, 1880-01-17

~ VI CAFi 0OfClOpLlCUE 4uIS
ruinous process OF determination of every
independent element is at last simplifed.
Alexander II. is the usurper of the nations
right, the main pillar of reaction, the chief
author of the judicial assassinations.
Fourteen executions weigh on his con-
science. Hundreds of sufferers cry for
vengeance. He deserves to die for all the
blood he has split, for all the suffering he
has inflicted. He deserves to die, but it
is not alone with him that we have to do.
Our object Is the national welfare" They
then explain what they are aiming at -
"Our task is to emancipate the people,
and make them masters of their fate. IF
Alexander II. would recognise what q
dreadful calamity he is ioficting on Russia,
how unjust and criminal the oppression
he creates, and, renouncing his authority,
would transfer such to an Assembly,
freely elected by universal suffrage, and
provided with instructions by its electors
then only would we leave Alexander III. in
peace, and forgive him all his offences"
And if Alexander will not grant this free
Parliament, elected bv universal suffrage,
then the "implacable struggle" is to go on
-as long, of course, as ga drop of blood
remains ia their veins.
Nothing could show less political saga.
city than this proposal. The chaNees are
that If an Assembly selected by universal
suffrage was convened in Russia, the
result would show itself by hundreds of
thousands OF "the intelligent classes"
iTT'IiGaff efafaa6A f st'FnpsaY'a &dras~io1io
Mines" So FAR as we can make out the
situation in Russia, the misery of the pea
sautry is not the source of the revolution
ary feeling, but rather the impotence OF
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. impotence being most
painfully felt in the utter incapacitY OF the
educated to move the peasantry. That
NihiIism is strong in the great cities is
obvious. That it is weak in the villages
is also obvious. And universal suffrage
in Russia, if once appealed TO, would,
whatever else its effect, assuredly side with
The poasantry against intelligence. OF
course, to give enormous power to almost
bottomless ignorance is very dangerous,
and one could never foresee oil the conse-
ouences. But, SO far as one can toresee,
the Cars party, in such an Assembly as
the Nihiiists here propose, would probably
be much larger than any other party. 1t
would be the party Of the priests and the
party of the communes, no less than the
party of the throne. And it might we'll
result in the humiliation of the Nlbilists
by a fierce and brutal popular persecution.
Indeed, we strongly suspect that the
despair and unrest of educated Russia are
in no slight degree due to the emancipation
OF the serfs without any corresponding
development of the liberty and political
life of the middle-class. 1t is the stirring
Of the life below which has rendered the
hopelessness of the life above 80 i~ntolera.
bic. That the Revolutionists are not fully
aware of this, and talk, as such men
always talk, as if they were fighting for
the people,-who would be the first to
disown them,-is very true. But univer-
sal suffrage, if it produced anything but
anarchy, would certainly produce results
even more intolerable to the Nihilists than
the present regime. What they need is
more outlet for their own energies, and q
better understanding with the peasantry
beneath them. A really educated clergy
would domuch. An attempt to bring the
into political cooperation with
the middle-class, by the help. say, OF pro-
yincial assemblies of representatives and
nosables, would do much also. But
the leap into universal suffrage would be
a leap In the dark with a vengeance; and
would prove, we suspect, such a leap into