The Weekly Journal. — 1904-06-24 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

OMENS.  A GRIM FINNISH DECLARATION.  They did as they were taught; not theirs the blame If men who scattered firebrands reaped the same. —Lowell.  The latest illustration of this simple but much-neglected truth is the assassination of General Bobrikoff, the Russian GovernorGeneral of Finland. The murderer—l am giving the act its most repulsive name—was a son of the Finnish ex-Senator Schaumann, and he supplemented his act of tyrannicide, which will for ever gleam in the chronicles of Finnish hatred of Russia, with the slaughter of himself. At this moment Russia is suffering seriously at the hands of a relatively small nation but recently despised of the Muscovite, and suffering chiefly because the Japanese—a " Fagan " nation—have no religion but that passionate ancestor-worship which is but another name for patriotism.  Till ASSASSINATION OF BOBRIKOFF has, in the suicide of the slayer of the tyrant— for the murdered General was at once the instigator and execntor of the foul treachery to a peaceful and high-minded people which is expressed in the phrase " Russification of Finland "—warned the Czars that a like spirit is found among patriots at home. Have you, my dear sir and madam, read the history of this little nation which had for so long been treated by the Autocrats as virtually self-governing, these monarchs contenting themselves with the statue, as rulers thereof, of Grand Dukes ? There was one bright spot of loyalty in the vast Russian Empire—Finland. Half a dozen Czars on their accession to the throne of the Romanoffs solemnly swore to maintain the Grand Duchy in its old rights and privileges, and when Alexander 111. went to Helaingfors in 1885 he was most enthusiastically received by the Finns—an enthusiasm, many may remember, which was reasonably pleaded in support of the proposal to grant Homo Rule to Ireland. Afterwards came—" whom the gods doom they first drive mad "—proposals to bring Finland under the harsh conditions of general Russian rule. The result we know—fierce opposition, exile of a multitude of the best of the Finns, and the assassination of GovernorGeneral Bobrikoff, with perhaps many more assassinationa to follow.  LET US CHAT QUIETLY AND COSILY  of this and cognate matters, for I promise you that I am going to pull no long face over the misfortunes of Russia. If there is such a thing as "God in history "1 recognise it in the horrors of the Fres& Revolution and firmly expect It in the probably equal horrors of the Russian Revolution, whenever it may wow  Why should we wonder at what has occurred in Russia as terrible pretests against frightful despotismP Wonder would have been justified if what is cynically caked "law and order " had been respected. AS IN FRANCE, SO IN RUSSIA, downtrodden humanity mast turn in mad revolt. One stands almost ashamed of the intelligence of our race to find among Englishmen writers who denounce the French Revolution as a mem sudden intrusion of the Devil into French affairs--mon who actually profess to find an efficient explanation of the awful outburst In the writings of Voltaire, Rousaexii, Diderot, and others. No: the process was a long one—a gradual piling of injustice till it could no longer be borne: He grew and gathered through the silent years The madness of a People. wrong by wrong. There seemed no stwmgth in the dumb toiler's teen. 740 strength is suffering; but the Past was strong; The bride despair of trampled centuries Leaped up with one hoarse yell and snapped its bonds. Groped for its right with horny, milieus hands, And stared around for God with Iloodshot eyes.  And this is what will occur in Russia unless the ruling powers be wise in time. The handwriting is on the wall, and it needs no inspired prophet to interpret the words. THE COLOSSUS IS BEING SHAKEN by the war. A dim sem* that the Autocracy really means national corruption and weakness is stealing upon a terribly over-taxed people, living, moving, and having their being in fetters that cramp mental and physical action. "Holy Russia," with its 150,000,000 inhabitants in its European provinces alone, and depending chiefly upon military prestige for the maintenance of its unwieldy Empire, is being beaten on land and sea by an Asiastic people lees than 5000,000 in number; there is grave UNREST IN POLAND AND FINLAND; and throughout the world the Power that was greatly feared is at this moment pitied. He would be a foolish man who should, because he disliked or feared Russia, rejoice at this in the belief that the Muscovite Power can, as Urquhart and Beefily proposed, be kept in the position of a mere Asiastic nation. All the troubles, my dear sir, that have coins upon Russia are but the prelude to an avalanche gradually being &fit up, yet when the worst has happened a new and mightier Russia will arise—the Remits* a free, brave, and patient race, expanding in knowledge and power, and destined to play a much greater part in world. affairs than ever she has yet done. But before that comes she must pans through frightful travail, and it will be much if the looming revolution do not, like that of France a century ago,  ~...79.:. . i, 1,,,.,, -.- \o• • : , •.„. 1 . , k 4P+. • • Ill'O'• AL ,-4i, kl,'ltti , , ,i ~. ....... v. \,,,' . • 11. . - -:,‘ Am- : • - At, o-. ' .......- - a