Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-06-01
Il USSIA'S GREAT DANGER.
An Austrian Travellers Account of
the Revolutionary Temper of the
litsch Trial kevealed-The Extent
of the Discomfort with AutOcracy,
of the n. Y. Evening Post.

. VIENNA, AUSTRIA, May 10, 1873.
Russian empire against Wyera Sassulisch is
we'll known, but there are many facts and
some ,niefehces ,grpwlng out of this trial and
verdict which Will be interesting to your re td
ers ff' M one who has just left the land of the
NuScoviteS.
TEE EXCITEMENT IN RUSSIA.
The excitement in Russia is universal.
strong and impulSlve among the students aud
! young persons generally, equally strong but
| more cam among business men aud civiii,n
! impetHOus and fervid among the editors. One
! newspaper, the GOIOs, compares Wyera S assn
! litSch with Eliza Hessel, the he oine of a
Berlin, another to Charlotte Corday. .twho.''
| says the editor, with her own sword over
| threw system Rapp, editor in chief of one
! newspaper, wrote IN his leading article: I'll
! is evident that the freedom and peace of pri
! vate persons with us is not secured alone bv
the statute of 1904, but also by the mysterious
| are brought out i'll bold relief by the deed of
| Wyera SassulitSch. By the acQuitta and ne
sympathy shown for the acquitted, soci .ty
| the interference of the administration in taa
| business Of the courts. Official deSpotiSm h -
Scattered our inner life, and Shall we become
| habitually subject to arbitIar power?'
The N0rOje Wrenja published the follow
| ing: The principles OF the state are peace
and justice, and projection against arhitrari-
ness and power. There are Instances how
ever, where a judgment according to the evil
dence is not admissible. Such cases have re-
peatedly occurred in Eui%Ge and America,
anu nave nol proved III as: on the con.
ttiary, rather useful: And in the acqGittal OF
Myera Sassulitsch the jury have done a bsne-
10 s s' ava aha vHe satutes In another
THE GOVERNMENTS COURSE.
The excitement has even reached The impe-
rial palace, it is reported, and the Car, fear
ing lest he too may fail victim TO a second
SaSSulitSch, purposes leaving for a German
bath. Indeed, from all the Information which
l can collect, it is questionable whether the
CONSERVATION Is greater among the people OF
a, the court.
TIE government has adopted vigorous meas
Ures to suppress this tone of the press and pre-
vent further riOtOuS demonstrations, witii,us
seeking to ascertain the cause or to Introduce
any reform, or to do anything else eXccp7 to
utter the threat that the rights of the jury
may be abriuged." An attempt to dc. tnat
now, wi h the Imperial Guard in San Stefano
would certainly produce an inSurrection
Two newspapers have been confScatcd. Three
warned for the first time Offending iourni ais
usually receive three wal ningS) and five for
e second time, and street circu alton is pro-
hlbi ed 10 nearly all Others until further no
tee.
In st. Petersburg the discussion of the trial
on he ST. Get and in all places of public resort
is fOrhidden Several students have been ar
reed there Tor preparing an address to he
at Orney for the defence. In Kew aud
Moscow the forts have been heavily garrison
ed, and the troops patrol the city night ana
day. One hundred and forty students have
been turned out of the University of Kew
fifty of whom have not only been expelled, iii
our sense of the word, but have forever TO- st
the right of attending any university. Several
students have been transported to distant
places, with a loss of educational privileges
for nine, seven, five, four aud three years re-
>pectively; and tonight, as l am writing. the
news reaches us that fifteen young men have
been ART Sted i'll LemDerg, and that if SINH
lar revolt occurs at the University of Kew, It's
doors shall be forever closed as an institution
OF learning.
INCENDIARY LITERATURE
Connected with this daring venture, yet EN-
anatlng from different source. though with :,
common object, is another OF a still more start
ling character, namely, the circulation all over
! the empire of revolutionary pamphlets, sum
moning the, people tosarms to drive out the
| tyranny that Expresses them, and establish by
| a constitution their rights and freedom. In
| Warsaw secret organization, composed of
business men,, women and students chiefly
was discovered for prOpagating Revolutionary
| literature. at the head of which was a woman
| who escaped arrest only by flight at night.
| An associate committee was found to exist i'm
LelnDerg, and with them proclamation to
the people" was brought to light. But the
mystery is where the proclanations were
Struggled in, if elsewhere. The answer is
simple. Switzerland is the chief center OF
| Russian political eXIleS, as it was of the
Italian and Greek exiies., Hence there is the
| center OF Russian revolutionary literature
| though the government can seldom trace it
beyond Berlin Paris or Vienna. The reason
OF this is obvious; / give the explanatio"
| switzerland gave 1t to me. The YariDu
| pamphlets. circulars, books, etc, are usually
printed IN Switzerland; then some one takes
| them to Vienna, Berlin or Paris. aud Gi!ey
are shipped thence or some pc idltr Smug 5.e,
them through the lines in the false bottom o.
| his pack, and then distributes them here an.
there as opportunity offers. L. is not inrte
| quently the case that a whole village in he
morning is surprised with pamphlet at eac ;
door" This Russian further said that he h vi
| Just sent large package to Lemberg aui d
| few days after l read in the Free Press that
"a large number Of pamphlets had been di,
covered by the officers, containing a revo!u
tionary address to the people. 1t was
supposed to have been printed in Switzer-
land said the newspaper, "but was sent from
! Vienna"
NIHILIsM AND REPUBL1CANIsM
among thoSe persons who were arrested in
Lem6erg as well as those students in Kew
many with nihilistlc convictions. Nihiiism.
on the one hand, and republicanism, social
democracy and reform on the other. have in
Of as so @e as many in all
stratum of society in the empire. But the Sc
different bodies are obliged to propagate their
in families, under tear of arrest and Siberian
exile. In short, nothing politically hostile to
the admlnlstratlon is allowed to be discussed
or published: This is what makes the decision
OF the st. Petersburg jury of SO much interest
Here is an unprecedented, bold, daring step
a jury OF intelligent citizens declares publicly,
W to the in political
| What does this mean? Much to Russian auto
cracy. 1t means that public opinion is form
| ing which dareS assert its convictions, which
| dares judge and condemn TrepOw, the adju
tant general, and pet of the Car; it means
| that the nihiliSt, the ScapegOat of every p0lit-
| lcal crime for the last forty years in Russia is
the representative of that increasing b0dv
| which threatens barbarian autocracy with
| overthrow, and demands constitutional rights
| and order in its stead.
THE AUTOCRATIC SYSTEM OF TRIAL
The decision of the st. Petersburg Jury was
| not upon the trial of Wyera SassulitSch She
| represented to them an idea, the idea of civil
and political liberty, and the trial was between
| this idea and the Russian administration
| The condemned is the imperial autOcracy ::
| the acquitted is public opinion That is why
Wyera SaSSulitsch was acquitted ; that is why
| the address of her attorney was interrupted
| by applause from the spectators: that is why
| nearly every eye was wet, not only among the
/ spectators but on the jury bench when her
| attorney depicted in so mastery way the
| sufferings and privations which Russian pris-
oners must endure: when he told how Vogul-
| jubOu was whippedin his cell. how the prisoner
| at the bar, as a young girl, was repeatedly
| placed before the court and each time acqut-
| ted, yet never given her freedom, but trans
| ported from place to place under police
| escort; how others, aged and young have
been torn from their homes for no known
cause, and sent God knows whittier to pass
their days in misery: That is why the
multitude were assembled before the court
house door, and why the verdict was greeted
with wild hurrahS. The aycitamanf