A PARALLEL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 10, 26 June 1885, Page 7

A PARALLEL.

(Bombay Catholic Examiner, April 24.)

To trace out a resemblance between the manner in which Russian statesmen conduct their home and foreign policy or, which is very much the same thing, between the manner in which they encroach upon the territories of their neighbours and upon the rights of the

Catholic Church is not difficult to anyone who has of late years watched the development of Russian policy at home aud abroad. In both directions may be perceived the same persistent and unscrupulous energy, the same violation of promises and the same habit of ceasing to advance for a time with the intention of awaiting a more favourable moment for attack. To make this the clearer a few words concerning what Russia is striving to bring about both within the borders of her colossal empire and without them will not be thrown away.

What the great Muscovite empire is just now aiming at abroad does not need many words to describe. It is a question which has received the fullest treatment from writers of all religions and of every shade of politics, and they all come to pretty much the same conclnsion. Whether Peter the Great did or did not leave it in his will that the rule of his successors should extend far into Central and Southern Asia is a matter of no great moment, for those successors have for some years past been acting precisely as though they had received such instructions from the founder of the empire which ha« its headquarters on the Neva. With unparalleled steadiness and determination they have advanced slowly but rapidly along the destined road, overcoming every obstacle as they progressed onwards, continually laying the foundations of a great imperial structure and converting their very difficulties into the means of future success. Again and again they have promised feo advance no further, but their promises have been broken almost as soon as made. They hare made dupes in abundance owing to the seeming honesty of their professions, but at length the mask has been so completely thrown aside that not even the simplest of their admirers fails to understand what is their present policy and what it has been all along. Not even the most confiding of their friends believes that they have any serious intention of fixiDg the boundaries of Russian dominion where they are at present, or that any aheck can be put upon their designs except through fear of au opposition as powerful and energetic as is their own determination to advance. In a resolute policy on the part of the opponents of Russian aggression lies the only hope of averting a serious war on the northwest frontier of India. The aims of Russian statesmen or of many of them abroad are thus sufficiently clear to enable us to dispense with dealing with them further. What those same rulers desire at borne is not so generally understood. Their object is to establish throughout the em pire that uniformity of political feelings, language and religion which they deem essential to its security and greatness. In the language of modern politicians thtir desire is to "Russify" everything. Throughout the dominions of the Czar they would have no language spoken but the Russian, and no religion followed but that which the Czar, the head of the so-called Orthodox Greek Church, professes. Iv Russia in Europe at the present day there are members of more than one nationality and more than one religion. Besides members of the Greek Church, there are a few Lutherans of German descent and some millions of Catholic Poles. About the former little more need be said than that the task of converting them is proceeding rapidly and with considerable smoothness. Far greater difficulty is encountered in dealing with the Poles, who with the well known spirit and fidelity of their race cling tenaciously to their national traditions, their language, and above all to their holy religion. But all this cannot shaice the determination of their tyrants to " Russify " them, and this determination is the motive for the terrible persecutions which ever and anon startle the civilized world. The Draconian laws which impose heavy penalties upon the use of the Polish language and forbid it to be employed as a medium for conveying instruction whether secular or religious ; the exile of Polish Bishops for no crime save that of teaching and enforcing the doctrines of the Catholic Church and the forcible "conversion" of whole bodies of men who profess the Catholic religion ; all these acts of tyranny have their origin iv the determination to carry out the great political doctrine upheld by the advisers of the Czar that all religions and languages throughout the wide dominions of that autocrat should make room for the one which he and his Ministers have determined to impose sooner or later upon all the subjects of the empire. It is true that at times there is a relaxation of severity either induced by prudential motives as the faint hopes of peace are just now said to be, or due to the fact that a " peace party " is in power. But such periods of truce are of very short duration, the men of peace and justice yield to their more vigorous and unprincipled rivals, and the work of aggression goes on as before. ' The plan of proceedings in Russia towards the Catholic Church, very much resembling that lately pursued in the neighbourhood of Penjdeh, has been justly said to be the glorification of the wolf and lamb strategy. Whether it be a question of slaughtering the Afghans : or persecuting the Poles, the same method is followed, of imputing impossible acts of aggression to the weaker party as a pretext for deeds of savage injustice. Thus among other excuses for the banishment of the Bishop of Wilna and the projected suppression of his : diocese, the most ridiculous stories were circulated by the Russian , Press, of actß of violence perpetrated upon Russian officials by Polish

ladies and of attacks made by Polish women upon amy preacher who •taould dare to preach in the Russian language. These, however, are but silly pretexts'and worthy only of notice on account of the resemblance they bear to the frivolous reasons alleged as an excuse for Russian aggression in Central Asia. Unchecked by. any sense of right or justice and utterly heedless of the wishes even of the Czar himself, who is said really to desire peace with the Sovereign Pontiff, the Ministers at St. Petersburg pursue with unabated zeal their' policy of crushing the Catholic Chuich. Among the most cruel of tbbir attempts may be mentioned the enforcing of the ukase by which the Poles are forbidden to hold offices in the .State or even to acqnire or farm lands in many parts of the empire. Still worse is the persecution of the Uniates or Greek Catholics who have been all ordered to embrace the Russian religion, — General Gourko himself a renegade Pole having been appointed to see that the "order is obeyed. The sufferings of these martyrs to Russiaa tyranny are only equalled by the constancy they display. To force them to embrace a religion they detest, the districts they inhabit have been flooded by soldiers and schismatic priests, while the spiritual aid of the clergy of their own faith is kept at a distance from them. Still they hold out, and we may hope that they will long continue to do so ; but it must be confessed that their cause appears all but desperate. With truth it may indeed be said that nothing save the interposition of that Divine Providence, in which they place their trust, is able to give" victory to the Catholic subjects of the Czar in the coutest they are condemned to wage for the preservation of their national traditions and their holy faith. . '