Review of Reviews, 1/I0f06. 



History of the Month. 



339 



Russia to-day. In i88i he passed a Land Act which 

 he honestly believed was an adequate solution of the 

 question, just as the Tsar this year established the 

 Duma. But Mr. Parnell's estimate of the Land Act 

 was not exactly Mr. Gladstone's, and as he acted on 

 his own Ix-lief, he soon came to loggerheads with the 

 Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone accused Mr. Parnell 

 of not playing the game, and by way of teaching 

 him not to interfere with a great remedial Act, he 

 flung him, all untried, into Kilmainham Gaol. The 

 immediate result was an increase of outrages, the 

 no-rent manifesto, and Lord Spencer's strong, stern 

 rule, which had the approval of nearly everyone who 

 is now abusing the Tsar. Now turn to Russia. The 

 Tsar called the Duma into existence, only to find, 

 like Mr. Gladstone, that the men for whose benefit 

 he created it would not play what he regarded as 

 the game. Instead of contenting themselves with 

 their constitutional ro/e, they put forward demands 

 compared with which those of Mr. Parnell were 

 mere milk and water. After patiently doing his ut- 

 most to establish some arrangement with the leaders 

 of the Duma, he was brought up short by an inti- 

 mation that they would not take office unless he sanc- 

 tioned a programme which included the following 

 measures : — 



Complete amnesty, abolition of capital punishment, dis- 

 miasal of a number of Governors and of the chiefs of the 

 secret police, the compulsory sale of lands, wider autho- 

 rity of the Dum.% in financial matters, the repeal of all 

 martial .and other exceptional laws, and the reform of the 

 Council of the Empire- 



As he shrank from so Radical a programme, the 

 Duma drew up a manifesto appealing to the pea- 

 sants to have nothing to do with the Tsar's reforms. 

 Thereupon the Tsar followed the example of Mr. 

 Gladstone. The dissolution of the Duma was equi- 

 valent to the locking up of Parnell. In both in- 

 stances the retort was a manifesto of revolutionary 

 violence. " Pay no rent." said the Irish. " Pav no 

 taxes," say the Russians. In both cases there has 

 been a recrudescence of violence. But in neither 

 case did the country fly to arms, and there seems 

 to be some considerable hope that M. Stolypin may 

 achieve the same measure of success as Lord Spencer. 



Is Honestv ^'"^ ^^' ^"'"'^'■' '" ''''*^ ''"*'*"*' °f ^'^^ 

 ^(,g ' admirable letters on South Africa 



Best Policy? which he has published in the 



Tribune, confirms all I have said 



for years past as to the absolute futility of hoping 



for a loyal and contented South Africa until we 



keep our word and pay our debts. But Downing 



Street, as usual, cannot be induced to believe that 



honesty is the l>est policy. Mr. Winston Churchill 



Inst month informed Mr. Robertson that we do not 



intend to pay our debts, forgetting that if we refuse 



to keep our word the Boers may also refuse to keep 



theirs. The best that we can hope is that the Boers 



will obtain a good working majority in the Transvaal 



and the Orange Free State, and that they will applv 



every penny of the ;^3o.ooo.ooo promised as a con- 



M Stolypin, New Prime Minister of Russia 



tribution to the war expenditure to the payment of 

 debts long since overdue. It cannot be too often re- 

 peated that it is absolutely impossible to retain South 

 Africa within the Empire excepting by the willing 

 assent of the majority of its white inhabitants; and 

 evervthing that is done to aggravate that majority, 

 either by cheating them out of their just debts or 

 by gerrymandering them into a minority in the Legis- 

 lative Assembly, only renders our retention of the 

 continent more diflficult. 



Xhe Sir Percy Fitzpatrirk — Lord Mil- 



Constitutional ner's henchman in forcing on the 

 Problem in war — Mr. Abe Bailey and others 

 South Africa. have come over to try and convince 

 the British public that South Africa will be lost to 

 the Empire unless we break our word to the Boers. 

 Equal rights, adult manhood suffrage — why is it not 

 also womanhood suffrage, as it is in Finland and in 

 nearly all Australia? — one vote one value — all the 



