The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-21 00:00:00

THE RECENT MANIFESTO OF THE

he Berlin Correspondent of the Daily News writes
"I hear from good sources that the Emperor Alex-
ander purposely postponed his recent manifesto until
the foreign Princes and Ambassadors had left the
capital.
"A correspondent writes under date St. Petersburg,
May 12 :—"fhe effect of the manifesto recently ',called
is deplorable and stupefying. Every one asks what it
means. Had the manifesto been published imme-
diately after the death of the late Czar people would
have accepted it as issued under the influence of intense
grief and strong impulse; but given as it has
been on the return of the Emperor to the
capital for a few hours, guarded by a large and
ads° ectort, along toilfe blond tO te public,
as if the Imperial couro lay through a hostile coun-
try, and after a month's isolation from the people
who expected the early publication of urgent mea-
sures Of reforna, it is astounding evidence of indecision
and inability to discern the signs of the times. Under
the lamentable system of press restrictions no Russian
newspaper dares to express the popular feeling, but
the effect among all the intelligent classes is unmis-
takable. Educated men, honourably engaged in the
service of their country, on reading the manifesto ad-
dressed themselves to their chief asking: 'Where are
now your reforms ? ' "

The terlin Correspondent di tines sayB
As to the course which the Emperor Alexander has
thought fit to pursue, as indidated by his recent pro-
clamation, there is only one judgment, and that is one
of regret and condemnation. . . . The Czar's procla-
mation does not, it is true, exclude the hope of re-
forms such as those foreshadowed by your St. Peter-
burg Correspondent the other day, but it certainly
does away with all prospect of a ,Constitution, and a
Constitution is what the Party of Reform, or Revolu-
tion, or however they choose to call themselves,
clamourously demand and will not do without. It is,
therefore, the serious belief of allthinking men here that
the negotiating phase in the dispute between Nihilism
and Absolutism is already ended, and that the com-
batants will now again take to acts. The result of the
struggle, too, is dreaded, as each of the adversaries
has sworn not to yield.

rhe times Correspondent gives the following extracts from
Berlin papers, mainly of Liberal tone. The Vossisehe Zeitung
writes:—

"The Czar has spoken and the Russian people will
reply, 'We aeked for bread and you gave us a stone."
The consequences of this manifesto will be shown by
the next few years. Nlea,nwhile, part of the Russian
people, rendered sufficiently savage without this, is
preparing by mad excesses to oppose the fanaticism of
rebellion to that of absolutism The irreconcil-
able manifesto of the Czar opens out a very bad pro-
pect for foreign countries, especially the neighbours of
Russia, and it is for them to take timely precautions
so as to suffer as little as possible from the disruption
to which Russia is advancing."

The Tribune remarks :
" Against a conviction resting on Divine inspiration,
such as that whereof the manifesto speaks, there is of
course, no appeal. We must, therefore, expect that
the most loyal entreaties and prayers for a representa-
tion of the people even in the most modest form will
not only be regarded as an offence against the auto-
cratic power of the Czar, but also against the will of
God, and be chastised as such The political
struggle will now be replaced by one for and against
religion, with a fanaticism which will probably become
more terrible in its effects than those we have already
witnessed."
The Tageblatt says :

_ ..
"Poo; Czar! How frightful for his people and for
himself if his ear, still deafened by the late explosion,
has mistaken the voice of God! . . . A dark fate
rests on the house of the RomanDff's and the appre-
hension forces itself upon us that in view of past
horrors this new Imperial manifesto may probably
become the winding-sheet of autocratic power in
Russia.

The National Zeitung (continues the correspondent)
cannot imagine what has induced the Czar to issue this
new manifesto, which does not essentially differ from
the proclamation made by him on succeeding to the
Government; while the Borsencourier, in view of the
troubles certain to arise from the struggle between in-
flexible autocratic power and the bloodthirsty tenden-
cies of revolution, earnestly advises the German public
to have nothing whatever to do with Russian bonds
and to recover and re-invest their capital thus invested
as soon as possible.

The Times of Monday commented upon the Imperial
Manifesto in a leader, from which we make the following
extracts :

The hopes awakened throughout Europe by the
opening of the reign of the Czar Alexander 111. have
been roughly cast down. In the midst of tragic
memories and mysterious terrors, the present Emperor
had shown at the outset a disposition to conciliate and
an accessibility to reform which justified the expecta-
tion that Russia, after the shock of a monstrous crime,
would not only recover her moral balance, but would
start with firm and sure steps upon the path of
progress. The Ministers whom Alexander 111. called
to his councils were believed to be men for the most
part convinced that, of all the perils surrounding
the throne and threatening the State, the most
formidable were those resulting from a blind resist-
ance to change, and from the determination to defy
the revolutionary faction by a vehement assertion of
autocracy We explained a tew days ago
the provisions of the ukase which had been prepared
by a Committee of the Council of State, and which
it was then believed, would be promulgated in a few
days with the authority of the Czar. This remark-
able document was intended to complete the beneficial
work of the Act of Emancipation of 1861, which had
secured the personal freedom of the peasantry and
given them a right of occupancy in the soil, capable
of being transformed into full ownership by the
performance of certain conditions. The peasants
have complained long and loudly that the conditions
are unreasonably onerous, and the ukase which we
were told to expect last week was intended to satisfy
their claims and to facilitate their complete trans-
formation into proprietors. The settlement of this
momentous land question would have been only
second in importance to the great work which was
accomplished twenty years ago, and it would have
signalized the opening of the new reign by arousing
popular feelings of delight which would have tended
to efface the painful and terrible recollections of the
dark chapter of history closing with the death of
Alexander 11.

Unfortunately, the spirit which prevailed when this
policy received the approval of the Emperor has been
supplanted, on a sudden, by one wholly different.
While the Russian people and their neighbours were
discussing the provisions of the proposed ukase and
finding in them the promise of further reforms, the
Emperor was holding a review at St. Petersburg, in
which between 40,000 and 50,000 men were paraded,
as if to warn the Nihilists that the Czar was the abso-
lute master of overwhelming and irresistible forces.
Immediately afterwards an Imperial • manifesto was
published in St. Petersburg, the language of which
appeared to be chosen expressly with a view to put
an end to dreams of constitutional progress. Alex-
ander 111. declared his unshaken faith "in the
strength and justice of the autocratic power," which,
he significantly added, "we have been called to sup-
port and preserve, for the people's good, from all im-
pairment and injury." Much more to the same
effect appeared in this document, ending with an
urgent appeal to the loyalty of the people, which is
almost a relipreligionamong the Russian masses. The
personal devotion of . the peasantry to the Czar,
irrespective of his individual qualities or the
character of his policy, is something without
a parallel in Europe. It may seem strange
that such feelings should exist side by side
with the desperate and implacable hostility of
Nihilism. But the contradiction is apparent only.
The Nihilists have broken with the most binding con-
victions and sentiments of the society in which they
have been bred, just as the scepticism of superstitious
countries—Spain, for example—is most rancorous and
insulting towards the objects of popular veneration.
It is undisputed that the Nihilists are a mere handful
of reckless men arrayed against the vast populations
to whose loyalty the Czar appeals, for the purpose, it
must be noted, of obtaining support "in rooting out
the horrible sedition which dishonours the land of
Russia." . . . . In no country has political
disaffection, not to speak of Nihilism in its most
extravagant and destructive form, been chastised
with such unrelenting seventy. The ferocity and the
determination of Nihilist conspirators afford a mea-
sure of the effect produced by the system of sheer re-
pression, on which it seems the Government of Alex-
ander 111. is about to fall back. It is time
still to pause in this fatal reaction, and, treading
panic under foot, to turn aside from the path
of autocratic rigour. We do not contend that
the bestowal of a Constitution on Russia would
be possible. The people are far too backward in
every way to be intrusted with direct political
power. But, without giving them the control of
the Executive or even granting large legislative
authority, it might be poscible to develope represen-
tative institutions gradually among the Russians, and
to provide throughout the Empire opportunities for
the free discussion of public affairs, which would serve
as a safety-valve for the seething, inarticulate thought
of the community, and enable the Government to
consult the wishes of the masses. It is impossible to
conjecture how far concessions in this sense would
suffice to cut off the supply of embittered discontent
which creates the forces of Nihilism. But one thing
is certain—that supply will be increased and exacer-
bated by a repre,sive policy, the efficacy of which for
the prevention of crimes like the murder of Alexander
11. is something more than doubtful.

The appointment of General Ignatieff in place of
General Melikoff has been officially announced in St.
Petersburg.