The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1883-06-04
THE CONDITION OF RUSSIA.


and the selfish opposition of official
ism, the condition and experience of
the Russian people seem to make
them specially fit for political free
dom. They are reared in the pract-
ice of local self-government, which
is the best of all schools for the
exercise of political rights. Every
where the peasantry, the great bulk
of the nation, are accustomed to
meet, to vote, and manage their
social and local affairs; to elect the
managers of their commune, and to
implicitly obey those whom they
have elected. They have to provide,
not Individually, but each commune
collectively, for the excessive taxa
ton imposed by the central Govern
ment, and in addition to bear the
irritating and constant interference
of q central officialism. The extern
sion of their. experience and action
from local and social to political and
national affairs seems a safe and
natural step. There are in fact
unusual guarantees in Russia for the
right exercise of political power by
the people. They have few difficult
ties of caste, their present assemblies
being representative and democratic.
There is the conservative element of
common ownership in land, each
man being, as a rule, in his corporate
capacity a proprietor of the soil and
responsible to the commune for his
individual contribution to the COM
mon welfare. Consequently they
have not had that most serious of all
problems in their political future
which other European nations have
yet to solve-tne existence of vast
propertyless class in the midst of an
ever-increasing national wealth. In
this crisis the one means of safety for
the Emperor would be for him to
throw off the fatal load of absolute
power: to call the people to his aid
by conceding to them political rights
and representative institutions; and
through the action of a constitutional
government to destroy, or rather
to use and guide, the revolutionary
forces which experience shows he
cannot control. The policy of con-
cession, though difficult, is safe, if
when once entered OH it is continued.
The emancipation of the serfs, though
imperfectly carried out, and leading
as it is doing to angry and ominous
demands on the part of the peasants
for further rights, yet brought no
danger to Alexander IL. The danger
was in stopping short in the path Of
reform after having raised the hopes
of the nation by taking such
splendid step. But it is difficult for
an absolute ruler-unless a man of
exceptional power and ability-to see
the wisdom of the policy of conces-
sion or voluntarily to adopt it. The
Emperor is surrounded by a vast
bureaucracy which looks with dis
trust and hatred on the idea of
political self-government, and which
feels that its own existence is incom-
patible with popular power and free
institutions, With no press, plat
form, or parliament through which
he can hear the direct voice of the
people, or see things as they are, the
Gar relies OH officialism. He sees
with its eyes, hears with its ears, and
trusts to it for the administration of
his will. Accordingly there is no
response to any popular desire. In
retirement and in virtual defeat the
Car still clings to the reactionary
policy. It is true that there is a
mild form of liberalism which is per-
mitted in Russia, and found even
among the official classes and in
society. When referred to in news
papers it is apt to mislead the foreign
reader by indicating the existence in
Russia of a recognised and pro-
gressive liberal party. It is, how
ever, merely a fashionable profession
of a liberalism by persons who
enlarge ON the advantages of consti-
tutional government as a principle
for countries to which it is applicable,
and who are anxious to give freedom
to the people when they are fit for it,
and so forth. With grave signs of
agrarian troubles in several parts of
the empire, with an ever increasing
army OF officials, with oppressive
taxation, with annual deficits and
new loans, with national credit
strained almost to its limit, q large