The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-24

[ great interest at this time. It was translated by V. Tchertkoff, editor Of The Free Age published at Christ church. and Is republished from the weekly edition of The London Times {, of January 6, 1905. with an explana- l tory note by the translator.
 This letter was written by Tolstoy about three years ago, when he himself and all around him thought that he was dying. At the present moment when, owing to a slight relaxation of the Russian censorship. questions of political reform are being from vari- ous standpoints publicly discussed in Russia, it has been thought advisable to give publicity to this letter of Tol- stoys in order that his opinion on the subject should not remain unknown to those interested in Russian social pro- gress.-V. T.
 Dear Brother-Such form of address, ing you seems to me the most appro- priat te because in this letter appeal to you not so much as to a Tsar as to a mana brother; and also because write to you as 1t were from the other world, expecting the approach of death. I do not wish to die without telling you what I think of your present activity and of what 1t might be, what great welfare it might bring to millions Of people and to yourself, and what great evil 1t may bring both to the people and to you. if it continues in the direc- ton in which it is now going.
 A third of Rusisa lies in the state of special contro1--i. e., outside the law. The army of police. visible and secret. goes on continually increasing. Pris- ons, places of exile and of penal servi- tude are overfowing. "politicals" with whom working men are now classined being added to the hundreds of thous- ands of ordinary criminals.s The cen sorship of literature extends to such absurd prohibitions which 1t did not reach even during the worst period of the forties. Religious persecution has rever been so frequent and cruel as 1t Is now. and becomes ever more cruel and frequent Everywhere, both in the towns and industrial centres, troops are concentrated and sent out with loaded cartridges against the people. Tn many places fratrlcidal conflicts have already taken place, and every where such are being prepared, and new and yet more cruel struggles will inevitably occur.
 As the result of all this strenuous and cruel activity of the Government, the agricultural population-those 100 millions upon whom rests the power of Russia-notwithstan the dispro- portionately increasing budget. or rath- CT. owing to this increase, is every year becoming poorer. so that famine has become a normal occurrence. And the universal dissatisfaction of all classes with the Government, and their inim- fcal attitude towards it, has also in- creased in proportion.
 The reason for all this, so palpably evident, Is thisa Your helpers assure you that. by the arrest of all progress of life in the nation, they will thereby ensure the welfare of this people and your own peace and safety.
 But one can sooner arrest the flow of l a river than that incessant progressive movement of mankind which Is estab- lished by God. Follows Horrible Advice. One understands how those to whom such a state of things is advantageous, | and who in the depths of their souls say "apres nous le deluge,' can and must assure you of this; but it is aston ishing how you--a free man, needing nothing, and a rational and good man l-can believe them and, following their horrible advice, commit or allow to be Icommttted so much evil for the sake of such an unattainable desire as the arrest of the eternal progress of man. kind.
 | You cannot but know that ever since
 the life of man is known to us. the forms of this life, economical and so- cial as we'll as religious and political, have continually changed. passing from forms more coarse. cruel and irrational
 to softer, more humane. and more ra-
 tional ones Your advisers tell you that this is not so; that as for the Rus | sian people at some bygone time or | thodoxy and autocracy were suitable
 so they are suitable now and so they
 will remain until the end of time, and
 that therefore, for the welfare of the
 Russian people, it is necessary at all
 costs to maintain these two combined forms of religious belief and political
 organization. But this is double er- TOT.
 First, it is impossible to assert that orthodoxy, which may once have been natural to the Russian people; Is now natural to them. From the reports oi the Procurator of the synod you may see that the more developed amongs' l the people, notwithstanding all the dis advantages and dangers to which they are exposed when they secede from
 orthodoxy-every year join the so' | called sects in increasing numbers 1 secondly, 1T II were U ut ththl VI is natural to the people, then there
 would be no reason for the use oi
 coercion to support this form of belie1 nor for the cruel persecution of those
 who repudiate it.
 l So, as to autocracy, if it were natural l to the Russian people while this peo' ple still believed that the Tsar Is ar | infallible earthly deity who alone rules ] the people, 1t is far from natural tc | them now when they all know or else | find out as soon as they get little
 education, first that a good Tsar Is only | un heureux hasard, and that Tsars may
 be and have been monsters and maniacs like John ". and Paul; and, secondly
 that however good and wise a man a
 Tsar might be- he himself cannot pos | sibly rule a nation of 136 millions, but
 that the people are ruled by those whc | surround the Tsar. and who are more concerned with their own position than
 with the peoples welfare.
 You will reply that the Tsar car
 elect as helpers for himself disin-
 terested and good people. Unfortunate
 ly, the Tsar cannot do this because ht
 knows only few score of individual:
 who have approached him accidentally
 or through various intrigues. and who
 carefully screen from him all those who might replace them. So that the Tsal chooses not from those thousands O.
 active, energetic, truly enlightened an6
 honest men who are anxious for socia
 work, but only from those concerning