The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-26
SOME NEW BOOKS.


iiNOLD WHITMORE WILLIAMS, Pa. ID.
(Scribners), purports to give an inside
view of its subject. This pretension IL
Implicit In the title as in the titles of
the foregoing numbers Italy OF the
Italians" Spain OF the Spanish" and so
forth Moreover. IL Is an inside view by
an outsider At least none of the num-
bers seems to have been written by a
native OF the country he undertakes TO
describe. That the writer Is not to the
manner born may be an advantage, upon
the ground that the hand or the eve of
little employment hath the daintier
sense" and that II Is the stranger and
not the native who Is the reader to
perceive what things in civilization
are characteristics. But on the other
hand the writer of a book undertaking
to set forth the condition OF q country
as II appears to Its natives must have
qualified by long residence and familiar
fty, even at the risk of losing some of
the freshness of his original Impressions
OF what Is strange andtherefore charac-
teristic. The selection of the writer for
book OF this particular scope and
purport is the most difficult point in its
projection. In the prcsen. instance the
publishers have been unquestionably
toTluHdtts MI w i.ildtnS SHOWS nlfnSelt
familiar with all phases of Russian ac-
tivity and progress. and his intellectual
curiosity appears to he omnivorous. in
somuch that one cannot detect whether
he is most warmly Interested in the
literary and artistic manifestations or
in the daily life of the Russian people
Each of these subjects. IN fact, he trea -
ike a specialist in 1t. and It is evident
- L.. al. 1 .lsg 4
person. Hence his book may be- read
TO great advantage. even after Mr..
Maurice Baring's admirable book. The
Russian People" published two years
ago. TO more advantage after than be-
fore. indeed. since NJ. Barring goes far
more deeply into the historical origins
of actual Russian institutions and
traits. subject which his successor is
Obliged to crowd int single and
highly compendious chapter on THE
Growth OF Russia" The more recent
book OF Count Paul Vas'li. Behind the
Veil at the Russian Court" as even its
title imports. does not come into the
comparison. being merely gossip about
Russian politics. which in the authors
time and in his view were exclusively
court politics
he exclusively court politics our present
author holds to be both unQuestiona BILE
and auspcious. HIS chapter on The
Bureaucracy and the Constitution" gives
the history of the struggle precipitated
by the defeat of Russia by Japan and
the attendant showing Of tht intrinsic
weakness of a Power which oil its
subjects had come to believe lnvincible.
II Is not properly a struggle between the
autocracy and the Constitution. for the
reason that every bureaucrat from the
governor OF province down 10 the
chief Of police of a provincial town is
In his sphere an autocrat, whose pro-
cedures II is physically impossible for
the titular autocrat to regulate or even
TO keep track of. There is here In the
compass of a single chapter OF moderate
length a reasonably satisfactory ac-
count of the progress Of constitutional
ism In Russia, beg'- ming with a vivid
picture of the tragica exordlum to It,
that fateful Sunday in January. 1905,
when the workingmen of ST. Petersburg,
encouraged by the tacit liberation of the
Government for their preliminary steps
Of organization, marched up TO the
Winter Palace to present TO their Lit
tie Father their petition for guarantees
of civil liberty and for representative
institutions and wer- shot and slashed
to death in numbers still unknown
without having chance to present II
to the Incorporating autocrat. The
scene irresstibly recalls the picture of
the deputation of the Partisan prole-
tariat waiting on Louis XVI. with a
statement of grievances. and for salts
faction OF the same getting its members
hanged ION a new ga.ows, forty feet
high" which answer to their petition
was one Of the final provocatons to
the French Revolution. The naval mu-
tiny a Odessa followed hard upon The.
little massacre at st. Petersburg There
We're other mutinies and demonstrations
which induced "Pharaoh.' before the
summer was out, and even before the
peace Of Portsmouth was concluded in
August. TO issue "A deCreHe constituting
"A National Representative Assembly
with consultative powers" which OBJ
yiously were any powers or no powers
al all, according to political eXigencies
and circumstances. II was in accord
ance with this decree that the first
Duma was convoked, and was ended by
the secession of the ma jority of its
members to Niborg, whence they is
sued the manifesto recommending to
The Russians who remained in Russia
20 refuse to pay taxes or to furnish re-
Cruits for the army II was a lame and
impotent conclusion, and not less lame
and impotent was mat of the second
Duma. which Stolyp!n vainly undertook
10 manage in the interest of the autoc-
racy or the bureaucracy" The third
Duma was a packed body assured by
its composition of subservlency. Our
author fully allows for the political in
eptitude of the first two Dumas, which
would be amazing II one did not bear
.n mind the entire political ineXperlence
Of its members and its constituents, and
for the nullIty of the third. But never
thelesS he sees IN the institution Of the
Duma sure earnest of political ad-
vanCemcnt and amnl'oration. He may
oe in the right. If one traces the his
tory Of political liberty In the most
advanced countries. say in England nc
does not have to go many centuries
back to find that the reprcs 'ntative as
eemhly was either as subservient az
the third Duma or az helpless as its
predecessors. The mere institution OF a
represr ntative national assembly, with
the power AT least OF giving expression
20 public grievances II not yet with the