New-York tribune., 1905-10-31
THE FALL OF CZARDCM.


Czardom has fallen That is the purport OF
| the news from Russia. The Car hlmSeI mas
| not fallen. Perhaps he las actually risen 10 d
| higher and nobler status. He has not aod1cated
| his throne but he has abdicated bis autocracy.
| Henceforth he would reign as consututlonai
| sovereign with a responsible Ministry and an
elective Parliament So much, at least, 1t Is ap-
parenty safe to say, without waiting for the pre-
else text of the imperial mandate whlch was
signed Yesterday For, even If that instrument
were not q complete surrender to the popular oe-
| mand it would be impossible now to turn back
| revolution which has gone so far. In yielding
at all at this crisis autocracy has potentially
yielded altogether. We said in January last that
no matter how long the final transformation
| might by some means be deferred it was bound
| TO come and meantime from that date, things
could never again be as they had been. They
have not been they We're before Father Gapon
led his flock to the Winter Palace. And now the
end has come. The Russian system founded
two centuries ago is at an end, and the auto
cratic Car consents to become constitutional
Emperor.
This epoch making change, the greatest Eu-
rope has known in full generation and one OF
the greatest it has known for centuries, is dis
tinctIy triumph of the people No revolution
in history was more so. There have been
great changes when one monarch has overthrown
another or when some great popular leader mas
swayed a government. Not so has it been In
Russia We were commenting only the other day
upon the apparent lack of leadership in the revo-
luton. There has been no Bismarck, no Man
On Horseback" no Danton, no Mirabeau. There
has been only the multitudinOus mass OF the Rus
sian people, moving blindly but with unerrng
instinct; at first slowly glacier, at last
with the fury of an avalanche. In prophecy of
the last comparable occurrence in Europe before
this, John Hay wrote:
The people will come TO their own at last,
God is not Knocked forever!
The Russian people have indeed come to their
own at last. How they will deal with it the
world waits to see with hopeful expectation. 1t
Is first to be whether the tardy concessions
extored from the hesitating Car will be accepted
by the people in good faith, that he will be
retained upon the throne. There have been
those Of late who have clamored that the throne
itself must CO. and many have feared that any
concessions made would be too late to pre-
vent an anti-dynastic movement of Irresistible
force. Yet there is ground to think that con-
servative second thought will impel even the
Radicals to pause before taking thai extreme
plunge, and to accept In good faith the Emperors
grant of constitutional liberty. Then it will
main TO be seen to what effect the Russian people
will make use of their newly gained power. 1t
has been commonplace that the Russians
wholly unprepared and untitled for democratic
institutions. Yet it must be remembered that in
their local village administration, and even In
provincial affairs, they have long been accus-
toned to large measure of self government 1t
| would not be difficult or fancifuI to trace a ma
terial resemblance between the village assem-
blies of Russia and those town meetings which
were the preparatory schools Of American re-
pubiicanism and 1T may be that even the hither-
to hapiess moujik will tomorrow rise up, not
worthy of his newly gained dignity.
Iseaderless the revolution has been. But, now
that 1t is practically effected, leader is offered
to 1t whom ii will do well TO accept In making
the Treaty of Portsmouth Count Witte did SER
vice enough and fame enough to fill the
measure Of life. Yet today he is called to
more arduous work, to more important service
and Il he succeeds to higher glory. No man
can envy him the tremendous responsibilities he
is assuming If, however there Is q man in Rus
sia able to assume them and to discharge them
Alright, he is that man. Yesterday he
unexampIed victory in persuading the Autocrat
to abdicate his autocracy without the further
popular conlpulsion which was prepared and i'm
pending To-day bis task is to win and to hold
the confidence of the people and their assent to
and cooperation In the scheme of constitutional
| government which he has devised A fortnight
ago Count Witte declared that the Cars greatest
| desire was to become a constitutional sovereign,
| and that his ideal was Edward VII If now, as
| at once the mentor Of the Czar and the mediator
| between him and the people and also the leader
| Of the people, be bring to pass the fulflment
Of that high desire, he will perform service and
| achieve a renown unsurpassed In all the history
| OF the Russian Empire.