The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-25 00:00:00

THE SLAVS.

On Monday afternoon Mr. W. It. S. Ralston delivered, at
St. George's
Hall, Langham place, London, a lecture on
Slays in general
and Rursians In particular In response
to ansPneal by the lecturer at the close, a handsome sum was
Collected for St Peter's
Orphan sari Cenvslescebt Home,
Broadstairs, worked bytheSisters of S. Peter's, Kilburn,
Under the supervision of the Archbishop of Canterbury and
Mrll. Tait.
Mr. Ralston having traced from its pre•historic home
la Central Asia the Letto-Slavic branch of the Aryan
stream of immigrants who at some early period peopled
Europe with the ancestors of its present inhabitants,
"signated the different sections of the Slavic branch.
The feeling of the Slav seems always to have been in
favour of communal institutions, and he cared
izuch more about the fortunes of his own tribe
than for those of the c,untry in which he happened
to be located, the political significAnce of which
Was now sli4st. One Slav people only had not
only held. its own, but bad gradually increased in
Power until it had become an obj• c of suspioion
arid alarm to many other nations—the Rus,ians. Just
I;_a Germans and Slays are anti-pathetic, so are Slays
by nature sympathetic with one another, unless
alienated by religious or other atrifes. Iu Russia he
feeling in favour of brother Slays abroad had taken
"art root and grown fast, and had of late borne fruit
tZttOh wow:lewd at by wastorn ohaervere, The ties of

I race were not likely to affect nations deeply; nor were
I ties of speech capable of bringing about a complete,
unanimity of sentiment. But a common religious
feeling might work as a mighty influence on a people
whera religion was another name for patriotism
'The Rtuislan peasant recognized in the worde"religion"
and " Church " something more and something le,s
than we did. They rouse in him feelings of grati
tude for proteetion against material foes, and of in-
dignation against infidel oppressors. Now that a cry
had gone up from the south, uttered by fellow Chi's-
tians of the same communion, it found a response in
thousands of Russian hearts which might be deaf to
the most edifying addresses of the kind generally
called by us religious. The Rumian peasant has but
little idea where Servia or Bulgaria is, and has not
the faintest ccnception of the present political com-
plications. But he bears a tale told of sorrows and
sufferings like to those once endured by his own fore-
fathers, and commemorated in popular songs and stories
=songs which tellhow the Tartars long used to lay all
Russia waste, but were at last driven from the land,
thanks to direct heavenly aid. Therefore, even among
the common people, a strong feeling of sympathy
is entertained with the Slays in Turkey, of anger
against the infidel, who, as it is told, cruthes them
down.. Higher in the social scale come the trading
classes of Russia—not a cultured set of men by aLy
means, not likely to respond to msthetic sentiments,
but profoundly religious in the Russian sense of the
word. They are deeply stirred by the sad tidings
which reach them from the south, and they are very
rich. The monasteries, too, had been amassing wealth
for centuries, but would part with it, if need be, for a
religious cause, Higher still were tbe cultured pro-
fessional classes, especially the historians, the jurists',
the poets, the romance writers, and all the other
men of letters and science throughout the land.
Mr. Ralston had some personal acquaintance with
these classes, and he felt assured that the feeling of
sympathy with the Southern Slays was deeply rooted
among them. The women of Russia, also, so far as
the cultured classes are concerned, were equally ardeut
in this feeling. The great novelist, Ivan Tourgueneff,
in his story, called "Oa the Eve," told how an enthu-
siastic young Bulgarian patriot won the heart of a fair
young Russian maiden by telling her, not of his own
love, but of his country's wrongs, and how she left aU
to follow and aid him in his efforts in its behalf. Mr.
Ralston undertook to say that the present movement in
-Russia was a genuine one, based on human sympathies
and high aspirations. Whether its aims were right or
wrong were questions which could hardly be answered
without stepping into the tabooed field of politics.
Nothing could be more unlike the Russian Englishmen
pictured to themselves than the real Russian of every-
day life. Kindly, tender•hearted, submissive to the
Government and the Church, the ordinary Moujik
would be a model citizen, were it not for a few failings.
He had not the Teutonic love of truth. His dress was
distinctly frowsy, some drank a great deal too much,
others often beat their wives. Mr. Relston spoke of
the ties of friendship which had bound England and
Russia together from the time when Rickard Chan-
cellor and the other English navigators discovered, as
it were, the Northern realm, and said that all who
delighted in progress and reform should look with in-
tereet upon a country which during the last 20 years
had made such wonderful strides in those directions.