30 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -IX 



results were evident throughout the entire grand duchy. 

 While in Eussia there had been from time immemorial 

 a debased currency, the currency of Finland was as good 

 as gold ; while in Russia all public matters bore the marks 

 of arbitrary repression, in Finland one could see the re 

 sults of enlightened discussion ; while in Eussia the peas 

 ant is but little, if any, above Asiatic barbarism, the 

 Finnish peasant simple, genuine is clearly far better 

 developed both morally and religiously. It is a grief to 

 me in these latter days to see that the measures which 

 were then feared have since been taken. There seems a de 

 termination to grind down Finland to a level with Eussia 

 in general. We heard, not long since, much sympathy ex 

 pressed for the Boers in South Africa in their struggle 

 against England ; but infinitely more pathetic is the case 

 of Finland. The little grand duchy has done what it could 

 to save itself, but it recognizes the fact that its two millions 

 of people are utterly powerless against the brute force of 

 the one hundred and twenty millions of the Eussian Em 

 pire. The struggle in South Africa meant, after all, that if 

 worst came to worst, the Boers would, within a generation 

 or two, enjoy a higher type of constitutional liberty than 

 they ever could have developed under any republic they 

 could have established ; but Finland is now forced to give 

 up her constitutional government and to come under the 

 rule of brutal Eussian satraps. These have already begun 

 their work. All is to be &quot;Eussified&quot;: the constitutional 

 bodies are to be virtually abolished ; the university is to be 

 brought down to the level of Dorpat once so noted 

 as a German university, now so worthless as a Eussian 

 university; for the simple Protestantism of the people is 

 to be substituted the fetishism of the Eusso-Greek Church. 

 It is the saddest spectacle of our time. Previous emper 

 ors, however much they wished to do so, did not dare 

 break their oaths to Finland; but the present weakling 

 sovereign, in his indifference, carelessness, and absolute 

 unfitness to rule, has allowed the dominant reactionary 

 clique about him to accomplish its own good pleasure. I 

 put on record here the prophecy that his dynasty, if not 



