The Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1879.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3439, 19 April 1879, Page 2

The Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1879.

IHussiAN society, like our own, id, for political considi'iatiuns, roughly divisible into two cliiuaee — the bureaucracy aud the democracy. In Russia tho former pusHHHB tho full enjoyment of power, ample aecurity, and all the great opt-n---uigtf to gain, whilst tho latter exists to submit, and inußt bo content to Bee t.hemsfclves plundered directly and indirectly. It certainly cannot he laid to the fault of a class in this Colony if they do not enjoy all the advantages of the bureaucracy in Russia. It is not surpiißiug in Bueh a condition of society as we fiud in Russia — liberty, security, and exceptional privileges of great value on one side, and harsb, down-trodden poverty on the other — that cla&s feeling is very strong. From envy, the Btcp to hatred is short, and tho fe«liug is likely io grow more bitterly intense with time. The exercise of arbitrary power causes irritation ; its repetition by no means diminishes the feeling, and as it becomes of frequent occurrence the irritation developes into a festering, social and political eoj-o. The attempt to crush public Bentiuaent aids it b growth just as the best way to propagate a religion is to make martyrs of its professors. Dissatisfaction has grown into active discontent, and the discontent has grown again into bitter class hatred which has made itself manifest in several different phases. The war over, there is disaatisfaction at its cost, compared with the results. It has been made manifest that the army was in a condition of unpreparedness for the great work it was called upon to undertake ; that gross incompetency and still grosser corruption in high places are responsible for many trials and hardships it had to endure, and for many sacrifices it bad to make. It is not known even now what the total coat of the war has been, and probably it will never be accurately ascertained. The expenditure for 1877 was estimated at £40,000,000. but it is believed to have exceeded £100,000,000. The revenue for last year fell below the estimate, and in consequence of the well known financial embarrassment the paper currency depreciated The burdens upon tie producing classes wbiob previously were j neither light nor trivial had to be : increased, and this added a heavy it< sn to the sources of discontent. The oenp 1

sorship of the Press has been freely exerciaed to crußh expression of the popular feeling, whilst a vigorous police administration has prevented any open manifestation of public opinion. It is asserted that society in Russia is permeated with secret and seditious associations. Of these associations the Nihilists are the moßt numerous, most powerful, and by far the most widely known. To the mind of the Nihilist, confusion and anarchy are not so terrible as the present condition to which the people have been brought. The emancipation of the serfs accelerated the desire for liberty and warmed into a flame an ambition for greater freedom. The Russian peasant, gazing upon the vast estates of a privileged class, and comparing his own hopeless poverty perchance feels that the world and all the good things thereof have been unfairly divided, and that by a redistribution he might pussibly come out a gainer. Embittered by J:he public exactions; dissatisfied with the public administration ; disgusted with the feeling — more or less well-founded — of an all-pervading corruption, it is scarcely astonishing members of secret societies are filled with a belief that redress can only be obtained by the overthrow of all the institutions by which the governing oligarchy maintain their power. The final results of such a crunade of destruction as th> Nihilists contemplate are nut realised by their promoters ; consequently, theories which would find no sympathy in any constitutionally governed country — Ger many perhaps exoepted — fill the minds of large sections of the people, and undermine the whole fabric of the State.

It is not amongst the peasantry or the ignorant agricultural classes in the country that the dangerous elements are to be found. Neither Socialists nor Nihilists would be so formidable but for the mental character and intelligence of the middle classes The vast change which within a generation has come over the people has caused a disposition to enquire into and examine all theories of government. Naturally, Representative and Constitutional Government has been scanned, its principles admired, and, no doubt, its general fairaeßS has commended it to the aspirationß of the people. The intelligent and the educated compare their condition in Russia with the advantages enjoyed by the same class to which they belong in England, America, or France ; and the advantages would naturally be enhanced by contemplation from a distance, where nothing could be seen of defectivenesß. It will be remembered that in June last Veba Zasulitch was acquitted of the charge of attempting to murder General Thepoff, and her acquittal was due to the feeling amongst the middle class as we have attempted to describe it. The enthusiasm with which she was received upon her acquittal by the atudenta will also be remembered. It is quite natural that the popular feeling should find the moat impulsive, the most unguarded expression amongst the educated and aspiring youth of the nation. It will be remetnbored also that the murderers of Mezentoff — from what little could be seen of them — evidently belonged to the same class amongst the people, aud now we learn that Betrim who, it has been ascertained, is a schoolmaster, attempted to assassinate the Emperor. A schoolmaster can not be considered an ignorant man ; on the contrary, it will probably be found that he is a person not only of educati n, but of more than ordinary intelligence, belonging to some of the Recret societies which fill the country. The stratum, of society where disaffection ia most to be found, is not the most numerous, for the classes at present have neither the motive, the aspiration, nor the power to become particularly troublesome. The Government has before it a harder task than even that of BiSWARCK with the Socialists. It is to be hoped that it will Beck other sei unties than oppression and repression, and that the work it has to do at home will prevent its becoming involved in ambitious and dubious entanglements abroad.