The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-12-29
The Russian Style

that Of Nihilist panic, and it is currently
reported in Europe that the imminent
danger of revolution at home is the rea
secret of Russia's amiabilty abroad.
M ster ious force of this sort, strong
enough and general enough to shape the
foreign policy of a vast empire, must be q
mighty and q terrible reality. No mere
phantom or nightmare could obtain SO
! much attention.
So, instead of moving to checkmate Eng
land, Russia goes into an active, unrelen
log, home campaign of persecution-called q
repression. Her position may be exempli.
fed to the American public, by parallel
with the Republican cry of q Solid South.
Republican villainy made the South solid
in self defense, and nov the Stalwarts
shrek, in patriotic horror, that treason is
as rampant as ever and that there must be
repression in the shape of Solid North.
In the same way, Russian tyranny has
evoked the evil spirit of Nihilism, and the
government proposes to lay it with little
more tyrsnpy-For- centuries the genius
of Russian rule has been simply terror
ism. Let eerf or citizen offend anybody in
office-from the Gear down to the local
m magstrate-and he could expect the
knout or Siberia, without trial and with
out even having the choice of evils. Spies
and government agents abound; the
secrets of households are known to Minis.
ters of State through domestic treachery
affection for the government counts for
nothing, fear for everything; virtue is not
relied on as an element of the public peace.
ard coercion is expected to satisfy the
demands in that respect.
The natural fruit of such tree is begin
ming to ripen-it is hatred. Fear too long
too exclusive in its mastery,
sooner or later finds itself maturing into
hatred. Terror can only be kept alive by cru
city, and there is no heart 80 guileless as to
be forever incapable of resentment, no fear
so complete as to silence memory. Tradi-
ton carries from one generation to another
the tale of oppression, tho debt Of wrong
accumulates and bears interest, the sobs of
one age become the murmurs of second
the open defiance of q third, aud finally the
outbnrst that ends one era and commences
another. Russia is now entering upon the |
age of popular defiance. Nihilist societies |
abound in spite of her espionage, assassins |
strike down her M ost active agents and are |
acquitted by sympathetic juries, soldiers
in the field are found participating in rev.
dictionary plots and university students
protest with seditious boldness against i'm
perial acts. Discomfort has fairly gained
q foothold among the people and no longer
confines its expression to timid whisper.
The fact is that in all countries the pop
ular will is law, whether Inscribed
upon the statute book or not Even in a
republic an unpopular law is disregarded
by lenient juries, and tardy justice ia sup
plemented by Lynch court. Under a
despotism 1t is with great difficulty and
very slowly that an ignorant, besotted
population grows into a knowledge of the
situation sufficiently intelligent and gener-
al to rank as public opinion, but when
that has happeaed it becomes inexorable
Law before which the most frantic rage of
Gear or Emperor would be impotent. Pub
lie opinion is not only the law bat the real
constitution of every country-living and
prevailing while written rules are growing
obsolete and lapsing into oblivion. The
people are the State, and they invariably
show it whenever they have their mind
made up and their will fixed.
In Russia the tide of intelligence is
rising-not the moral intelligence which
confronts wrong with virtue, but the mere
ly intellectual intelligence which knows
how to combat one wrong with another,
despctism with assassination, tyranny with
anarchy. Society there has been corrupt
ed by its own government it has been
forced into heresy and taught deceit,
treachery, cruelty and slavishness. Can
we wonder that the sword of intelligence
proves dangerous weapon in the hand of
such a people, when it comes unsheathed
with the scabbard of good will Z
The seed of iniquity is cure to produce a
f-l g. I,