The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-20

ply to the country districts, where spirits are not to be obtained. anC where even the sale of beer is some times prohibited. Local veto in its
 widest application is in full force ir Finland, and it is for the peasants
 themselves to decide every question oi this kind
 company has just been formed on
 somewhat similar lines, with the ob- ject of helping the non-proprietary
 peasants to acquire land. One per cent
 is the utmost dividend it Is allowed to
 declare. It is hardly necessary to | state that the undertaking has arous-
 ed the wrath of General Bobrikoff,
 who hoped to pursue the same sys-
 tenn by which he attained such un-
 enviable notoriety in the Baltic prov
 inces, and of which the principle con-
 slsts in stirring up a bitter class feel ing in the country. The governor gen
 eral recently imported a considerable
 number of agents into Finland with this laudable object in view, but hap oily the peasants themselves took the matter into their own hands with com- iAiSiib2DiC SpSSuJ dlll DGlUIG any ldlili was done three hundred of the secret police employed for this purpose left CT bloc for St. Petersburg.
 That such an attempt as this could ever have been made showed an all most incredible ignorance of the Fin nish character. The Finnish peasant is immensely proud of his country, and as one of those proverbs which form so great part of her language quaintly puts 1t, My own land Is a strawberry; all other lands are but bilberries." That this intense devotion to his country is no spurious senti- ment is shown by the fact that all the eigrants to Aerlca alost invariably re- turn to their native land
 One ust visit Finland at the present juncture to realize how deeply the Finnish peasants and workingmen feel the blow that is about to fall on their native country. There is not man or woman in this factory" said a manager of some mills in Finland, where three thousand hands are em- ployed, "Who would not cheerfully sacrifice himself for his country" Yet there is not the least sign of disorder anywhere, no public meetings are held, no infiammatory speeches are made, no chance is given for an excuse for the authorities to march troops through the country. It may be safely asserted that in no country in the world would the people act with such discretion and tact as has been shown
 in Finland at this difficult crisis in her i, ts4n l.i, of c tion that has been made was on the occasion of the deputation to the Czar, when at all the stations along the line from St. Petersburg to Helsingfors-- some couple of hundred miles-croWds of peasants had gathered in the dead of night with heads uncovered to show their gratitude to those who had been to plead their country's cause
 Yet in spite of their outward calm there is no doubt that the Films would sacrifice everything rather than come under the iron heel of military despo tism This is so strongly felt that there is at this moment commission in Canada, which has gone out with the purpose of entering into negotia- tions with the Canadian government
  that if the worst comes to the worst, 1 the stream of emigration may be di- rected to one district, and that a New Finland may perhaps be built up in free country.
 But emigration will be adopted only as a last resort, when every hope has gone. "'The Russians may rest assur- ed of this" said seafaring man to ne the other day, they will not gain l single additional soldier from Fin and by these Illegal means" The Finn is slow to act, but when he has made up his mind on subject, what l ,ver it may be, nothing on earth will | ,hange his view Many instances of | 1is pluck and determination have been shown In the wars with Russia in the 1 past. To give but one of these: ,astle in the east of Finland was dur ng the war of 1908. long besieged by | he Russians and ultimately taken by assault The victors on entering dis covered that of the sixty brave de- enders fifty-five were killed including he commandant and all the officers. None had surrendered.-He of the London Chroni- ,le