■342 



The Review of Reviews. 



April in, 1906. 



Kladderadat^ch.} 



No Easy Task. 



[Berlin. 



"Hold it together, hold it together: we will get it re- 

 paired in time." 



Order is clamouring savagely for the re-establish- 

 ment of unlimited autocracy. Lord Milner wouhl 

 find himself in congenial company if he were to join 

 the deputations of the " real Ru.ssian men " who arf 

 besieging the Tsar with petitions for the repeal of 

 the Ukase of October 30th. But the Tsar stands 

 firm. He refuses absolutely to listen to any talk of 

 postponing the election of the Douma, which will 

 meet in May. It is a difficult task holding a general 

 election for the first time on a brand-new register 

 in a country under martial law, with 70,000 political 

 prisoners under arrest, among whom are no small 

 proportion of possible candidates. But there is no 

 other way out. Imperfect though the representa- 

 tion may be, and farcical as in many cases the elec- 

 tions must be, it \rill be a great thing to get the 

 Douma together. Even if it were exclusivelv com- 

 posed of gendarmes, it would verv soon develop a 

 sense of its responsibility to the nation, and become 

 an invaluable instrument of government. The 

 chance of securing a Liberal Douma was thrown 

 away last September, when the Liberals refused to 

 be content with anvthing but a Con.stitutional As- 



sembly elected by universal suffrage. Now they 

 must put up with a much worse Douma than would 

 otherwise have been elected. 



There are only two elements ol 



The Outlook in hope in Russia. One is the reso- 



Muscovy. lute refusal of the Tsar to yield 



to the constantly increasing pressure- 

 of the Reactionaries, who hate the Douma ; the 

 other is the fact that Count Witte is still at the 

 helm. He is thwarted, baffled, opposed on ever\ 

 side. None of those who ought to support him will 

 give him a helping hand. But still he faces the 

 storm with undaunted heart. The outlook is enough 

 to make anyone despair. The Exchequer is empty. 

 The people are dying in the famine districts like 

 flies. The nobles report that they anticipate a 

 terrible outbreak of jacquerie in the spring. Onh 

 in one corner of the empire is there peace, pros 

 perity, and content. Finland is the one bright spot 

 in the Tsar's dominions, thanks to the success with 

 which the Tsar and Prince Obolensky brought the 

 Russian Empire into line with the political aspira 

 tions of the Finnish people. Yet such a spirit of 

 madness seems to have descended upon some Rus- 

 sians that the leading Conservative paper of St. 

 Petersburg, the TVovoe Vrcmya, is continually menac- 

 ing the Finns with reconquest, and urging the Rus- 

 sian Government to restore the hated regime of 

 Count Bobrikoff. Fortunately Russian rulers are not 

 quite so mad as some Russian newspapers, and Fin 

 land has no reason to fear any renewal of the at 

 tack upon her cherished libei'ties. Even if there 

 is no revolution in Hungary, Russia will have her 

 work set to get through the spring. But if there 

 is an explosion in Buda Pesth, who can say -what 

 might happen? Russia will not interfere — unless 

 somebody else does. Then no one can answer for 

 what may happ>en. 



The real and abiding danger in 



The Russia is that the masses may lose 



Real Danger, confidence in the justice of the 



Tsar. Hitherto they have held fast 

 to that fate in the midst of all discouragements. 

 The unshakable resolve of the present Tsar to per- 

 severe in the path of reform, despite all opposition, 

 confirms and justifies that faith. But it is being 

 fatally shaken by the reign of terror which has been 

 established piecemeal all over Russia bv local 

 governors and other authorities, every one uf whom, 

 under the plea of maintaining order, is furnished 

 with an Imperial authorisation to trample all human 

 rights under foot. Herein lies the terrible danger 

 of the present situation. Russians may find their 

 devotion to the one autocrat cannot stand the test 

 of having to tolerate a hundred local autocrats, each 

 armed with absolute power to do injustice at will. 

 It is not severity in punishing the guilty that alien- 



