to give a complete picture of the inter- turns to be continually present in the nal condition of Russia under the system of forced proselytism and levelling down; but we will endeavor to sketch the more salient features of the proceedings adopted, in the fierce pursuit of the one great political aim.

church in considerable numbers. Finally a military force was ordered to clear the building; and on the peasants demurring to leave, they were promptly fired upon and driven out at the point of the bayonet. It is true that this brutal massacre of helpless men and women created some stir when the story was bruited abroad; but though

The Jewish persecution, begun under Ignatieff in a clumsy and brutal form, as shocking to European sensibilities as Bulgarian or Armenian atrocities, special inquiry was directed, the only was systematically continued in a much more scientific and cruel manner. Common corporal violence was no longer the order of the day; but by the revival and stringent enforcement of obsolete laws, the Jew was deprived of all honest means of livelihood, and then held up to opprobrium, and still further ill-treated, as a useless and obnoxious citizen.

result was the recent condemnation to various terms of imprisonment of those recalcitrants who had escaped massacre; and the governor of Wilna, who had authorized the proceedings, still retains his post.

In the Baltic provinces every effort was made to sow discord between the peasants and the German barons, their landlords; and the common Protestant religion and the language of both were attacked. In all schools the use of the Russian language was made obligatory, and as the great majority of the teachers were unable to teach in Russian, they were dismissed to starve, and to make room for their ignorant Russian successors. At one moment there were

The industries of Poland, guided by superior intelligence, were a thorn in the side of the Moscow manufacturers; consequently it was found advisable to handicap them, first by a peremptory order that all foreign employees should be suddenly dismissed, and then by establishing differential railway freights for the carriage of Polish manufactures no less than forty-eight Protestant clerto the markets of central Russia. It gymen of the Baltic Provinces awaiting proved impossible by ordinary means sentence for deeds which had become to turn Polish and Lithuanian Roman legal crimes under the new system. Catholics from the religion of their In most cases their crime consisted in forefathers, so, among other measures, having performed some rite of their it was determined to deprive them of Church for old parishioners, where the their places of worship. Their reli- head of the family had, under extreme gious zeal had always maintained their pressure or by some ill-understood forchurches in excellent repair. The mality, accepted the orthodox faith. State now undertook the maintenance Here, at least, the measures were too of all religious buildings, and seques- violent to attain their ends, and the tered the funds collected for that pur- peasants, who had welcomed the enpose. The next step was to carefully couragement of Russian officials in neglect the most necessary repairs, and making themselves disagreeable to as by degrees the buildings showed their landlords, have since been ensigns of becoming unsafe, to condemn raged at the interference with their and close them. An incident in the faith and their language. fulfilment of this cynical programme The autonomy of the Finns, and led to the massacre in the government their successful self-government and of Kovno some twelve months ago. A admirable finance, naturally aroused village church, which the villagers had the jealousy and mistrust of the Rusnot been allowed to repair, was de-sians, and it was determined to destroy clared unsafe, and ordered to be closed. their independence and prosperity. To The poor villagers attempted a sort of ruin their finances, they were forced passive resistance. They took it in to build a useless system of railways

the foreign press. The Russian gov ernment understands how to keep out inquisitive intruders; the Turkish government is not strong enough to pursue the same daring policy.

along the shores of the Gulf of Both- | In Turkey the first sign of trouble is nia, where they have excellent com- eagerly reported, and fills columns of munication by steamers in summer and by sledge-roads in winter, and where the traffic is at no season important. Then, as it was observed that they flourished under a system of free trade, their customs administration was taken out of their hands, and arrangements made for rapidly assimilating it with the protective system of Russia. Employees on the railways, and in all post and telegraph offices, were required to know Russian, and the majority, who | were ignorant of that language, were dismissed. It is impossible to describe in detail all the wrongs which the Finns have suffered during the last five years; but the result is apparent to the most unobservant traveller in Finland. The Finns, who a few short years ago were a prosperous people, and heartily loyal to their grand duke, in the full confidence that he would respect their constitution, are now, as a nation, sadly impoverished, and they would certainly have revolted if they could have seen the slightest chance of success.

Our brief sketch of the condition of those classes of the czar's subjects whom the policy of his reign marked out for attack, would be incomplete without some reference to the sufferings of those whom persistence in their principles led to unhappy acquaintance with the interior of Russian jails aud with Siberian exile. The condition of Russian jails has often been discussed, but we believe that only one opinion has been expressed by competent observers—that is, by those who, knowing the Russian language, have been content to gain their information by familiar intercourse with the Russian people, and without the misleading guidance of officials, who received their secret instructions simultaneously with the warm letters of recommendation so readily granted to such inquirers as Dr. Lansdell and Mr. de Windt. We have made our personal observations without such deceptive guidance, but for the moment we prefer to notice only such incidents as have obtained publicity even through the severely censored columns of the Russiau daily press.

The Armenians in the Caucasus have fared little better than their fellow-subjects in the north. We will not weary our readers with details, but as evidence of their condition we will quote from the Russian newspapers a single recent incident. In the month of May, 1892, forty-three Armenians were tried before the district court at The story of the lady, a political prisKars, accused of forming an associa- ouer, who was beaten to death some tion for resistance to the authorities, three years ago at Nertchinsk in Sibe murder, etc. Koukouniantz, the head ria, is particularly instructive from our of the association, was condemned to point of view. The sufferings of the hard labor for twenty years, and convicts under the brutality of their twenty-five others were sentenced to guardians had been such, that a num the same punishment for periods vary-ber of them determined to seek the ing from fifteen to eight years. This release of death by refusing all food. incident speaks for itself; we think we The prison authorities met this terrible need say no more about the condition resolution by ordering the artificial of the Armenians. administration of nourishment. The

As the Russian government refuses lady in question, in weak and nervous its exequatur to consuls in the interior condition, resented the indignity of the of the Caucasus, aud as no missiona-treatment to which she was subjected ries are allowed to cross the Russian in pursuance of this order, and in her frontier, the sufferings of the Russian passion she struck the presiding official Armenians are never made public, as with her hand. The punishment or are those of their brethren in Turkey. I dained by law for assault on the author

ities is flogging. The head of the ber died in hospital within a few days. convict establishment hesitated, how- The prison doctor returned her death ever, in this instance to comply with as from natural causes. Through the the law, being apprehensive that in the indignation of the other prisoners, the prisoner's condition of health the pun-story, however, got abroad, and an ishment might have fatal consequences. inquiry was instituted. After some He referred for special instructions to months the body of the murdered Baron Korff, governor-general of east- woman was exhumed, and the causes ern Siberia, and received the tele- of her death were even then only too. graphic reply, "You know the law; fully apparent. The doctor and the comply with it." The unfortunate lady | inspectors were tried last December died under the lash of her tormentors; before the local court, and the account and though in consequence of the of the trial appeared in the newspapers. public scandal, the whole affair was The senior inspector and the doctor brought to the czar's notice, Korff re- were condemned to sixteen months' tained his post, and presumably his imprisonment, and the junior inspector master's confidence, till his death. to ten months and twenty days; but in Alexander III. had no mercy for polit- virtue of the amnesty at the beginning ical offenders, and he doubtless saw of the new reign, these sentences benothing but simple justice in the fate came non-effective. When such barof this victim of his system. barity can escape severe punishment, it is the system which is responsible, and must be condemned, even more than the particular brutalities of the cruel and ignorant savages whom it fails to control.

There are many other points of interest in the system of government under Alexander III. which space will not allow us to dwell on, but some of which we must at least mention. Among these the policy of putting obstacles in the way of higher education may certainly be defended, on the ground that the universities were the hotbeds of nihilism, and that the cheap education given to those whose mental culture did not rise above the standard of the parrot, had too frequently the result of rendering the recipients not only useless but dangerous citizens. But it was not only the higher instruction of the universities which was impeded; the spread of education of the most rudimentary kind was equally deliberately arrested, and this for the sole purpose of maintaining that blind reverence for the autocracy which could only be preserved among a grossly ignorant peasantry.

The foregoing was, we trust, a rare instance of such extreme suffering under the direct sanction of the most responsible authorities; but the sufferings continually inflicted without such sanction, and simply by the brutality of the ordinary jailer, are quite as terrible, and of only too frequent occurrence. We may take again the Russian press as our authority, and quote from it the account of an incident of very recent date. In the central prison of Rostoff on Don, four female prisoners were accused by a fellow-prisoner of having stolen some money from her. They were taken into a separate room to be searched by the three prison inspectors who ordered them to strip naked. On their objecting to take off their chemises before these men, they were all four severely beaten, and subjected, under the pretence of searching, to such nameless brutality as cannot be described in detail. Nothing having been found, they were once more beaten with cruel severity, and then confined in the black-hole of the jail. During the night the unfortunate women were four separate times put through the same special torture of A more reasonable support for the searching, followed by beating, and the autocracy was sought in the endeavor following morning they received a final to arrest the decay of the class of large terrible beating, and were then sent landed proprietors. On the emancipadirect to their work. One of the num- tion of the serfs, the accompanying

financial arrangements for transferring | Alexander III. was as unsuccessful in to the peasants a portion of the land of preserving the aristocracy as in crushthe proprietors gave the latter the ing the nihilists; but it was his own, means of converting these lands into and throughout it bore the impress of cash, whilst at the same time their the character of the man, and of the changed relations with their former bigoted prejudices which ever preserfs made life on their estates dis- vented the realization of his most laudtasteful. As a natural result of these able intentions. circumstances, and of improved communications, the proprietors gave up residing on their estates, except perhaps for a few short weeks in summer; and the majority promptly spent their realized capital, and have since been consummating their ruin by extravagant living in St. Petersburg and the fashionable resorts of western Europe. This process of ruin was directly assisted by the mistaken measures taken in the late reign to benefit the landed interest. The demand of the prodigal proprietors was naturally for some further means of procuring cash to help them in their immediate pecuniary embarrassments; and, to their permanent detriment, this cash was found for them by various land banks, and more especially by the Bank of the Nobility, an institution expressly founded for the purpose of making advances under conditions which could not be admitted in sound business transactions. The money thus lightly obtained was equally lightly parted with, and the day of reckoning has now been hastened by the serious fall in the price of cereals, the only source of income to meet the charges on estates mortgaged to within dangerously near limits of their total value. It must be added that this is not the view taken of the situation by the proprietors themselves, who, like most insolvent debtors, insist that their embarrassments are merely temporary, and clamor louder than ever for fresh assistance from the resources of the State. Such assistance may be again forthcoming within certain limits; but nothing can now save the vast majority of the proprietors, who as a class are as surely doomed as were the French aristocracy proscribed by the First Republic. The autocracy has secured no permanent advantage; the proprietors are permanently ruined. The policy of

We may now pass to the consideration of the foreign policy of Russia during the reign of the late czar, and we will endeavor to note in this direction also the influence of his character and temperament.

"The manifesto issued by Alexander III. on his accession affords the most convincing evidence of his Majesty's satisfactory and peaceful intentions, and I am glad to inform the House that one of the first acts of the czar has been to recall General Skobeleff." We regret not being able to quote the exact words, but such was the substance of the announcement made by Sir Charles Dilke (then under-secretary of state for foreign affairs) to a House of Commons at the time anxiously discussing the import of Russia's first serious advance in Trans-Caspia, and the probability of its leading to the still more serious step of the occupation of Merv. Sir Charles Dilke was able by his assurances to relieve the anxiety of Parliament, and to stifle the warning voice of foolish "Mervous " patriots. This was but fourteen years ago, and to-day Russian soldiers are tranquilly patrolling the whole frontier of Afghan Turkestan, with communications securely established by rail across the desert, and by steamer on the Amoor Daria; and Russian Cossacks are raiding into the Pamirs, whilst Indian finance has been crippled by the expenditure of millions for the defence of the threatened frontier, and our home military resources are taxed to the ut most to provide the necessary increase of the English garrison. These results of the Asiatic policy of Alexander III. are the answer to the assurances of the well-informed ex-under-secretary of state, who still poses as a guide to his countrymen in föreign affairs.

Russian officers across that line; yet such incursions have been of frequent occurrence, without the Russian government having ever offered a serious apology or punished a single offender. Among recent raiders into Afghan territory was Captain Vannovsky, the son of the minister of war. When complaint was made in St. Petersburg about this officer, the Russian government thought fit to profess absolute ignorance of his proceedings, and to feign doubt as to the correctness of the reports received by the Indian govern

The first step in the policy which | tier line between Afghanistan and the entailed such serious consequences to Russian conquests was agreed upon, England, was precisely that recall of nothing could excuse the incursions of Skobeleff from which Sir C. Dilke predicted such contrary results. As every one paying attention to Russian affairs | well knew, the Emperor Alexander II. had been much disturbed by the excitement caused in England by the definite establishment of Russian dominion on the north-eastern frontier of Khorassan. Further, his advisers were not without anxiety as to the possible results, at such a critical moment in the internal affairs of Russia, of permitting the return of the restless and ambitious Skobeleff, the idol of the army. Such considerations had for months ment. When, finally, the gravity of kept Skobeleff chafing in idleness in the irregularities committed had to be the Turkoman desert, when the acces- acknowledged, the Russians affected to sion of Alexander III. immediately treat the matter as the foolish indiscresecured the cordial acknowledgment of tion of a youthful officer, from which his important services, and the grant- no permanent harm could result, and ing of his request to be allowed to which should not be allowed to be a return to Russia to celebrate his tri- cause of misunderstanding between umph. The natural result of such two nations. Captain Vaunovsky reencouragement was the renewed activ- maius, however, unpunished for his ity of the Russian commander in cen- 'youthful indiscretions," and it may tral Asia, and the speedy occupation be expected that his example will find of Merv. For this, and for all subse- numerous followers. quent proceedings in the same regions, Alexander III. was directly responsible. If he did not furnish the initiative, he at least gave the approval, without the assurance of which his officers in Asia would never have dared

to move.

But though grave principles were involved in such comparatively trifling incidents on the frontier of Afghan Turkestan, the questions raised by the appearance of the Russians in the Pamirs are still more important. As we have readily admitted, the advance We are fully prepared to admit that of the Russians in territories where the Russians have quite as much busi- they necessarily came in contact with ness in central Asia as we have. Once successive tribes of the unsettled and they had established themselves across restless population was natural and inthe Caspian, their farther advance to evitable; but we would most seriously the fertile countries south and east ask any believer in the peaceful intenwas certain to follow, unless we liked tions of Russia, What necessity led to forestall them. We did not choose Russian Cossacks into the Pamirs? to push forward our dominion to cen- Here there was no question of unavoidtral Asia to meet them, and therefore able contact, and possibly unavoidable we should not complain of their ad- differences, with intractable populavance, unless it be proved to be of a tions. The Roof of the World is an character distinctly and wilfully threat- almost inaccessible region, to penetrate ening to our Indian possessions. We into which involved great preparations. fear that this aggressive character has The sparse inhabitants of this inhosbeen, however, only too clearly dis- pitable land certainly never left their cernible in the proceedings of Russian mountain homes to trouble the Rusofficers in central Asia. Once a frou-siaus, of whose existence they were VOL. V. 246

LIVING AGE.