New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-17

politeness. consideration that made II possible
10 mingle and bray and melt twenty diverse
races into the compact block which is the
Russia of to-day The author admits that
Ivan ". I'm the course of his work, may have
gone somewhat beyond the atrocity usual in his
century but deprecates the creation Of a legend
airy and impossible monster; heaven knows the
naked, undisputed truth is black enough.
The early chapters contain rapid survey of
Russia in the sixteenth century, a picture of
the people and the country, of the political, So
cial and intellectual life. Of national dress,
habits and customs There is evidence Of much
compression in this part of the work. and the
text is thickly strewn with Russian words. so
that the reader whose attention is arrested by
obscurity or distracted by unfamiliarity is led TO
wonder whether the original is lacking in the
elements of a pure and easy style or whether
81 has unduly suffered from a dual translation.
There are certain inherent difficulties in
derfng into English words that have English
equivalent. but it may be doubted whether the
spirit Of a popular work would not better be
preserved by greater use of paraphrase than by
the strange terms that even in formation of
gender and number differ so widely from our
own tongue.
Ivan was born in 1880. and al three years
OF age inherited a throne not the most stable in
that period Of political and religious cOnvul-
sion. Himself related by blood to the boyars
the native aristOCracy from which the grand
dukes selected their wives he was 10 spend his
life warning against boyars. settling their in
terrninable jealousies by high handed methods
and consolidating his own power by diminish
sng theirs After the stormiest youth he was
crowned at seventeen, in the same year effect
.ng the first of his many marital experiments
1ions of the country led him 10 convoke an
was always an actor. addressed the body, and
the student of constitutional methods be
tempted 70 look upon these gatherings that took
place at intervals for century as embodying
the germs OF q parliamentary system. In an
Anglo-Saxon community such would be the in
ference, but the historian seeks another ex-
PLANTATION. I'm the young monarchs appear
a1ce before his assembled subjects" he says
"the slavophiles hail a striking example an
ideal relationship between the ruler and the
Tuied-a relationship rooted in love, a charac-
teristic trait Of the slav race. the only one
capable of oonceiving such a basis" The youth
6ul ruler certainly was not far in advance
OF his age and people IS 10 desire to curtail
his own prerogatiye for their benefit
The oonvol1ing of popular assemblies in the strict
meaning Of that term, CID enter into the plan
pf The political ediGce which Ivan had inherited,
and the destruction % which no by no means
contemplated. except in SO far TO alter its inter
nal arrangements at a future date, and thus adapt
&c modern needs. There place here
for any parliamentary institution. and so little
idea there Of its Introduction that the repre-
seuta~es of The 4r!sTocgsJ.c 0gaTchy, with Kcurb-
sk. their head made nos flIe slightest objection
tkn, 81 1870 which they appear 10 have taken
purely administrative and judicial expedient
anc nothing more.
IN fact. We may that If the monarch
and the ruling class-that is, the only educated
class-had no leaning 20 cons.itutionalism
there was no demand for it among the people
Il. indeed. It is proper TO apply the term "peo-
Pix 10 NE 1nultitUdes without power OF cohe-
sion or OF expression Between 1850 and 1853 q"
we are told. sixteen Of these assemblies were
called. and the memories and regrets left by the
last were neither very sharp nor overdeep. AS
sn arbitrary act the part of the ONLY real
power lad called them into life, so did another
arbitrary act send them back into the darkness
and neither their existence nor their exit made
much mark upon The destnies Of the Russian
race. In the constitutional inaptitude of This
branch Of The Slav family for the free forms
OF political existence, acknowledged by Some
historians. be an antiphrasis, and its voca-
ton for perpetual absolutism a blasphemy il Is
quite certain that no serious attempt at a par
Elementary system appropriate TO the