The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-07-20
Russian Reforms.

five may trust the kilograms from
St. Petersburg-an they have the ap-
pearance of being semi mi-official-Alexan-
der LII. has at last decided to make a
virtue OF grim necessity by granting
reforms" What these are to be is not
stated, or even remotely intimated; nor,
if we understand it, will they be def
finitely known until the coronation.
which, s.because of the impossibility of
completing preparations earlier,'' has
been postponed for year. This excuse
for delay will deceive no one except the
ignorant masses for whom it is mainly
intended. The coronation, which must
occur at Moscow, had been fixed for
next September or October, but rumors
of action on the part of the Nihilists
which might convert the festivities into
an extensive funeral, caused the aban-
donment of the original plan, and an
nouncement of indefinite postponement
was made two or three weeks ago. Since
then it would seem as if the Gar had
been studying how he could make this
necessary ceremonial any safer in 1883
than it would be in 1882, and has finally
reached the conclusion that the promise
OF reforms may enable him to 60 to his
| ancient capital and return without a
salute of death-dealing dynamite. In
other words, he has decided to change
his policy toward those who killed his
father and have threatened his own life,
and as they cannot be crushed, to see if
they cannot be conciliated.a For his own
sake, and still more for the sake of his
subjects, we hope he may be successful,
| but OF course the prospects of success
cannot be estimated with any degree of
accuracy until the character and extent
of the reforms are published to the world.
| Meanwhile brief glance at one or two
of the elements of difficult and dam
| gerous problem may be interesting.
The peasants constitute the great bulk
OF the Russian population, and upon
their blind and submissive loyalty, the
result of combined ignorance and super
stition, Russian autocracy has heretofore
rested secure. But of late years certain
causes have tended to weaken the foun-
dations of the mighty superstructure.
The first of these, curiously enough, is
the act of emancipation, which, by trans
forming the serfs into freemen, gave
them Opportunities for picking up a few
grains of knowledge through change of
residence and communication with
strangers. Moreover, the act not only
confirmed the old communal system,
WHICH is the basis of rural society in Rus
STA, but gave to the peasants as an in
allenable possession a portion of the
lands belonging to their former masters.
The mobiles were paid fortheir lost prop
erty by the State, and the latter reim-
bursed itself by special tax upon the
new proprietors The meaning of this
tax the peasant did not understand. sup
posing it to be merely for the support Of
the State and not-as it really was-his
own indirect payment for what he
thought free gift. The general inn
preston among the emancipated class
was that they had been for centuries de-
prived of what rightfully belonged to
them, and that the Gar had finally
recognized this fact by restoring part
OF the land to them. Indeed, many
of them believed, and still believe,
that the Gar gave them all the land,
and that they have been and are
kept out OF it by the tricks of the mobiles.
Here, then, we have sense OF wrong
which, however unfounded, is potent for
mischief and is being utilized accordingly
by the secret revolutionary agents who
are now penetrating the country in every
direction. The Turkish war, too, con-
tributed to the disaffection. The soldiers
in that war, drawn from the peasantry,
learned from the gossip of the camp and
by the necessary movements OF the
campaign that neighboring nations
were better off in many respects than
they were. having larger freedom and
more solid prosperity and. these crude
though pregnant ideas had the natural
effect of unsettling the hereditary faith in
their own political and social institutions
which scepticism the soldier, when
the war was over, communicated to his
friends and acquaintances at home. In
this way seeds of discomfort have been
planted which are liable at any moment
to produce q troublesome harvest. Last,
but far from least, is that matchless mis-
sionary of popular progress, and enlght-
enment, the railway. At the time of the
Crimean war there was butone railway in
all Russia, and that only fifteen or twenty
miles long. The official report of JAN
uary 1, 1878, showed Is, ia miles already
constructed and in operation in European
Russia. and lilo in process of construc-
ton. Since then new lines have been
opened, and the. total cannot now be
much less than 20. 600 miles, supplement-
ed by at least 40, 900 miles of telegraph
lines, where twenty-five years ago there
was not single mile.
/ 1t is needless to say, in view of these
facts, that the Russia of Alexander III.
is much harder to govern on the princi-
pies of autocrat absolutism than was the
Russia of Nicholas; and the difficulties
of government are Increasing every year
every day. If the present Gar grants
reforms it is because he cannot safely do
otherwise yet nothing he is likely to do
will satisfy the party from which he has
most to fear. No constitutional govern
nent he can consent to will meet the de-
mands of the Nihilists, and from all
that can be learned of their programme
it is impracticable under the existing
order of things. Monarchy must give
way to a republic of the most radical
type before that programme can be car
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