The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-02
How Will the Alliance with France
Affect Russia


While almost all Of the Paris newspa-
pers are discussing the external results Of
the Franco. Russian alliance, one of them,
the Gdutois, suggests that the parties to
the compact may experience some internal
effects. Can 1t be possible. that journal
asks, for France. the most progressive Of
European nations, to rub shoulders with
Russia, which is the most conservative,
without imparting to the latter a little Of
her revolutionary virus3 We arc acquaint-
ed, adds the Guulois, with the effect Of the
Russian hymn on French heads. We shall
soon know that which the "Marseillaise"
produces on Russian heads.
We have no doubt hat Russians Of the re.
dictionary type, like Mr.. PoBIEpoNosrsEFF,
were shocked to hear the bands of st. Pc
tersburg play tho "Marseillaise," which Is
the most revolutionary of anthems; which,
throughout the century and in all oun
tries, has been regarded as sounding the
tocsin Of revolt against autocracy. If 1t is
not wrong for Russians to play the tune,
how can it be wrong for them to sing the
words attached to til If, lawfully, the
words may be sung, why may not the ideas
which they express be propounded and de-
veloped in private conversation or at pub
lie meetingsi How can the thoughts and
the emotions embodied in the French lyric
be ]reconciled with a docile announcement
of self-government and abject abasement
before the Cart You cannot teach the
Russians to utter the passionate aspira-
tions of a people determined to be free, and
expect the utterance to remain ~perfunctory.
Tho narfniSaipn RI aipp that 4 NJ aroatl1a loo "
may thus prove the thin edge of the wedge
destined to split the Russian despotism.
1t is we'll known that Mr.. PoBIEpoNosT.
SELF, who, as procurator of the Holy Synod,
was SO powerful a parsonage during the
reign Of ALEXANDER I'LL, has ceased to
possess any influence at the court Of NICHo-
LAS II. With him has fallen the main prop
Of the reactionary party, which, on the
night following the assassination of ALEX
NDE H., persuaded his successor to can.
eel the Constitution which his father had
signed, and which was already passing
through the press. That instrument ex-
lists, and some information touching its
purport has been given to the world. It
conceded, we are told on good authority,
large powers Of self.government to the Rus
sian people. In the form not only Of provin-
cial Legislatures, but of a national Parlia-
ment. The peasants, organized as they
are in village communities, were to
send delegates to these assemblies.
as well as the merchants, gentry, and
mobiles. How the functions of the local Leg.
islatures were to be distinguished from
those of the national Parliament, and to
what extent the action of the latter was to
be controlled by the will of the sovereign,
has not been, as yet, divulged. The charter
was suppressed by ALEXANDER I'LL, mainly
on the ground that the Russian people were
not ripe for it. Yet they are probably as
fit to discharge the duties of electors as
were the mass Of Frenchmen in 1889, or as
were the inhabitants Of Sicily, Naples and
the States of the Church when they were
incorporated with the kingdom of Italy
and were intrusted with the ballot.
Certainly the avowed alliance OF the Rus
sian Empire to a republic must be a good
augury in the eyes of liberal. minded Rus
slams. They will be encouraged to resume
the movement for constitutional rights
which was interrupted by the death of the
grandfather Of the present Car, and, pro-
vided they are not again thwarted by the
criminal folly of the Nihilists, their hopes
may be at last fulfilled.