, 1880-02-21
the earlier period. 5fAsnherezy sineswhen

UuO ~ kNk
Sir Archibald Alison was Nriti1g his bis
tory, and could think of no other function
Russia had to serve in the world. but, llke
the medieval Cloths, 10 be ia Scourge Of
vicious civilization p this small e0terie IN
Moscow were cherishing the most ambis
tious ideas of Russia1s place Ind mission
among the nations. The civilization of
Europe, they held, was now effete, and
nigh unto death, and the civilization of
Russia had been providentially, preserved
to heal it. The religious life of Western
Europe had been dissolved into the anar.
civ of sects, and it's economical life into
the anarchy of individual competition, and
under the Joint influence of infdelity and a.
war of classes the whole fabric Of Euro.
pean society was tottering towards its
grave. But fortunately, precisely at this
iuncture, the Slavophils of Moscow had
discovered in Russia the two very princi
pies which not Russia alone, but all Eu-
rope urgently required. The first was a
theological principle, and it would build.
society once more on faith. 1t was the
undivided Eastern orthodoxy. The second
was an economical principle, and would
build society on love and mutual humility.
1t was to be found in the Russian rural
communes. We in the West know that
the unity of the Orthodox Church, SO far as
it is united, is only the silent unity of
intellectual Stagnation, and that tho
Commune was the necessary con-
comitant of serfage; but the S~lavophils
proclaimed that the spirit of these institu-
tons contained a snew formula of civilizA
tom. Under all these e%xtravagant IDEAS.
however, there was one which it is their
lasting merit to have placed before their
countrymen. 1t is the idea of the people
as q people, of its unity, which Western
culture had severed; OF it's continuity,
which Peters reforms had broken of its
worth, which serfage and bureaucracy had
trodden down. The Slavophils are simply
a national party, and their policy consists
mainly of three points,-the classification
of the institutions of the German and
Polish provinces, the unifcation of the
SlaEOnic race and of the Orthodox world,
and as far as they may venture to suggest
it, the organisation OF a Universal National
Assembly.
Now, it was with a view to the accom-.
plishment of the last two of these courses
of policy, that the Slavophils became such
strenuous advocates Of the late war. They
hoped that SlavOnic unity would be its re-
suit, as Italian and Germn unity had been
the consequence Of the wars those countries
had engaged in shortly before and they
hoped that, as in the case of Italy, unity
would be the gateway to freedom, and
would necessitate the introduction Of con-.
siderable constitutional reforms. They
never for a moment had a doubt as to tho
success of the Russian arms, for they enter.
tanned the most ~extravagant ideas of the
military omnipotenc9 of their country but
there were others who joined the Glamour
for war, in the belief that if the Ozar failed
it would create a revolution, and that &C.
cordingly success and defeat alike made
them sure of political changes at home.
The author of "Russia Before and After
the War; makes it a%bundantly plain that
one of the strongest motives which led to
the war was the hope of obtaining from it a
measure of constitutional reform. Now,
the issue of the war has not only thwarted,
but Knocked this hope. The Gear has Dei-
Their failed nor succeeded. His arms were
indeed victorious, but he has won none Of
the fruits of victory, for when his two-head
ed eagle was almost at the very walls OF the
city it came from at first, and is supposed
to have been yearning to return to ever
since, it turned back again, at the command
of Germany or England, or both. This
and the acceptance of the Berlin Treaty,
are what the Slavophils cannot forgive
| They characterize it as a pusillanimous
submission to European diplomacy, and
even ascribe it to q malevolent diStrust Of
his people on the part of the Gear and his
counsellors. For they remember how the
Court and Clerical party were opposed tt
the war from the first, and believe thai
they would dislike such results to flow from
the war as the Slavophils had set theil