Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1881-03-19 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE HERALD.  - SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1881.  THE foul murder of the Emperor a Russia has naturally thrilled Europe with horror and indignation. The know. ledge that the Czar was- a marked man that his life had been often attempted, and that it was certain to be attempted again, has in no degree weakened this feeling. The details under which the unhappy victim met his dath are already sufficiently well known. There cannot be two opinions that the Czar's assassination was a political crime, and it is impossible not to indulge in conjectures as to its ultimate political consequences. Alexander II was not only personally popular; he was also the most humane and enlightened— we may, perhaps, even say the wisest— ruler who ever guided the tangled destinies of Russia. Certainly he has not, on the whole, been fairly judged by his contemporaries It has too often been forgotten that Russia is at least half a century behind the rest of Europe in all that relates to the true development of a civilised State,and hence that when one viler had done his utmost for his people, his corns. try would still be far behind many of its neighbours. The emancipation of the serfs may, without exaggeration, be described as the most notable political event that has taken place in Europe in the lifetime of the present generation, and this beneficent measure was almost exclusively the Czar's own work. It cannot, however, be denied that the reforming zeal of the Czar greatly cooled in the latter half of his reign, and it would be hard to determine whether this was the cause or the effect of that social movement which in recent years has threatened to shake the fabric of the Russian Empire to its foundation. The Czar has at last fallen a victim to Nihilist machinations, and the question will now be hotly discussed in many quarters whether tho despotism which the Czar typified in his own person, or that ulcer in the body politic known as Nihilism, is the greater of the curses from which modern Russia suffered This is a big subject, and one that is not very favourable to dogmatic treatment. The two forces have, doubtless, acted and reacted upon each other, and after various minor collisions have at length produced a catastrophe. Perhaps if the Emperor Alexander had proved still more resolute as a political reformer, the closing years of his life wou,d have been less harassed, and he might have died peacefully in his bed. Bat who can tell? We may, however, feel tolerably confident that his cruel assassination will work no good for the political enfranchisement of the Russian nation. Those who had sufficient influence to persuade Alexander 11. that he had travelled far enough on the path of ieform are scarcely likely to be less successful with Alexander 111. His father's assassins have furnished the new monarch with only too plausible a motive fur stubborn resistance to demr.nds which may well appear to be stained with the blood of a wise and benevolent ruler. Even in our own country, where polit.cal , liberty has flourished for generations, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that in periods of unusual excitement many in our midst are prompt to counsel coercive and retrograde measures. What wonder, then, if Alexander 111. should lend an ear to the sinister advice he is certain to receive at this crisis; for, despite all that has happened,it is simply incredible that such a nation as Russia can be kept in perpetual bondage. The new Czar's only chance of safety is in a bold and vigorous reforming policy. He will be as certainly marked out for assassination as his father if he keeps within the same rigid autocratic bounds; and it is to be hoped, therefore, that some of his counsellors will have the courage to point out to him where the real danger lies.