New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-05-06

of this prosecution will provoke reactlonary
measures of some severity. Certainly when on
assassin who confesses in open court that she
shot project is acquitted by a jury selected
from the middle classes. and Immediately
adopted as a popular heroine, society Is pre-
sumably in dangerous condition.
The feeling in regard to Vera Sassulltch
NAV be partly accounted for by compassion
for the woman herself, subjected as she had
been to nine years of police persecution ana
almost continual illegal imprisonment. But
the fact nevertheless remains that disaticctlon
toward the Government is widespread and
deep in the lower and middle ranks,
and it is not surprising to hear that the
imperial court looks upon the situation
with mconccalgd anxiety. Tie riot
Gus and often rcbellious manifestations
Of which the Telegraph las lately bought u
so many accounts, are plainly the symptoms
of general disorder. They point to great
change in the constitution of Russian society,
q change which cannot be ayortcd and cannot
be long deferred Whether it is to come by the
peaceful development Of incomplete reforms.
OF by the violence Of insurrccton, Is possibly
one of the great problems OF European poll
tics. But nobody magincs that Russia, rs she
now stands, offers much hope of national pro-
grcss or national stability. She is great mil
ltaIy power; a. yet she lacks the elements OF
a great nation.
The whole empire is said to be undermined
by Il Nihilist conspiracy. The strength OF
secret organizations Is generally exaggerated ~
popular report. and the Nihlists are perhaps
not so numerous as they are supposed 20 be.
But the recent wholesale trials leave 10 room
to doubt that the revolutionary virus has
penetrated al the members of the body poll
tic, and il really seems to bc TIE Only Ylsor-
ous thing in the empire, except thc ponce \
Nihilsi may he described as a man who be-
liCvcs III nothing. and is satisfied with Moth
ing. Fifteen years ago, wien IouIgucncii
novel, Fathers and sons brought the new
athcstic philosophy 10 the uclCc OF the world,
Nihiism was social phcro.rcnon; to-day
it has become political force. Tie sons
who learned in their youth incrcdulity, com
muni.m. ficc-lovc and other things disguised
under the name Of emil -htcumcnt, have now be-
come the "fathcrs" of a hcarlcss and immoral
community which aims at the distraction OF
all States, all religions. all su6Oldination, and
the r,Cstabishmcnt Of chaos rs the prelude TO
making every thing over anew. There Is
nothing in this programme which has not been
Put forth in the schemes Of other secret as'0-
cations. The same doctrines have been
taught more or less openly in every part of
Europe, aud even in our own country. But
in all other lands there has been a yirtuOus
and conservative agency, upon which good
Government could rely; and in Russia there
is none.
The national literature is strongly infected
with NhIlism. 1t is rampant in the higher
schools and professional academies 1t has
adhcrents among the nobility, especially the
thousands of mobiles who have suffered in
their fortunes by the emancipation of the
serfs. How far it has made progress among
the peasants is doubtful, but it is beyond
question taking strong hold upon their duh
minds. 1t notoIicusy prevails in the army,
where il has even been said that the line Of
ficcrs are Nihilists to a man. In recent
official report to the Minister of Justice it was
stated that Nhillsm embraced mot only the
" youths in the schools but fathers of families,
" military men, and more than all, yOang girls.
"Thcsc latter are particularly fanatical, and
" according to the ayoWal of the Nihli,ts them
" selves they are the most active and earnest
of all among them" Female medical
students seem TO have been especially Jealous
and daring. The ecclesiastical seminary at
Saratof, which furnishes village schoolmas-
tiers. Is a famous centre of Nimlism, so that
the education of the people has been cor
uptod at its very source. And the degraded
church in Russia, creature and slave OF the
crown, whatever its desire may be 10 serve
the Government, is entirely without influence.
The Minister of Justice, in a report to the
Emperor on the Nihilist trials, writes that "thc
"Govcrnmcnt is pOWcIlcss to arrest the
current Of these subycr-Iyc doctrines for
"thcy grow out of deep causes, being the
"rcsdlt Of the dissolution of morals, of the
"bittcr antagonism between the parental power
"and the children who are unwilling to sub
emit TO it, and, finally, of the complete
"abscnce Of religious principles, not only in
"famie., but also in the schools Of the State,
"where religious instruction is very much
neglected." And hc urges that the church
should be lifted up out Of the mud. But II
church which the Government has to lift up
is Il poor thing for the Government to lean
upon.
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4 TETO 70 BE VOTED DOHN.
Thor. Is dancer that the ISSUE between the