The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-19

uhdbo tue OJH0T uby 70 tue hdtlOudi az
sembly and the Council of the Empire.
From their own point Of view the
reactionists are evincing shrewdness, as
might indeed have been expected from
such a man as IGNATIEFF. It is probably
true, as they apprehend, that the car Of
reform, once fairly under way, cannot
be stopped. As we have often recalled,
history shows that while counter-revo-
lutions may be temporarily successful,
a people which has once tasted self-rule
will not long consent to live without it.
Carefully restricted Ii are the rights
conceded to the Russian national assem-
bly,, they exceed immeasurably those
possessed by the French States General
when the latter body met at Versailles
in 17S9 Yet before the latter body
adjourned it had transformed the Bour-
bon system Of absolutism into a liberal
type OF a constitutional monarchy.
No matter what precautions are taken
to exclude reformers from the State
Duma, that chamber cannot evince a
more conservative temper than was ex-
illDllCu w ~ BiU q iliuJOlI w. VI 'iC pNoNCr-
General when they first assembled. A
very few liberals will suffice to warn,
convince and electrify. The knowledge
that responsibility has devolved upon
them in the eyes of their c%ountrymen
will ultimately convert a majority Of
the assembly into patriots. infiexibly re-
solved to further the welfare and progress
Of their nation,
From a financial point Of view the
Government is tied hand and foot by the
refusal OF French bankers to advance
the 5000 900, 900, Immediately needed, until
all previous loans. shall have been rati-
fled by both chambers OF the Parliament
which is soon to meet. There is, indeed,
a report that the R|OTHSCHILDS have
consented to advance forthwith 800, 900 :
900, but only on condition that the sum
shall remain in Paris to be used solely
for the payment Of interest or loans
already placed in France. Russian bank
ers have been prevailed upon to promise
$50, 900, 900, but this will scarcely do more
than permit the continuance of specie
payments in st, Petersburg and the
resumption of them in certain parts Of
Russia where they have been suspended.
The new Minister Of Finance has lately
reafirmed the soundRess Of the figures
published in the budget issued about
three months ago figures which justify
the deduction that for extraordinary
military expenditures alone Russia will
need $3.50 200, 900 during the current year
and part OF 1907. The unexpected dis
bursements which will have to be in
Cured for other objects will signally
increase the deficit that must be met.
We were told, for instance, yesterday
that the special commissioners directed
to investigate the outcome of last years
agrarian disturbances estimate that the
losses in nineteen provinces alone exceed
S155 ,OOO, 900. Naturally the owners Of
the property look for pecuniary help to
the Government, which should have been
able to maintain order, and it seems that
the Government, recognizing its respon-
sibility, has practically decided to grant
the landlords time loans bearing no inter-
est and amounting to a third of their
respective losses.
1t is the tremendous financial straits
OF the autocracy which render it abso-
lutely necessary to convoke the national
assembly, without whose cooperation no
considerable sum of money will be
procurable in France or elsewhere.
Even il, therefore, the alleged conspira-
tors should cause an uprising of the
reactionary Black Hundreds, Of whom
there are said to be fifty thousand in
st. Petersburg alone, it would be a
matter Of life or death to the Govern
ment to crush the counter-revolution
by means OF the army. This the Gar
himself has sense enough to see, and we
can hardly doubt that for this reason
success will attend the determined at
tempt of Count WITTE and the Liberal
section of the Cabinet to suppress the
organization known as the League of the
Russian People, through which the
counter-revolutionary purpose Of the
Black Hundreds is propagated.