, 1880-04-14
IA vYtrrna adj here}Ha asef ~ &c
The HOPELESSNESS OF, REPRES-
,t,7te SION
from the SPECTATOR

. already received notice that it will be soon
repeated and there seems no reason to
doubt that the Nihilists conspirators have
scores of men at their disposal willing to
sacrifice their own lives, simply for the
chance of striking a blow at the
head of the Russian Government. This is,
indeed. the true peril of the situation. No
measures of repression can be OF any avail,
where the insurrectionary feeling IS SO
strong as to fill scores or hundreds OF per-
sons with hatred of the authors of those
measures deep enough as to make the
sacrifcefof life welcome to them, if it can
be the means of giving expression to
that hatred. Unless, indeed, there were
any known means of seeing into the minds
and purposes of all men within a mile or
W OF the authorities to be preserved from
attack, there could be absolutely noconcelv-
able methods of guarding these authorities
against assaSsins perfectly willing to pay
the penalty of death for their attempt. All
the sO-called measures of repression con-
sists either in the interpOsition OF Difficult
ties in the way of obtaining access to the
persons to be killed, or In the proclamation
of punishment to be inflicted on those
who attempt to kill. But unless the au-
thorities are willing to live i'll absolute
solitude-in which case, they cannot exert
.IUuCu UTdCLlCdl dutuOIlby-AU 10 HNlNS AhROP
sible to protect them effectually even from
the access of strangers; nor would that be
sufficient, even if it could be achieved. The
Nihilists have shown a wonderful capacity
for honeycombing the higher ranks OF
society with a secret enmity which may
even live and be vigilant under the mask
of faithful service, till the moment comes
for dropping the mask. But in point of
fact, it is hopeless for any public man, any
governing man, to keep all strangers at a
distance For in order to do so, he must
cease to be a public man, cease to be- figure
in the world altop ether, and become a
~recluse. 1t is barely possible that a Gar
might become a recluse for a time. But no
statesman or general could continue to be
a statesman or general. and adopt the
habits of a recluSe. General Lorls Nell
koff, as the head of the Commission of Pub
lie Safety. will certainly not be able even
TO attempt that species of retirement; and
it is, we suppose, equally certain that he
must run the gauntlet of a string of aSsas-
sins, so long as the deep perverSiOn OF feel
ing continues which makes it 80 easy to
find men willing to buy his death at the
cost of their own,
If the Car had but the simplest rudi-
ments of craftsmanship in him, he would,
AuuVCu, oto ludb VIC 6Olc CldllCc Vi putting
down this society of assassins is to drain
1T OF men as bitter against authority that
they count death nothing, as against the
prospect Of striking a blow at authority.
And this can only be done by relaxing re-
preston, and relaxing it with a generous
hand, instead of by Tightening it. We
have heard it calculated by a very mode
rate Russian Liberal that there are at least
$4,000 men of the higher ranks in Russia
who are now either in Siberia, or at least
exiles from Russia, and. aware that to re-
turn there would cost them their liberty
at once,-of whom not many hundreds are
involved in the NihiliSt conspiracy. If
anything like that estimate be the truth,
the explanation of this wholesale indiffer-
ence to Nihilism amongst the higher orders
of the Russians is obvious at once. Con-
ceive the feelings of a Russian family the
most promising of whom are either in Sibe-
ria, or in exile without hope of return, and
this for no better reason than the suSpi-
cions of the Police Department. Of course
such a family feels, and can feel, no SYM
pathyswiththe authorities, andnO adequate
horror at the band who strike such terror
into the authorities. And this Indifference
TO Nlhiism amongst large classes who are
not themselves Nihilist, of course reacts
powerfully N the Nihilists, makes them
1eel themselves anything but outcasts,
gives them even something of the charac-
ter OF heroes in their own eyes, since with