THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1885.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7382, 17 July 1885, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1885.

Things do look warlike. Large Russian reinforcements cannot be pouring into Central Asia, nor, as is stated in this morning's telegrams, can the Russian force in the vicinity of the Zulfikar Pass be considerably increased, without an object. The announcement that 35,000 troops are ready to start from England for India at a moment's notice together with Lord Salisbury's refusal to accede to the proposals advanced by Russia, is a hint that they are not disposed in Downing-street to stand any more humbug about the Afghan frontier. People may reasonably wonder why the Czar's Government do not prefer to halt, at any rate for a time, over their recent acquisitions in the vast central region of the Continent, instead of tempting fate by further advances now, and forcing a quarrel with England- Possibly it may be with them as it was with Bonaparte, when he used to say, in excuse for his restless ambition, that circumstances would not allow him to stand still. Everybody knows that the internal condition of

Russia is miserable, and that among all its subjects there is not a more miserable man than the Czar himself. He, who is by custom and courtesy termed the Autocrat, is at once the tool and the prisoner of the real Government — the Power behind the Throne, composed of the chief officials, civil and military, with certain members of the Imperial family, who share the spoils of the corrupt bureaucracy that perverts the taxes and devours the prosperity of the country, like locusts eating up every green thing. How this etate of affairs grew up we duly explained when the Nihilist conspiracy was making a noise. Besides the movement of the Nihilist or Socialist party, there was the movement known as the Sclavonic or National, larger and really more formidable, although less demonstrative than the Nihilist one. . But the Government—that is the underhand Power aforesaid—cares not for the one or the other conspiracy so long as it can command the obedience of the Ozar, who, as spiritual and temporal Father of Holy Russia, commands the devotion of the peasantry and therefore of the army raised from it. That this devotion is still intense and unbounded as at any former period was proved by the enthusiasm at the coronation in Moscow, which checkmated both the revolutionary parties by showing them how little way they bad been able to effect among the country people. But, when the Czar is as miserable under the present system as any of his subjects—when ho also is used as a mere tool by an infamous Government, why does he not revolt from his bondage 1 Should he not bf! in a position to do so with the army and peasantry at his call? And if that were not enough, could he not also make common cause with at least the constitutional revolutionists—the Sclavonic, so-called—powerful among the old nobility, and among the townspeople,? Indeed, it was expected he would make such a stand when he ascended the throne; because a few years ago, when heir to the sceptre, he openly joined this particular revolutionary body. The Ozarewitsch lost heart, however, when he became Ozar. He is now more afraid of the bowl or cord of the agents of the secret ruling power than of the vengeful bomb, or dagger of the Revolutionists. A system of control which has existed in Russia for generations is not without its carefully organised agencies for watching and insuring the obedience of the Sovereign, and he who crosses its will or its interests abruptly dies. If the reader will look into the book of travels—some forty years back—of the Marquis de Oustine, which we have quoted before on the social condition of Russia, he will learn in what manner the Emperor Paul met his death, and how his son, the Emperor Alexauder, considered it prudent to affect ignorance of the fact. Of course, evil things belong to the past, and do not happen in our time; but, nevertheless, the Ozar Nicholas, a self-willed personage, and troublesome to his advisers, did die mysteriously and opportunely; and in Russia people also now shake their heads over the decease the other day of the impetuous Skoboloff, a partisan of change, and dreaded for his influence with the army.

It is no easy matter for the sovereign in Russia to shake himself free of his dictatorial surroundings, and the present feeble prince has not the force of will or ability to make the attempt. But he cannot always reign, and his successor may be of a different stamp, and the present condition of Russia is portentous. Nihilism, Soejalism, cannot spread, but the constitutional reformers must finally triumph. Under the scandalous and oppressive corruption in all public business discontent is universal; and even the benighted peasants cannot continue nowadays fco be in the dark as to the real position of their monarch, held in bondage by an unscrupulous oligarchy. They will some day respond to a call for his liberation, and it is said that a large proportion of the officers ot the army hold revolutionary principles. In face of this situation we can quite understand that the Secret Government desire foreign war to divert the public attention from domestic abuses, and that they seek the annexation of new provinces to the Empire in order to take the wind out of the sails of the revolutionists by pleasing the national sentiment. Of course they would be glad to carry out such annexations in Afghanistan and Beloochistan without having to cross swords with England, but no British statesman will ignore the duty of defending those outposts of India.