Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1896-05-28
THE PAGEANT'S PLACE IN
HISTORY.

AS va OA
las Ii. are splendid and impos-
ing beyond anything of the kind
that has been seen in our day.
AS a demonstration of imperial
power it could not be paralleled
elsewhere, because the power of
the Gar has nowhere it's parallel.
But the question that will arise
in the mind of the reader and
must assert itself in the minds of
the spectators at Moscow is how
long all this can last.
If we reflect how many CEN
turtles have been required for the
evolution of what we now sup
pose to be self-evident political
principles-say from Magma
Charta to the Declaration of In
dependence-and through what
tribulations the present liber-
ties of Western Europe were
worked out, and then consider at
how recent a period Russia has
really entered into modern his
tory, we shall recognize as a fact
that Russian progress, age for
age, has not been so slow as we
are apt to assume. The differ
ence is that the European ma.
tons developed, if not at equal
pace. yet always in communica-
ton with one another, and react
ing upon one another, SO that
the distance between any two of
them now is far less than be
tween the whole of the them and
that great ration that has been
growing, expanding and unity
ing in half -shadowy isolation.
But isolution is no longer pos
sible. Russia comes forward as
a European power, in contact
and communication with Vest
ern thought and impulses Let
us assume that the Autocracy
has satisfied the Russians hither
to; is it possible to believe that it
will satisfy them long?
It would need a much great
statesman than there is any rea-
son to suppose Nicholas to be to
know how to meet this question
At the time of his marriage he
took occasion to announce that
lin devoting all my strength to
the welfare of the people. I in
tend to protect the principle of
autocracy as firmly and answer
vingly as did my late and never
to>be forgotten father"->who
wore himself out in a vain effort
to control the complicated ma
chinery through which alone he
could govern his vast empire.
This demonstration at Moscow is
meant, Of course, as a fresh asser~
ton of the Autocracy. It is
meant to show the folly of at
tempting its overthrow. The
peril is that it will but renew
that hopelessness of liberal res
form that found it's desper-
ate expression in Nihilism.
There is a kind OF logic in the
thought that since the CARBON
is in theory incompatible with
constitutional liberty, it is only
oy destroying it, or making it
physically impossible, that the
nation can assert its own power.
Yet the truth is that the nation
has been constantly asserting
itself, consciously or uncon>
sciously, upon ard through the
Gar himself, as in Alexander's
great act of emancipation and
the liberal policy of the early
half of his reign, which was only
checked by the violence of the
radicals, which paralyzed the
constitutional liberals and drove
the Gar back upon mllitarism.
Alexander, 1.-The liberator," was
killed by an assassin, and his son
and successor was made a reac>
tionary by force.
The doctrine of assination APP
pears Of late to have declined
and with that comes new hope
for liberalism. The whole basis
of the Russian nationality is so
different from our own that it, is
absurd for Americans to discuss
the situation as though they
knew exactly what should be
done. And yet we can to some
extent perceive that the problem
is not necessarily hopeless. The
Russians already have, in the mir.
or village commune, a patriarchal
system of local government not
unlike the New England town.
ship, and in the Zemstvo, or local
representative assembly, the be-
ginnings of a popular system it
may yet be found possible to
build upon. It is at least within
the personal power of the Gear
to Withdraw from these the bur.
eaucratic interference that has
robbed them of their usefulness
and to accord such a measure of
liberty in thought and speech as
would encourage the people in
self>reliance. With larger liberty
would surely come truer loyalty.
1t seems to the distant observer
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