RUSSIAN POLITICAL IDEAS 257 



has a smattering of knowledge and a rudimentary appre- 

 ciation of logic just sufficient to enable him to express his 

 opinions in syllogistic form. The line of argument which 

 we had to meet and combat was ingenious and plausible ; 

 we never once were able to convince an opponent that it 

 contained a single fallacy. The greatest astonishment 

 was expressed that England should want to prop up such 

 a rotten government as that of Turkey. We were 

 assured that a Christian country like England could not 

 possibly love the Turks any more than the Russian could, 

 and that England, that had always been the champion of 

 freedom, could never permanently uphold the slavery of 

 the Slavonic races in Turkey. The explanation of these 

 anomalies was an amusing mixture of truth and error, 

 but so firmly had it taken possession of the popular mind 

 of the day, that nothing that we could say in answer 

 made the slightest impression. The arguments used 

 against us ran pretty much in one strain. Lord Beacons- 

 field was a Jew. The Jewish party was in power. 

 England had, politically, entirely succumbed to Jewish 

 influences. The Jewish party was the money-lending 

 party. The money-lending party was the creditor of 

 Turkey. England, therefore, under the malign influence 

 of her Jewish prime minister, upheld the integrity of 

 Turkey solely that the Jewish creditors of that anti- 

 Christian and despotic state might obtain as many 

 shillings in the pound as possible from their bankrupt 

 debtor. We could only shrug our shoulders and reflect 

 that a little logic, as well as a little knowledge, is a 

 dangerous thing. 



When we left St. Petersburg the weather showed 

 signs of breaking, and we reached Moscow in a complete 

 thaw. As we had a sledge journey before us of between 

 three and four thousand miles, which we hoped to get 



R 



