NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11955, 2 May 1902, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

DISTURBED RUSSIA. There is nowhere so.lively a perception of the very great weakness of Russia, as one finds in Russia itself. Russian thinkers are able to recognise that her enormous expansion has been merely! the subjugation of i number of semi-barbarian tribes in Asia; and, moreover, they are well aware of, a graver source of weakness stall. For what anyone who has mixejl much with all classes of the Russian people! must remember as his most startling impression is the almost universal longing for defpat in some great campaign. The expression of this feeling, the offspring of a terrible despair as to the present condition of the country, is to bo heard in North or in Southern Russia, east or" west, wherever the speakers are able men and women who love their country and their country's freedom. Among the most varied classes of society and people entirely unacquainted with one another, there exists this strangely. ardent desire.'for defeat in a coming war. For no other possibility of libera- ~'■ tion from the vast accumulation of misery,.; seems to present itself to Russians who are inspired by the greatest love for their coun- : try than the debacle /which an unsuccessful war would entail upon their ruling sj*t">m. To us such a spirit mist be'astounding, and it;? widespread existence in Russia at this present moment, while it may induce the Government of the T;ar to regard war as a necessary political version, must inevitably deprive the great northern Power of that unity and cohesion which are absolutely; indispensable to the successful employment of armed force. But in addition to this element of weakness, even the armed foiee of Russia, with its imposing army of millions, has from time tb time exhibited traces of this same socialists yearning for freedom and emancipation„witji which despotism will surely have to reckon in the day, perhaps, of its greatest need. J One other point, too, should be remembered by those who have grown to fear the irresistibility of Russian military power. Brave and obedient as the Russian soldier uiylonbtedly is, neither in - training nor in that intelligent individualism so indispensable in modern warfare is he in any way comparable with the troops of Great Britain, Germany, or France. To his officers, except in certain picked corps, where they receive special military education and training, the same description applies: and the last big Russian manoeuvres were marked by the most ridiculous mistakes on th& pJJt • I of the commissioned ranks, both high and low. It is probable, for instance, that without the support of their ally, the Russian - hosts would not have the slightest chance against the highly-trained armies of the Kaiser; while as "to the much-debated advance on India, the British soldiers, Sikh or Goorkha, will not find their match in the hordes of the Muscovite, on mountain or OP' plain. . ... """/•' ■JKSUITS IN EJTGLAXD. > A cable message in yesterday's Hkbali* i, stated that the Protectant Alliance had failed in its effort to induce the Courts to set the machinery of the law in motion against the French Jesuits who have taken up their quarters in England. The attitude of the Alliance in this matter. is explained in the following letter addressed to Lord ; .Salisbury some time ago expressing regret and alarm at learning that it is not the in- , tention of. the Government to take any measures for the protection of "this Protestant kingdom," and His Majesty's Protestantsubjects, from the Jesuit invasion.'. ■".%;" committee," wrote Mr. Brett, the secretary,, "would respectfully remind your lordship that the presence of members' of the Jesuit Order in any kingdom or State has been' so detrimental to the public interest that : they have been again and again expelled from Roman Catholic countries, and that in con-";, sequence of the representations of the King of Portugal and other Roman Catholic Sovereigns, the -Jesuit Ordsr was formally suppressed for ever and its property confiscated by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773.' .It,was publicly declared in the Papal Bull tb«t this course had been rendered imperative in order to prevent Christian peoples' from being incited to acts of violence by the machi- : nations, plots, and false teachings of the; Jesuits. The constitutions and doctrines; of the ,iesuits were exposes!, in a celebratedtrial in France in the year 1761—and the writings of the most noted members of the Order were, in consequence, commanded to be burned, and were actually burned by'the public executioner in 17&2, as containing, principles dangerous to the sacred person* 1 ' of monarchs and destructive of public morality. The most prominent of the principles and teachings of the Society of Jesus were, and are: (1) The end justifies the means; (2) probabilism; (3) directing the intention; (4) equivocation and lying: (5) murder; and (6) regicide. Next to selfaggrandisement, the supreme object of th? '; Jesuits is to subvert Protestantism, and to reduce all Protestant Sovereigns and St«r*« to the subjection to the Pope. This being notoriously the case, the committee of the 1 rotestaut Alliance regard with alarm and indignation the fact that ffis Majesty's • Ministers—-Ministers of a Sovereign whose ... Koyal house holds its position on the condition of maintaining the Protestant reli- . gion—intend to allow the Jesuit Order, ana members of other Romish Orders, to settle ; down undisturbed in this country, and pur-, sue their anti-Protestant and anti-British, ■ designs with impunity. Such & policy ex* poses His Majesty's Government to the sua-

W^ffMit l complicity with the Jesuit plot, P'f - in colli unction with the .persistent ¥*m of tie Established Church with floo< bv the appointment to tin highest P s„ of members of the Romanising party. ■■-Sh rwraried by the committee of the Pro font Alliance as at once treasonable to ffiwereign, dangerous to the country, and J*ocative of the anger of Almighty God. ,Ccalamitous condition of affaire at Home, A. humiliations of our diplomacy and the rWers to our aims, cannot, in the opinion mv committee, be regarded otherwise JJl'as indications of the Divine displeasure." OUR caulk NEWS. Though no decision has yet been come to the prospects of peace in South Africa are onsidered favourable, the only obstacle in t j, e way of a settlement being, it is said, ♦he treatment of rebels. The delegates are cjtin" the various commandos in turn, and \rill hold their final conference on the 25th just, at Vreeniging. It is announced that fatal obtains an extension of territory, comprising an area of 7000 square miles, and including a large part of the south-ens'- Trans•aid. The cost of the war up to the end .< March next is estimated to reach the enormous total of £223,000,000. which will v. met by new taxation and loans. Prince Henry of Prussia, with a powerful squadron, js cruising off the Irish coast. The Princess BadziwilT has been sentenced to two years for forgery'- __^___