The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-17
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vitality concerned, is now bcing enacted
In ~ Petersburg DO they Imagine that
Tho risc and fall ~ securities m tho
Stock Exchange, NJ even tho wording
NJ n law empowering n continuation APP
pointed by tho President ~ the United
Statea "a nv rates for railways, arc mat
tiers worthy NJ any attention compared
with The spectacle NJ n great nation
bursting tho bonds that have fettered II
for c%cnturiesp
The Crock anthropologists defined Man
as the animal that looks upward. In
tho long process Of evolution many
ages seem TO have been needed for him
70 deserve that definition. Even now a
narrow horizon limits his upward and
his outward gaze. Apparently we re-
quire a far stretching perspective in
order to appreciate the significance of
events. More than one generation came
and went before we'll informed and
highly intelligent Romans knew any
thing about the life and mission Of JESUS
of Nazareth. Years passed before any
one in Europe, or v a in Spain, so much
as guessed the meaning Of what had
been done by COLUMBUS in 1902. The
great discoverer himself died in igno-
rance Of the true purport OF his achieve
ment. How few men at the court of
JAMES I. or in the English Parliament
took any note of the fortunes of the few
needy adventures who had planted
themselves at jamestown in 1907. Con-
temporary correspondence shows that
for weeks after the French States
General met at Versailles on May 10,
1850, nobody on either side of the Atlantic
felt the faintest premonition Of a con-
vulsion by which all Europe was to be
shaken. The files of London news
papers for the year and the month
named may be searched in vain for
proof of any ~foreboding Of the epoch
making events impending on the south
ern shore of the British Channel. 1t
took the execution OF the once lovely
MARIE ANroINETTE to shock BURKE out
OF his indifference. Relatively wide
awake as newspaper readers are to-day,
and possessed of means Of acquiring
instantaneous information that would
have seemed'miraculous a century ago.,
we observe but few indications of the
absorbing and breathless interest where
with ought to be watched the proceed
ings of an assembly in which for the
first time in history Q great people be-
comes a%rticulate.
We suppose that one reason for the
comparative apathy exhibited by on
lockers is the fact that during the last
six months there has been so much talk
in Russia about the nations %emancipa-
ton and so little really accomplished 20
that end. The bureaucrats and the
champions OF the autooracy seemed to
be endorsed by the manifesto Of Octo-
Der 80, but they soon regained the saddle
and applied themselves to tearing down
the large liberties conceded by that
ukase until nothing was left but the
simulacrum OF a legislative body, which,
on the eve OF its meeting, the 'o-cal.ed
Fundamental Law, promulgated on May
7, tried to rob Of any genuine power,
Tr~l~. A. ,~o,~n.oaaa thoaa ,uLa -.
glance ct the surface Of events are not
u~nnaturally inclined to regard the pro-
ceedings of the so-called Russian Parlia-
ment as ~farcical.
1t is no farce, but probably a world
thrilling tragedy. of which the opening
scenes are now being witnessed in st.
Petersburg. A child's touch can start
an avalanche, and the weak minded Car
has brought into activity an engine that
is likely to wreck his throne, We repeat
that the Russian people have at last
found their voics, and it is already
patent that they mean to speak their
mind, and expect Their words to be
needed. The address responsive to the
speech from the Throne, the substance
of which We printed or Wednesday, is a
document Of extraordinary dignity and
self-restraint fraught with solemn warn
ing, with a consciousness Of irresistible
power and with a sense Of m~easureless
responsibility. Evidently there are
thinkers, writers and speakers in that
Russian assembly who are the peers of
any that COPIED with MIBABEAU in debate,
and as well qualified to shape by legis-
lation a nations destiny.
What can prevent, it may be asked,
the startled and shivering Reaotionists
from %summariiy dissolving the Duma
and making a desperate attempt to
restore the autooraey in its most rigid
and oppressive form? We answer that
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