in society, and which politically seeks only such a modification of government as will give constitutional liberty. Its other object is to develop in the administration a more strictly Sclavonic, that is national, character, by checking the influence of foreign officers, who have always been numerous under the Czars, in public affairs. It i 3 in tho central provinces—that is, Russia proper, the ancient Muscovy—that this Sclavonic agitation is naturally strongest. In all the northern provinces, the basis of the population is not Sclavonic but Finnish. And in the south, as in the north, the real-Russian element is small— scattered among the other inhabitants. The south has a very mixed population. It is the country of the Cossacks and of the Tartars ; there are several German colonies in the Steppe 3 ; and there is a multitude of Greeks and ether foreigners in Odessa and all the ports. It is in the south that the Nihilists are most fiunierous, but they also appear to be active in St. Petersburg and the large towns iu general. It is of the students, the artizans, and other young men resident in cities, that the Red Republican party is principally composed in other quarters of .Europe, and in Russia they as conspicuously swell the ranks of the Nihilists. If they should succeed in winning over a part of the army, a revolution might be witnessed ; and a Republic, however short-lived, under the extreme doctrines of the Nihilists, would, iu an ignorant population like the llussian, exhibit quite as frightful scenes as France did in 1792. Liberty will need to be gradually developed in Russia, as in all rude countries, and the policy of tho Ssalvic party, as the more moderate, is therefore the most hopeful. The Nihilists may stimulate the coming of liberty now, but if they were to predominate, their mad action would only frustrate and postpone it, just as the conduct of the Jacobine did in France. When we witness the confusion which now rends the mighty empire 01 the Czar, we are apt to smile at the apprehension which it so long excited in Europe. Late events have conclusively proved how hollow was that strength for aggressive purposes. Yet the idea was a bugbear for half-a-century. It originated with the destruction of Napoleon's enormous host. But her winter was Russia's right arm in the terrible Moscow business ; and her Arctic winter could only avail for defence. She could not make it help her for invasion. However, did not see things then a3 we have opportunity to understand them now.- ■. Even Napoleon, himself rushed to,,the conclusion that "in fifty years Europe will be Cossack or Republican.'" ..And who not remember Beranger's' noble poeni in the same .strain, .which has been twice, magnificently translated into Englisli,* T -6n the last occasion fox tlie '.Times,[\7ti.ic}i published tlie translation in its feadiiig columns' to aroust? the public mind at the t commencement .ofjthe Crimean war." .'.The', ghost of. A'ttila. appears at midnlght.Tjya Russian ,camp-firb,. calls!, ou-Uils "des-. cendauts, ..the. noiiiacl.ilioi-semeu.'of .ffie 0/..ir,.u> invade anew, tke^nations of. l'the Most, —to.stable, their chargers, as they did before, .in the.stately courts aud Halls of a degenerate civilisation, and. to givo them, to drink again of the waters of tho Suine and the Elbe. Hβ tells them, thaj tho Kings of the West are only waiting to kneol at the footstool of the Mnscovite :—- tVranla sil'l, .'.''''.* a °' ■' an e * T '"""'.' wo will be thv. sl»vd3, Comkc .uo,. tho'pappots ol , thv rriu. .. .. . .. -./,.:,'. It is a nightmare which 13 not' again lifcelly. to disturb either the statesmen or the poets of Europe. ■■■•■■■ ■■ v