The Portland daily press., 1881-03-16
A Heritage of Woe.

|
the RomanOffs, mounts throne stained
with the blood of his predecessor. He be
| gins his reign under the gloomiest auspices
| Henceforth he is a target for Nihilist con
| spirators to practice on; and the doctrine Of
chances induces the belief that some day
range may be, will strike him down.
1t will avail him nothing to put to good
use the power which the immGmorial Gus.
tom of his country has intrusted to its rul-
ers. In return for his efforts he will be
blown to pieces as his father has been. His
temptation will be to follow the example of
his grandfather, the Car Nicholas, who
governed tyrannically, and died peacefully
in bed. Russia is in much the condition
France was "a century ago. The old things
are passing away, and all things must be-
come new. A catastrophe like that of 1889
is imminent. A mild ruler will only hasten
the outbreak, a stern one may for while
suppress it. But the seed sown through
many centuries of misrule and oppression is
ripening to fruit, and the crop will be gath
ered
The lot Of Alexander III. was cast in a
most unhappy time. He instituted great
reforms and carried many of them to sue
cessful conclusion, but his good wishes,
even when they became laws could not keep
pace with the impatience of his people.
Under his administration Russia made great
progress toward the liberty of the subject,
the amelioratio1 of the hardships of power
ty, the proper dispensation of justice. No
other government in Europe has made or
could make SO enormous strides ON the way
to liberalism. The abolition of serfdom. so
generally recognized, is burt one of the great
reforms of Alexander's reign. He not only
broke the chains of the serfs. He did a
thing which free and coRstitutionally gov
erned England has not yet been able to do
for the most important and longest-held of
its possessions-he established the enfran-
chised peasants as proprietors of the soil
which they titled. and solved the problem
which is agtating Ireland to-day More
than this, he established in Russia COM
munal system of local self-government that
finds its only parallel in the town meetings
OF New England. He entirely revolutionized
the old Russian system of judicial proceed
ure, ordained trial by jury, open examina-
tion of witnesses in court, and the prompt
trial of persons accused of offenses against
society or the State. In fact he did in a
decade what it took the barOns and COM
mons of England two hundred years to ac-
complish. In his reign he increased five
fold the number of scholars in Russian
schools; and the sum of money expended
for the promotion of education was eight
times larger in the last year of his reign
than in his first. During that time the rev.
enue more than doubled without increase of
taxation. The railroads grew in length from
sixteen hundred miles to fifteen thousand
miles. The telegraph wires now measure
hundred and twenty thousand miles. I'm
ports and exports of merchandise have
trebled within the last quarter of century.
Most of this progress may be due to the
Russian people, but much of it must be ow-
ing to the Russian autocrat done to death in
st. Petersburg the other day.
That man who has done sOmuch Should
come to such death shows the dislike of
the Russian people to its government. They
did not hate the late Gar. They do hate
Autocracy, and so far does their hatred of
that kind of rule go that they refuse to
praise the really great and beneficent work it
has done and kill its innocent representative.
What chance has the new Gar with peo-
pie so minded? The best he can hope for is
speedy death and escape from the horror of
assassination which haunted the later years
of his fathers life. Alexander III. succeeds
to the Autocracy of Russia under even less
favorable circumstances than his predeces-
sor. The only lesson the late reign can
teach him is that, however well he NAV try
to govern, he will be in constant danger
from the bomb and the knife of tie Nihilist.
His lot is not enviable. His heritage is not
one to be desired. The conclusion he
reaches may well be the conclusion of
Heine, that the trade of kingship is very
hard one in these days. But he has been an
prenticed to the business, and will feel
bound to pursue it even with the disadvan-
tages under which it is followed in Russia.
WORCESTER Spy: Senator Malone also
has made his declaration of independence.
If i. is less dignifed than that of Senator
Davis, it is more spirited, and means more,
The extreme unwisdom of Ben Hill was
never more conspicuous than in the debate
OF yesterday. By taunts, denunciations.
and defiance he made the Virginia S,nator
thoroughly angry, and drove him to commit
himself against the Democratic party more
distinctly and irretrievably than he perhaps
contemplated at this early period of the ses-
sion. The little Virginian, who weighs only
ninety pounds, they say, has strong aver
sion to being bullied. His shrill and angry de-
tance reminds one of the growing of ban
tam rooster. But, though physical iittle-
ness is apt to provoke ridicule from men of
greater stature, but it may be of slenderer
wit, Senator Mahone's Importance as SEN
ator, or his prowess in debate, has no rela-
tion to his weight in pounds or his height in
inches. 1t is settled already that he is more
than match for Hill, who is big enough to
know better than to provoke this fiery iittle
Senator
BOSTON is convalescing, but hasn't quite
recovered from its attack of Pcnkerism. IT
has, however, got back its appetite, and will
sit down to hearty dinner with Mr.. Schurz
1t will do the dinner justice, if it doesn't the
ex-Secretary.
HILL OF Georgia has gone and done it
again. He has given Malone notice to quit
the Democratic party. Hill is one of the
most useful men the Republicans have in
the Senate.