RUSSIAN STATESMEN- 1892-1894 31 



himself, will be punished for it. All history shows that 

 no such crime has gone unpunished. It is a far greater 

 crime than the partition of Poland; for Poland had 

 brought her fate on herself, while Finland has been the 

 most loyal part of the empire. Not even Moscow herself 

 has been more thoroughly devoted to Russia and the 

 reigning dynasty. The young monarch whose weakness 

 has led to this fearful result will bring retribution upon 

 himself and those who follow him. The Romanoffs will 

 yet find that &quot;there is a Power in the universe, not our 

 selves, which makes for righteousness.&quot; The house of 

 Hapsburg and its satellites found this in the humiliating 

 end of their reign in Italy ; the house of Valois found it, 

 after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in their own de 

 struction; the Bourbons found it, after the driving out 

 of the Huguenots and the useless wars of Louis XIV 

 and XV, in the French Revolution which ended their 

 dynasty. Both the Napoleons met their punishment after 

 violating the rights of human nature. The people of the 

 United States, after the Fugitive Slave Law, found their 

 punishment in the Civil War, which cost nearly a million 

 of lives and, when all is reckoned, ten thousand millions 

 of treasure. 



When I talked with this youth before he came to the 

 throne, and saw how little he knew of his own empire, 

 how absolutely unaware he was that the famine was 

 continuing for a second year in various important dis 

 tricts, there resounded in my ears, as so often at other 

 times, the famous words of Oxenstiern to his son, &quot;Go 

 forth, my son, and see with how little wisdom the world is 

 governed. 



Pity to say it, the European sovereign to whom Nicholas 

 II can be most fully compared is Charles IX of France, 

 under the influence of his family and men and women 

 courtiers and priests, authorizing the massacre of St. 

 Bartholomew. The punishment to be meted out to him 

 and his house is sure. 1 



1 The above was written before the Russian war with Japan and the assas 

 sinations of Bobrikoff, Plehve, and others were dreamed of. My prophecy 

 seems likely to be realized far earlier than I had thought possible. 



