Review of Reviews, I/lJ/oa. 



Character Sketch. 



561 



tionary strata, everybody swore at him, they swore 

 under their breath. A distinguished foreign resident 

 in St. Petersburg whom I consulted as to the chances 

 of a revolutionary outbreak, repUed : " So long as 

 Trepoff is in command I am not uneasy. On the 

 da\ he dies, or is killed, I shall send my wife hoine." 

 It was Trepoff, an ambassador told me, and Trepoff 

 alone, who kept the flag flying in St. Petersburg. 

 From the Liberals I heard all manner of stories con- 

 cerning this jack-booted tyrant, who trampled ruth- 

 lesslv upon all human rights and liberties. Trepoff 

 was the man of the iron hand and the stony heart. 

 Trepoff was the coarse, vulgar, illiterate boor, the 



WHT I WENT TO SEE HIM. 



The Tsar had given me permission to address 

 Conferences on the Duma from the English point of 

 view. But I was assured on all hands that the Tsar's 

 permission was worth but little if it were not counter- 

 signed by his omnipotent Master of Police. At that 

 time Russian Liberals generally, and Russian Social 

 Revolutionaries without any exception, were utterlv 

 sceptical about the value of the Duma. I was 

 satisfied by my conversation with the Emperor that 

 he really and truly meant business ; that, in his 

 Majesty's opinion, the Duma was only the first step, 

 and if it succeeded he was quite prepared to go fur- 



General Trepoff. 

 Died September 15th. 



General Oedulin. 

 General Trepoff's successor. 



only instrument at once brutal enough and strong 

 enough to serve the turn of an autocrat in despair. 

 Whether they blessed him or they banned him, Tre- 

 poff was the man of the situation — the vice Tsar, the 

 Dictator de facto of the Empire. Those who belit- 

 tled him and bemoaned that so mean a man should 

 be e.xaltcd to such high office, admitted that how- 

 ever petty might be the man himself, the post which 

 he occupied made him the most important human 

 personality in all Russia — bar none. 



ther. Further, I had received the most positive 

 assurances that laws conceding the four fundamental 

 liberties of Association, Public Meeting, Free Press, 

 and Personal Liberty were in preparation and would 

 shortly be published. It seemed to me, therefore, 

 that I could not possibly render greater .service to 

 the cause of Russia and of humanity than by urging 

 the Ru.ssian Liberals to accept the Duma as a first 

 step, and by loyally co-operating with the Emperor 

 to render possible the peaceful e\olution of Russian 



