The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-01-17
EUROPEAN LETTER.
ST. PETERSBURG Dee. 30, lSS,

ST.. PETERSBURG Dee 30, 1880.
! The recent attack upon the Car has brought
| the Russian police system once more to the
front In the virtue of TACT the real Russian
detective can teach lesson to his confreres OF
London or Paris. He is not permitted to IN
dulge in intoyiCants, nor is he, rs rule
married man. He appears in al,
places where his credentials as "a gentleman or
his curiosity IN rougher circles permit or in
duCe him to enter, though the latter has never
yet reached that dignity or degradation. But
he is always a salaried man AS a rule, how
ever, he is a real Russian, of liberal lingual
education and good personal presence, more or
less cosmopolitan He reports to one authori,
ty only and yet that authority has a shadow
TO this detective, who reports him, on the prin-
clpal of setting a thief to catch thief. Few
of us have very clear idea Of the personal
or the modus of the Russian detective system.
To the present Imperial Chancellor, more than
to anyone else, is Russia indebted for a com
pete chain of detectives, as well as a Gordon
of dplomatsts. He has initiated and periec-
ted these two systems so thoroughly that there
is not a capital of Europe without one of these
I"lookers-on" In Vienna they assume vari.
Gus shapes, male and female, and enter into
the walks ofhlgh ana low life as circumstances
may demand. In London there is large cor
pora's guard of these detectives, and frequent
" they exchange notes at Scotland Yard,
where, as a rule, they are officially introduced.
The Russian detective is not necessarily
Sclav-he may be a Partisan or even Cock
ney
After the recent attempt upon the life Of the
Car, and Oh the very day Of his return to his
capital, the Revolutionary Committee issued
the following most violent proclamation, which
was distributed day after day and in which
they avow that the late diabolical attempt was
made by their order. The following is an eX-
tract
"On the 18th of this month, on the Moscow
and Kursk railway, by the order Of the EXecu.
tive Committee, an attempt was made on the
life OF Alexander II by means of an explosion.
The attempt failed. We do not find it con
venient at the present time TO publish the rea
son of the failure We are convinced that our
agents and our party will not be disenhcart-
ened at the failure of the attempt, but will
gam from It new experience, lesson OF pre-.
caution, and at the same time fresh conscious
ness of their power and of the possibility Of IA
successful issue. Addressing ourselves to all
honest Russian citizens who value liberty, to-
whom the national will and the national inter
ests are sacted, we once again point to AIexan-
der l. as the persontication of despicable
despotism, of all that is cowardly and sanguin-
ary. The reign of Alexander H., from begin
nlng to end, is lie in which the famous eman-
cipation of scrfs ends with Makeotf's circular.
From the commencement to the end 1t has
been devoted to the consolidation of the class
es hostile to the people, and the destruction Of
everything by which the people lived and
hoped to live. Alexander ii. is usurrer of the
nations right, the main pillar OF reaction, the
chief author of judicial assassinations. Four
teen executions weigh on his conscience.
Hundreds of sufferers cry for vengence. lie
deserves to die for all the blood he has split,
for all the suffering he has inflicted"
II is now stated that in order to prevent the
Car from becoming the victim OF another IN
cident similar to the Moscow attempt three
more trains left Moscow for st. Petersburg, al
most simultaneously with the one in which
His Majesty travelled. On the way the En-
peror repeatedly changed his carriage.
GAS.