Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-28
GEN. LORIs MELIKOFF.


From the New York Sun.
We have lately had striking proof Of the
rspidity with which remarkable events and
persons may sink into oblivion. Among the
obituary notices of Gen. Loris Melikod pub
lished in the New York newspapers we have
seen but one that drew attention TO the culmi-
mating period of his career, or TO his interest
ing relation to the national movement for con-
stitutional reform, Of which Nihilism Is only .
revolutionary offshoot. Yet the man who died
the other day was for upward Of twelvemonth
the virtual dictator of Russia; he would have
saved Alexander ii from assassination had his
advice been listened to, and he resigned his
place IN the council of the present car be-
cause his long-cherished plan Of a represents
i've assembly was definitely rejected
Why Loris Melikoff. in spite of his achieve
ments In war and his marked aptitude for civil
administration, was distrusted and disliked by
the military and bureaucratic class that In the
Czars name really rules Russia. can be easily
explained He was neither Slav nor a Ger
man, but an Armenian; that is to say. the scion
OF race which. next to the Jewish. is the most
desplsed among all the nationalities subject to
the Russian autocrat. His father had no status
IN the offcial hierarchy. but was a merchant,
and, therefore, whatever wealth he might &C.
quire, would socially rank lower than the hum
piest government employe or the poorest
pope. Yet even in Russia money will procure
Tor merchants son an excellent education,
and even commission in the army, and these
things 1t procured for MelikoH. Thencefor-
ward his successive distinctions and promotions
were due TO his own abilities. It 10 reasonable
to suppose that the associations of his youth,
coupled with the suspicion and jealousy TO
winch his origin exposed him on the part Of
ms relatively aristocratic comrades, withheld
him from sharing the prejudices of the military
caste, and kept alive in him a sympathy with
the masses of his countrymen.
AT all events, his method Of dealing with
revolutlonists-when after the last war with
turkey he was sent TO quell the nihilistic dis
turbances in Kharkoff-was a kind of revela-
ton TO the car and to the Russian people. Al
though his treatment of offenders and suspected
persons wascharacterized with moderation and
even gentleness, il proved far more effective
than the savage measures of repression habit
ually employed by other Russian administrs-
tors 1t was this exceptional success at Khsr-
kot that marked him out to Alexander IL (al-
ready haunted with the terror Of the fate that
was to overtake him) as the man best fitted TO
protect his son and his family against assassina-
| ton. He was summoned TO St. Petersburg and
made the chief OF a new and anomalous COM
mission clothed with dictatorial powers. During
ITS terms OF existence-six months-Loris Melt
kon was to all practical purposes the car, and.
even after the dissolution of this extraordinary
board, he retained in the post of minister Of
the interior almost unlimited influence and au-
thorlty. 1t Is known that having received
vague put Impressive warnings, Melikoh i'm
plored Alexander IL not to leave his palace on
that Sunday in March, 1881, when he met his
death.
1t is also universally believed that Just before
ms assassination the car had signed q ukAse
drawn by Melikoff, convoking a consultative
assembly, whose functions would have been
substantially identical with those of the old
states-general in France. Such a body would
have had the power, not of legislating but only
OF suggesting legislation; yet, like the French
states-general in 1889 (and this, perhaps, Nell
koff foresaw) 1t might rapidly have drifted into
national assembly. Unlike Katkoff and his
school of political philosophers, who hold that
the institutions of western Europe are unsuited
to Russia, and that paternal government is
best adapted TO the Slav Melikoff maintained
that the Russia of to-day however small may
be the ratio Of educated persons to the whole
population, is every whit ready for parlia-
mentary government as was the France OF
Louis XVI. And such We believe to be the
case.
III allowed. and even requested Melikoff to
remain minister Of the interior. But il was
soon plain that katkoff and the reactionary
Slavophils had the new cars car, and when
the project of reform adopted by the proceed
ing sovereign was decisively discarded, Nell
koff withdrew to private life. With his retire
ment vanished, apparently. The last hope of a
liberal constitution for Russia during the reign
of the present car. But it ought not TO be
| forgotten that Melikoff, whatever NAV have
been bis faults-and few men can safely be in
! trusted even for few months with the whole
| power Of an autocrat-desired to link his name
with at least the beginning of change franeht
with the promise of unreasonable blessings to
1 his