70 



The Review of Reviews. 



July 1, 1906. 



RUSSIA ON THE EVE OF THE DUMA. 



S\'^iPTOMs OF Political Neurasthenia. 



The Natioual Rcvici^ publishes an admirable ar- 

 ticle bv its Special Commissioner, entitled '" Russia 

 on the Rubicon's Brink.*' 



A NEURASTHENIC NATION. 

 The writer says : — 



It is no exaggeration to eay that the Russian jieople is 

 no long-er physically normal. No sane person can peruse 

 the daily papers without seeing that those Russian 

 specialist-s are right who diagnose the Russian nation's 

 disease as political neurasthenia. The symptoms are the 

 mania of persecution, hallucinatious, illusions, abnormal 

 acts, including crimes against the person and property, 

 and suicide. 



Daring crime has a fascination for Russian society, such 

 as the story of buccaneers' gorj- deeds has for boys. When 

 the Moscow Mutual Credit Bank was pillaged, and nearly 

 a million roubles taken out in broad daylight, educated 

 people expressed sympathy or approval. Crime against 

 property and person is rife. Revolutionarj- housebreaking 

 and assassination are spreading throughout the land, and 

 the principal criminals are members of the rising genera- 

 tion, who have boycotted grammar schools, technical in- 

 SLitutions and universities. 



Fancy a number of boys of Harrow School, accompanied 

 by an Oxford undergraduate, trying to pillage the Bunk 

 of England in broad ilaylight and resolved to kill all who 

 should stand in their way. If we further reflect that this 

 is no isolated case, and that the ethical frame of sentiment 

 and thought which encourages or connives at it is wide- 

 spread, we shall be able to gauge the distance that 

 separates the Russian people from a normal point of view. 



THE MADNESS OF A PEOPLE. 



Oppression drives even wise men mad, and the 

 Russians are not all \A-ise. The special correspon- 

 dent says : — 



The Libecols. while burning with zeal to save Russia, 

 put super-Slavonic energy into tlieir endeavours to beat 

 the Government politically by ruining the nation finan- 

 cially. They would bnffle Shipoff's efforts to get money to 

 pay off old debts even though tlie nation's- credit and in- 

 dustry should suffer, the Russian workman famish, the 

 peasant starve, and sorely needed reforms become imprac- 

 ticable. They are sadly wanting in political common 

 sense. 



The first consequence of the Lil^erals' success in hinder- 

 ing the loan would have been to deprive the wretched 

 letter-carriers, country schoolmasters and other zenisky ser- 

 vants of their waees. which are already overdue. Then 

 would have come the turn of that numerous section which 

 depends for its livelihood upon the briskness of industry, 

 whereas the Government would not suffer at all. 



THE PRISONS AS REVOLUTIONARY CENTRES. 



Imprisonment has lost its terrors, for the prisons 



have become centres of revolutionar\' propaganda : — 



Men go there with the eagerness of early martvrs and 

 without apprehension. They can often carry on their old 

 business there. The gaol of Sehastopol is an apt illustra- 

 tion. It was crowded with pri=oners. many of whom were 

 " politicals." Some of the«e were charged with distributing 

 revolutionary pamphlets, others with possessing secret 

 printing presses, a third lot with conspiring to overthrow 

 the monarchy, and several were not accused of anything at 

 all. but were there because the authorities thought it eood 

 for somebody that they should be nowhere else. These men, 

 then, by way of continuing in confinement the business at 

 which tiiey had been working outside, issued a revolutionary 

 new3pai>er. The Bomb, which was written, set up, printed, 

 and published in the prison by the inmates. 



THE ULTIMA RATIO OF THE PRISONERS. 



The police prefect found out what was going on 

 after a time, and he separated the two editors of 

 77/f Bomb. 



All the political prisoners combined and resolved to 

 starve themselves to death unless the sovernor complied 

 with their demands. They asked that their rooms be open 



the whole day, that all the " politicals " be allowed to 

 meet and walk and chat together to their heart's content, 

 and generally to make life tolerable in their own way. 

 The governor refused at first, but after due deliberation 

 on the probable consequences he gave way upon all points 

 except the promenades, so that the prisoners, eighty all 

 told, now come together, discuss, drink tea, read books 

 aloud, and lead a life which is not half bad. 



THE PROSPECTS OF THE DUMA. 



The special correspondent thinks that whatever 

 power the Tsar may delegate to his people will be 

 wielded by the Constitutional Democratic Party, 

 which will be in a majority in the Duma : — 



The first duty of the first Duma— as it api)ears to out- 

 siders—is to strengthen the hold of parliamentary institu- 

 tions on the country, and that can be accomplished only 

 by the exercise of moderation bordering upon sacrifice 

 and wisdom. 



But the Constitutional Democrats are pledged to 

 extreme forms which the Government cannot pos- 

 sibly accept : — 



The heavv bills which the Democratic Party gave will 

 fall due, aiid must be honoured. On the other hand, the 

 party of the Tsar will have freed itself from the embar- 

 rassing presence of Count Witte, whom it regards as the 

 criminal creator of the Duma. Some of the new Ministers 

 may then be taken from the moderate Liberal Party- no 

 Constitutional Democrat is likely to be chosen— but unless 

 the Tsar changes his mind between this and then he will 

 not part with Durnovo, in whom he places implicit con- 

 fidence. Ministers will probably not even make long 

 speeches in the Duma, although there will be no Govern- 

 ment partv in the Chamber to relieve them of the duty. 

 Thev will set on the Council of the Empire to do it, and 

 while upper and lower Chambers are thus waging a bitter 

 conflict with each other, the Cabinet will look on pleasantly 

 as the tertium (/audens. What will happen after that no one 

 can guess. 



But I venture to doubt whether the first Duma will do 

 anv serious legislative work. We may expect beautiful 

 phrases and expressive humanitarian principles, but few 

 business-like proposals. 



In the most favourable supposition, then. I venture to 

 t^hink that the coming Duma will meet and separate with- 

 out liaviug added many beneficent laws to the Russian 

 Statute Book or having materially helped to tranquilise 

 public excitement. It will be an apt illustration of the 

 national proverb: "The first pancake is a failure." 



THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW " ON THE UNIONIST 

 DOWNFALL. 



It is a significant explanation which the Quarterly 

 offers in its April number, of the Unionist debacle at 

 the General Election. Chinese Labour, Protection, 

 the Taff Vale judgment, and the Education Act of 

 1902 were not merely coincident cases; they all con- 

 tributed to form part of an accusation of plutocratic 

 conspiracy. The Unionists were held to be the 

 partv of the rich and selfish: — 



The issue thus seemed to be Rich tersus Poor— the arist-o- 

 cracy, the capitalists, the mine-owners, and tlie parsons, 

 leasiied together and backed by all the resources of wealth, 

 knowledee, ereat orsanisations. and an able and un- 

 scrupulous journalisni. ou the one side: and. upon the 

 other, the poor industrious workman whose patriotic fer- 

 Tour had made him the dupe of the cunning coyetousness 

 of the plutocrats of Park Lane, and whose poverty, free- 

 dom and independence were now threatened with dear 

 food, the caoture of the people's schools, and the loss of 

 the power to strike for better wases. The cry which Mr. 

 Gladstone vainly tried to raise in 1886. of the masses 

 aeainst the classes, was what triumphed twenty years 

 later. It was to no purpose that TTnionist candidates 

 argued one point or another; there was no escaping the 

 general impression. . . . The Unionist p.TXty was branded 

 as the plutocratic party: and, it the particular candidate 

 were not himself one of the conspirators, he was their 

 dupe. 



