Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-04-26

was the real cause of the sudden
and abrupt close of the Turco-Rus-
sian war. 1t was not for nothing
that the Russian Empire paused in
the moment of its grandest success,
forbore to close with England in the
struggle for which she had been
preparing for centuries, halted in
her march to Constantinople when
she had arrived nearer to her long
coveted acquisition than ever be-
fore; it was not for nothingy nor for
the dusky legions of the Empress of
India. 1t was from the CHASTITY
spectacle OF a whole nation in secret |
revolt that the rulers were induced |
to withdraw their myriads of armed |
soldiers from Bulgaria and Arme-
mia and put them on much-needed !
sentinel duty in Cracow, Kieff,
Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ev-
erywhere society finds itself con-
fronted by organized thousands
whose selected antagonist is society
itself. Nothing now established is
excepted; political, religious and
social Institutions in their minutest
provisions are all equally the objects
of its deadly hostility the Govern
ment official, especially the police
officer, high or low, the priest, the
property-holder, all are equally de
nounced, equally doomed whenever
the opportunity of doom presents
itself. The name of the organiza-
ton is the comprehensive definition
Of its purpose; it desires nothing of
what now exists a clear sweep of
everything which men hold sacred,
everything which distinguishes
civilized society from barbarism, is
contemplated as the Indispensable
condition of inaugurating the new
social arrangements which are to
supersede the old. The Snls-c,tl0tte
vi bAAC lii5t Il CO1DCc
nearest to the Russian NihiliSt, to
his universal prescription of every
thing as it is than anything else in
history, but the most dangerous
symptom OF all is that the Nihilist
is after all not a SanS-cuIotte.
This we take to be the most deadly
of the dangers now rife in Rus
STA. In the first French revolution
the lowest strata of society were at
first exclusively the seat of discon-
tent, and afterwards gradually the
bourgeoisie and the professional
classes came into the movement.
In great degree this is reversed in
the Russia OF to-day; the pressure
of crushing despotism is felt the
more acutely there in proportion as
men are nearer the ruling power /;
it is harder on men of education,
men of birth, men of wealth, than
on the rudest boOr. The peasant,
not many years ago a serf, has all
he wants when he has filled his
stomach with cabbage soup and
afterwards fuddled what little intel
Iect he has with vodki, and, pro-
vided he can keep out of the army,
troubles himself but little with
political matters. But the noble,
the educated man, finds himself
"cribbed, cabined and confined" in
every direction. He cannot travel
without permission; he cannot dis
cuss political questions except with
his bosom friend for fear he should
find to his cost that he has been ex-
posing his discOntents to a Govern
ment spy lady cannot give ball
without inviting a certain number
of gentlemen whose names are spec
flied by the Chiefof Police, and who
are in fact agents of that omnipres-
: ent body. The plainest rights, the
: simplest procedures in law can only
be invoked by bribing one after
another of the Government officials,
and then any man whose interests
are opposed to you can Obstruct your
case by bribing little higher; and,
hanging over you like a storm
cloud, Siberia is at every moment a
l neutrality-suspicious., where your
7 friends will never know of your
fate and from which there is no
escape but death. "Ye who enter
f here leave every hope behind"
The inscription on the portal OF
Dante's Inferno might well be taken
as the motto of this place of doom,
J and it is well known that Siberia is
t peopled, not from the peasantry,
but from the nobles, the professional
men, the educated classes.
1t is not to be wondered at, then,
that the nihilistic movement works
; from above dOwnwards that doc
tors and lawyers and literary men
: are the moving spirits of every nj
hilistic circle; that ladies of rank
have disguised themselves and
f accepted mental employment that
they may operate on the minds of
) others similarly employed; that
nihilistic tracts printed in London
and interdicted by the police swarm
in every town in spite of the police.
All these are the natural features OF
: a country where, instead of ruling
through its intellect and property, a
Government rules by its police.
The Government which does this is
. at war with intellect, at war with
t property, and such Government is
doomed though its police swarms
> in every village and its army counts