RUSSIA. 



number of offices was 2,534 ; the number of 

 dispatches, 5,761,731. The receipts of the 

 telegraph-office (in 1878, 28,113,702 francs) 

 showed in recent years a small annual sur- 

 plus, which is, by imperial decree, always de- 

 voted to the extension of the telegraphic sys- 

 tem. 



There were indications that the principles of 

 the Nihilists were spreading in the army ; four 

 officers in one regiment were arrested during 

 the first week in January on a charge of dis- 

 seminating revolutionary publications, copies 

 of some of which were found at their lodgings. 

 Two officers who had assisted eight political 

 prisoners to escape were arrested, and special 

 courts-martial were established in two districts 

 where Nihilism was discovered in the regi- 

 ments. A depository of revolutionary publi- 

 cations, with galvanic batteries, was discovered 

 in Moscow on the 6th, and led to the revela- 

 tion of a plot to blow up the Czar on his next 

 journey to that city. A petty officer and sea- 

 man, having their sea-chests filled with revolu- 

 tionary books and pamphlets, were arrested at 

 Nicolaieff. Anxiety was increased by the dis- 

 affection of a number of superior officers, some 

 of them high in command, and it appeared that 

 a considerable proportion of those who had 

 failed to obtain promotion and honors after 

 the late war had espoused the revolutionary 

 cause. A proclamation to Russian society was 

 published by students of the high-schools, com- 

 plaining of the oppressive measures which the 

 Government had taken against them, and of 

 the system of education which was imposed 

 upon them. It charged the Government with 

 giving the preference to the classical system as 

 one which tended to keep the public in igno- 

 rance, dwarf their reasoning power, and in- 

 capacitate them for active life ; demanded 

 educational liberty and the right to enter the 

 universities; and declared that, although so- 

 ciety would do nothing for its authors, they 

 would fight the great Moloch, called the Rus- 

 sian Government, to the end, even though the 

 best of them might perish in the struggle. An- 

 other secret press was discovered at St. Peters- 

 burg, with type set for the third number of the 

 new revolutionary paper, " Narodnaja Wolia," 

 which was said to contain, among other things, 

 a programme of the Executive Committee, pro- 

 posing to overthrow the Government and trans- 

 fer the reins of power to an assembly of or- 

 ganization^ The press, and copies of another 

 revolutionary journal, called " Tschorng Pere- 

 dol" (the Black Distribution of Land), was 

 discovered a few days afterward. 



Oa the 17th of February, at seven o'clock in 

 the evening, just as the imperial family were 

 about to dine, a mine was exploded in the 

 basement of the Winter Palace, immediately 

 under the imperial guard-room, which was 

 situated beneath the dining-room. The guard- 

 room was blown up, ten soldiers were killed, 

 and forty-five wounded. Fortunately, none of 

 the imperial party had yet entered the dining- 



room, although the Czar and Prince Alexander, 

 of Bulgaria, who had been conversing in the 

 Czar's study, were about to enter it through 

 one door, and the imperial Princesses were 

 about going in through another door. The 

 Empress was asleep in a remote part of the 

 palace, and was not disturbed by the shock of 

 the explosion. An examination of the prem- 

 ises showed that the mine was filled partly 

 with dynamite and partly with gun-cotton, 

 and that the train was laid to a cellar in an 

 inner court, where a battery, by which it was 

 fired, was concealed among a store of fuel. 

 Though the cellars were used by workmen, none 

 of the regular workmen employed about the 

 palace appeared to be implicated in the offense. 

 The Czar was very much affected by the occur- 

 rence, so that, at one time, he almost, it is 

 said, lost his self-command. When Lord Duf- 

 ferin, the British ambassador, called to con- 

 gratulate him on his escape, he remarked that 

 he was indebted to Divine Providence, and 

 that God, having mercifully delivered him 

 twice, recently, from very imminent peril, he 

 was content to trust his life for the future to 

 his protecting hand. Congratulations on his 

 escape were sent to the Czar by the heads 

 of all the principal states. To a dispatch 

 from President Grevy, of France, his Majesty 

 replied: "I cordially thank you for the sen- 

 timents you express. The spirit of evil is 

 unwearied, like Divine grace. I am glad to 

 reckon on the sympathies of right-thinking 

 men." On the Sunday after the attempt, the 

 Czar visited the Paulowski military school, 

 where he received an ovation from the stu- 

 dents, whose cheering was taken up by the 

 crowds assembled on the quay. 



On the 24th of February a ukase was is- 

 sued, in which the Czar, having declared his 

 firm determination to put down the attempts 

 to disturb order in Russia, appointed a Su- 

 preme Executive Commission to sit in the capi- 

 tal, of which General Count Loris-Melikoff 

 was named as president, and the members of 

 which were to be selected by him. The head 

 of the Commission, whose duty it was made to 

 watch over the safety of the Russian Empire, 

 was invested with the rights of commander-in- 

 chief in St. Petersburg and the adjacent dis- 

 trict, and further, with the direct control over 

 all political trials held in the capital, the mili- 

 tary district of St. Petersburg, and throughout 

 the empire. All the local authorities, govern- 

 ors, governors-general, and town command- 

 ers, were placed under the jurisdiction of the 

 chief of the Executive Commission, and all per- 

 sons employed in the various departments were 

 commanded to afford him their entire coopera- 

 tion. The head of the Commission was given 

 authority to adopt any measure which might 

 appear to him desirable for the protection of 

 order, and his orders were to be uncondition- 

 ally obeyed. The office of the Provisional Gov- 

 ernor-General of St. Petersburg, held hitherto 

 by General Gourko, was abolished. The first 



