THE STATE OF RUSSIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 348, 19 December 1879, Page 11

THE STATE OF RUSSIA.

The Daily Mws special correspondent at St. Petersburg writes :— St. Petersburg is never agreeable in the summer ; but, so far as I can observe, it is made no more disagreeable by tbe recent extraordinary police measures. The theory of passports assumes, of course, that every person is a suspected person. For the existence of one possible malefactor all innocent travellers are oppressed by regulations designed to secure the detection and arrest of that malefactor ; but all the measures of precaution adopted in civilised society for the prevention of crime are burdens more or less upon people who are not criminals. It is only a question of degree ; and while in Russia the burden is heavier here now than it was before the recent events, the routine to which travellers are subjected is exactly the same that it was a year ago, or five years ago, or ten. Nay, the actual change in what concerns them is much less than at Berlin. The authorities of the German capital introduced the system of passports after Nobiling's attempt, which was a decided innovation, and the less excusable, since Berlin was in possession of a trustworthy police, and a society which still remained perfectly sound. 1 say nothing of the Kußsian measures which concern more particularly the Russians themselves, affecting the right of domicile, the privilege of writing, speaking, printing, the liberty of personal movement, and tbe like. Their adoption is a purely domestic affair, and English critics of Russia would do well to remember that England would be the first country in the world to resent outside criticism of its home policy. The right of self-preservation is as sacred a duty of the State of the Czar as any other State. When sudden and great dangers arise they must be met by adequate measures ; and the determination of what is adequate, and therefore what is absolutely indispensable, is perhaps as easy to the statesmen on the Neva as to newspaper critics in fleet street. And if fairness towards Russia were not too much to expect of some at least of fhose critics, one might observe that it is decidedly unfair to ascribe bad faith in advance to everything done here. Well, I have come up here myself to see with my own eyos, and my testimony, whatever it may be worth in other respects, is at least based on personal observation. The more I look about the more I am amazed at the reckless exaggeration of the stories which hare been published. It is doubtless inconvenient to be a suspected, still more to be a convicted, Russian ; but the tourist who comes here with his heart in his mouth, expecting to find a city groaning under military law, to have his steps dogged by spies, to be tenderly put to bed at ten o'clock by the police, in short to be subjected to any more restraint than was formerly the case, will be early undeceived. Life in the streets, or in the hotels, or in the caf6s, is as free as ever. There is no difficulty in getting a supper at the restaurants at one o'clock, or even at two in the morning. Even the institution which was most heartily denounced— that of house porters— is distinguished rather by its ludicrous inefficiency than by anything else. These novel guardians are most conscientiously asleep the whole time. Formerly the house door being locked, it was necessary to ring in order to obtain entrance ; but now, the door being unlocked and the porter asleep outside, one can generally walk in undisturbed. The payment of these men is, of course, a heavy burden upon house owners, but tbe " Dvorniks" are not troublesome to respectable people. The most warlike place that one can see is the hotel of General Gourko, which is completely surrounded by soldiers and police, where every passer-by is sharply scrutinised, and access is extremely difficult. Drenfeln and Sorow are less strongly fortified, but even they never drive out without their escort of Cossacks.