, 1888-04-14

SDenC two years ana a half. he had been
about three months at liberty when | pre-
secuted myself TO him last February at a
peasants hut on the outskirts of Kief,
where he had been living since his release.
During the peruSal Of the lady's letter,
he several times eyed me askance, but his
countenanCe frightened up a little as
soon as he had read the other. "Madame
Buratoff," he said, as if in expla.
nation, sis far TOO ready with her letters
of introduction. She does not care one
jot whom she compromises, so long as she
can crafty the curiosity of a friend, with
out putting her own head in the moose.
You did well to provide yourself with a
letter from y. ] shall gladly give you any
information you desire. OF course, you
know that | am under strict police super
vision, and have no direct communication
with my political friends, so that my re-
marks will necessarily partake more OF
the character of reminiSCences than of an
analysis Of the present or a forecast OF the
future state of things" I thanked him,
and asked him whether he WaS in all res
poets true to his former convictions, or
whether the reaction which the deeds OF
his party had brought about, and the pre-
sent attitude of the Government, had not
convinced him of the utter hopelessness
VI Uu6 enter HllSG II ulCn LC q CuS@S
ed. mo" he answered ''my point of
view is unchanged. What we want is
not, as some suppose, anarchy, nor even
revolution for its own sake. We seek to
temper autocracr with a sufficiently
strong Infusion of law aud order to render
progress possible and life worth living.
One man cannot successfully govern a sin
gle city, much less i'm immense empire like
Russia, and if he delivers it up to hun
dredS of thousands of b~ureaucratS 1t
stands to reason that he should make
them amenable to law. Now this is really
all we want law aud order in the place
Of arbittariueSS. This, you will admit, IS
not a very ~extrlvagant view yet we IN
not propagate nor even express it without
rendering ourselves liable to be sent to
Siberia. My, the expression ct still more
moderate opinions, such as the deSlrablli-
ty Of teaching the people to read and
write, is punishable with the same lndlS'
criminate severity. Now what are we to
do9 Are we not in the position of gases
prnt up under the earth, which, finding
no ready-made outlet, create one, produc-
ing explosions and eruptionS 2 This is the
natural history OF such political earth
Quakes as are traceable to the action Of
Russian rpvoluliouiSts. 1t is absurd to
credit MS with sympathy for crime as such.
We are not even NiIlilIstS in the religious
o. philosophical sense of the term. We
would gladly content ourselves with legal
me ms, could we bat lind them, to VENT
late ideas which contain germs capable of
regenerating our COuntrymen."
AS he uttered these words, sitting on q
long narrow bench by the side of the big
Russian stove in the almost empty room
of the t2bd, | resolved within myself that
he was the least impulsiye Russian [ had
ever seen or heard of. He spoke in a
somewhat loud tone Of voice, distinctly
and coldly, not the least shade of ANNA
tion in his manner, and with a solemn EN-.
phasis as of some old ZOrOastrian pontiff
prOmulgating The immutable laws Of the
MeleS and PerSianS. He seemed to have
no soft side to his nature ; no passion or
enthusiasm in his character. He was
married, and his young wife was said to
be eminently qualified, by her education,
tastes, and temperament to render him
supremacy happy, and yet he coldly sac
riiced her and his two children to the pc.
litical Moloch whom he SO disinterested-
~ worShips. | nave been told in Khar-
koff and Odessa that he played a prOmi-
nent part in organising the "Society" be-
fore his arrest, and that he is bound to
make his mark in the political annals of
Russia; and ! may say, from what l have
seen Of him, that nave not the slightest
dOuht of If