Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-04-22
The Causes Of Dis:ontent in Russia.
[By Rev. Cyrus Hamlin.1


Yet SIN attempts We're made To assasslnate
him and one well known, probably MANY
unknown, attempts to poison INN Those
who were engaged in them suffered horrl-
BILE deaths, and thousands upon thousands
went to the mines of Siberia.
What explanation shall we give of this
most singular fact? There must be some
cause for it that is consistent with the
principles of human nature. 1t Is not
enough to say they are nihilists athe-
lists Some were good and noble men
and women. And besides, atheists are
not ready to die for a cause on frivolous
reasons. The calmness, the dignity, the
self possession, and occasionally the
avowed trust in God, with which the
criminals have died, have filled the world
with wonder We repeat, What Is the
sufficient explanation of all these facts !?
The popular explanation is that the late
Gar was SO good He was, they say,
one of the kindest, best, noblest and
purest of men. He liberated forty mil
lions of serfs, including the semlserf
peasantry. He established courts OF JUS
tice, trial by Jury, codes of law and pub
lie schools. BY the liberal party IN Eng
land few years since, he was almost
worshipped. He was called ''The Divine
Figure of the North" His advent to the
scenes of blood and desolation IN Turkey,
where famine and pestilence still hold
possession of some portions of his track,
was welcomed with paans OF praise. On
this side OF the Atlantic, oratory eXhausts
her resources in his praise, and the ma
tiops ought now to be draped III mourn
ing.
We submit to all persons OF unbiased
Judgment and common sense that tins
view of his character gives us no salts
factory reason why Russia IS still the
"despotisna moderated by assassination
and ''the empire Of discomfort We
think the writer's engaged IN the apoth-
costs of the late Emperor fail TO give due
consideration to the following five points.
FirSt.-The D,ititarisHl of his govern
ment. 1t began with the promise of a
reduced army and less oppressive taxa
ton While he pursued this course no
Gar was SO popular and beloved. But
in process of time other counsels pre-
vailed The army was rearmed with all
the improvements, the imperial guard
was increased to 1900 men. The con-
scription laws were changed, the army on
peace footing has been brought up to
the enormous number of S5O,OOO men.
| 600. and in a few years the present sys-
TEN of growth will bring it to 2,O0O,O
| This force, with all the best arms and
ammunition of the present day, has
increased taxation beyond endurance,
while it has taken the strong young mus
Gle from the peasant villages. This
crushing weight of taxation and the
forced military service have been chef
| -. .fo,& l. -
cure from foreign aggression. No one
will claim that the government OF the
Gar can Justify itself before the world
for such enormous military preparations.
Second.-A far more eXasperatlng
cause of discomfort and of fiercest hatred
has been the Emperor's secret police.
| This permeates the empire. 1t Is every
where Its seizures are not subject t-
any examination. A man, or even a
woman, may be seized at midnight, lodged
in a filthy prison, and finally transported
to Siberia, with no trial but that which
this secret police may institute. Vera
Sasalitch, a Young woman of eighteen,
preparing to be teacher, was thus
! seized, imprisoned, transported from
prison to prison and kept six years in the
hands of this police, irithO,h trial, before
the police. And even then she did 1t for
tortures inflicted upon another. The
indescribable brutalities of this police,
the hundreds of thousands that have sui
fered unto death in prisons, III forced
marches without suitable food or cloth
ing, in the mines of Siberia, IN convict
colonies, in epidemics and IN famlnes,
all these have brought down bitter curses
upon the head Of the Car. Thousands,
in the madness Of their suferlngs, have
committed suicide, and thousands have
longed for chance to take the life OF the
Gar. No one thing has contributed TO
such intense hatred Of the government as
this secret police. The safeguards Of life
and honor being PROSTATE before 1t, life
itself is undervalued. and is often thrown
away in fruitless and wicked attempts at
revenge
| Third The notorious crueltles anu
brutalities Of the Russian police prisons
and of the Siberian mines have produced
an evaporation of feeling because eXer-
cised upon the defenceless. Many horn
BILE instances continually come to light.
Less than a year ago nihillst who had
| been imprisoned for months without
trial had been subjected to such sufier-
ings that he gladly seized the opportunity
of drenching himself, bound as he was,
with the petroleum of his lamp, and thus
with uncomfortable will burning himself
to death. Needless and brutal torture IN
tiicted upon prisoners and continued for
many years as part of the police admin
istration cannot be justified. 1t must
finally incite to revenge. That the Car,
though very kind to his friends, WAS very
cruel to his enemies seems to be proved
by admitted facts aside from these gene
raj aspects of his government. Forbes,
the great war correspondent and admlrer
of the Gar, and who entered Pleyna with
him, was shocked that amid thousands
dying of starvation non-combatants, Old
men, women aud children, the Emperor
and his staff indulged Ill n rlotous feast
Of three days before n morsel OF food was
given, the only relief being that those
who were adiudged near unto death were
thrown into the trenches with the dead and
covered up. Had the testimony not been
given by one Of the Cars own admirers,
1t would have been thought incredible.
Fourth. cause of Russian DIS
content, if there be any discomfort III
Russia is the immense cloud of officials
that feed upon tho very yitals OF the peo-
pie. They are for the most part poorly
paid and they make up the deficit by un-
i Just exactions from the people. Eugene
Schuyler testiiies that III this way they
add two, three and even ten times the
amount they receive from the govern
ment, and that even in European Russia.
, (Schuyler's Turkestan, Volume II. page
2O6l. Few things can be more exaspera-
ting than this to people already weight
ed down with taxation.
Fifh.-The fifth and perhaps the most
> efficient cause of nihilistic agitation has
= been the cloud Of reforms instituted and
made fruitless. New laws adapted to =
more advanced society have been passed
:. and revoked Codes Of law have been
: published and have remained useless.
New courts have been established, trlal
. by Jury instituted, but the secret police
makes every law and every safeguard
; useless In fancied security you make
;, some unguarded expression Of political
bearing, and in the night you are seizec
and labelled 5025 and are oil for Siberia.
d. Or suppose you have very talented
daughter, who has spoken too freely
II against despotism, and she disappears
r. and is to be for years IN the hands of tins
7, irresponsible police, you JOIN the mini
n ists, shoot the officer and are hung for 1t
You leave an inheritance of despernt'
% hate and revenge to your survivors. Eo
q form under such II system awakeni
Il the spirit Of freedom only to dlsappoIn
, it and change it to hate There Is httl'
a prospect that Russia will eiiace nIhllisIi
% until she abolishes her brutal secret pO
Y. lice and grants the people some represen
IF tative place in the government of the EN-
ID pire. | have not mentioned, by an,
i means, all the points that occur to me
ie but they are sufficient to give some IN
g sight into the reasons for such desperat
ie crimes and murdlerous deeds Chronicle
10
y, RUsKIN on MosSEs Meek crantures
an the first mercy Of the earth, yelling wit
lie hushed softness it's dintless rocks cr,u
CT lures full of pity, covering with strang