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conception, and by the march of civilization in the introduction of improved means of transport.

This great fact has even opened the eyes of the Russian peasantry, who begin no longer to regard the Emperor as formerly, as a Providence of a high order-so high as often in their imaginations to precede in power and dignity their Creator and God.

These signs of coming troubles are well known to Russians. Russian authors are found who boldly expose them; but from the difficulties of the language their works are little known in Western Europe. Occasionally, however, a work like De Custine's, or La Verité sur le Russie, by Prince Dolgoroukow, receives publicity, and reveals to astonished Europe a state of things but faintly conceived, and which Europe is loth to believe as a true statement of the condition of a country within her own limits, and which all the other Powers have treated with respect and awe. After a residence, however, of some years in the country, we do not hesitate to express our firm belief in every word in Prince Dolgoroukow's book, and to recommend it to the study of all those who wish to gain an insight into the true condition of the Czar's dominions.

Another serious difficulty which the Czar has to deal with in the settlement of the great questions which the march of events has forced upon him, is of the same nature as that with which his brother Emperor in Austria has to contend, only in the case of Russia it may be expected to be somewhat more aggravated. We mean the difficulty, or rather the almost impossibility, of finding men capable of carrying out the great reforms which have been commenced. is one of the great and suicidal faults of a bureaucratic government that the governing class work in grooves and ruts, from which they cannot extricate themselves; they are brought up to look upon government as perfect, and to dread all responsibility not clearly defined by rule. As a consequence they have narrow and restricted views,

It

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and are incapable of adapting themselves to great and rapid changes.

In despotic countries there is little room for selection; the Government seek counsel from the bureaucratic class; there is little or no infusion of new blood; and as a consequence, finding themselves unable to compete with the men who rise to the surface by popular acclamation, and fearful of being supplanted, they have recourse to the only power they are capable of comprehending. Military organization and reaction therefore

ensues.

Such has been the case in unhappy Warsaw at the present moment. Perfect tranquillity was maintained by an extemporized organization of civil police under the management of a committee of citizens. The military, which includes nearly all Russians, having been withdrawn, there was no cause for a disturbance of the peace. Popular leaders began to rise to the surface, and encouraged by the Government, had assumed positions before the people incompatible with the existence of the bureaucracy. The Government yielded to the movement; and Europe was astonished by a circular announcing the benevolent intentions of the Czar; but a change comes suddenly over the scene.

A large armed force has been gradually assembling round the devoted city, brought in by stealth in small detachments at night; and the old class of reactionists resume their sway; and a fresh massacre of unarmed citizens-attempted to be justified to Europe by an announcement of the Viceroy that it was caused by 'stones having been thrown at the troops' at once crushes all agitation. A decree is inscribed in the laws of the kingdom threatening military execution, and placing the people entirely in the hands of the military; and the old régime of Nicolas is resumed.

The Poles, however, have learned one more lesson. They were inclined to repose confidence in the present Emperor and his Government, but have now been taught the truth of the old proverb,

gratez le Russe et vous trouvez le Cosaque.' The Russian is always the same. They can have no hope from their connexion with Russia; and the best will of the best intentioned sovereign the world ever saw would be powerless to change the nature of the oppression under which they groan.

Where, then, is the hope of Poland? Her future lies in the future of Russia. She is powerless with her ten or twelve millions to resist fifty millions of Russians organized in one army; therefore we congratulate the Poles that they are disarmed, as the bloodshed of a civil war would be all lost and a crime. Poland must not, therefore, allow herself to be run away with by the example of Italy and Hungary.

In each of those countries the oppressing power was numerically inferior, and depended only on the cohesion of heterogeneous masses ready to disperse into their original elements; whereas the power of Russia is on the side of numbers, and her masses are almost homoge

neous.

Poland must, therefore, quietly abide her time, free from conspiracy, but standing on her rights; thus she will excite the sympathy of Europe; and having proved by peaceful remonstrance, and by a display of order and good sense under severe trials, her capacity for self-government, the day will assuredly come when disturbances and revolution in Russia will loosen the iron grasp in which she is held; and perhaps even Russians themselves will then see that a discontented people, speaking a different language, professing a different religion, and imbued with ideas which prevent amalgamation, are an element of weakness and expense, and will be only too glad to allow of a reconstitution of her former rival as a distinct and separate State.

Such ideas are already entertained by many thinking Russians not in the bureaucratic class, and who therefore do not look upon Poland as a place for employment and for acquiring wealth, but who have a

patriotic regard for the true welfare of their country, independent of all personal considerations. Reforms and revolutions may bring these men to power, and then their opinions will gain ground with their fellowcountrymen. For ourselves, we look upon the position of Poland with a strong belief in her future, and with a hope that by the good sense of the people, their submission to their natural chiefs, and by their own efforts, independent of foreign intrigue and intervention, which have always been the curse and ruin of their country, but sustained by the moral sympathy and support of Western Europe, they will at length resume their natural position in the European family.

Since the above was written we have received details of the dreadful massacre of the 8th April. It appears that the Government determined on resuming the management of the police, taking it out of the hands of the municipal authorities who had been extemporized after the massacre of the 27th February, and who since then had maintained perfect order and quiet by means of special constables appointed for the nonce. On the 6th April this unpopular and unnecessary measure was followed by one still more unpopular, and than which none could have been conceived calculated to produce a greater amount of irritation and just dissatisfaction. The Agricultural Society was dissolved by a decree of the Emperor and King, on the alleged ground of its interference in things beyond its province. Considering its foundation by a special decree of the Emperor, the position it had acquired, its extent, and the veneration in which its president, the Count André Zamoiski, and its leading members, are deservedly held throughout the country; considering also that the so-called concessions of the Emperor were only on paper and had not as yet been realized, that every act of the Society had been done in broad daylight with the entire cognizance and full concurrence of the

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Government, and that the Society was not in session, it seems impossible to conceive a more complete act of folly than its dissolution.

This was immediately followed, on Sunday, the 7th, by peaceful demonstrations, limited to assemblages of the people at the cemetery where the victims of the 27th of February had been interred, in front of the building where the sittings of the Society had been held, and in front of the house of Count Zamoiski, their 'Father,' as they affectionately called him, and lastly, before the Viceroy's palace.

At the latter place the military were drawn up for the protection of the palace; but the people being without arms, and only desiring to have their opinion upon the dissolution of the Society made known to the Prince, good order was not disturbed, the military were withdrawn, and the people dispersed peaceably-only to renew their demonstration on a larger scale on Monday, the 8th, which happened to be a holiday of the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore one in which the whole population were in the streets.

Encouraged by the mode of their reception on the previous evening, the populace assembled in crowds in the large open space in front of the Viceroy's palace, which, as before, was surrounded by troops.

Men, women, and children, all unarmed, fearlessly approached the troops, and were even exchanging jokes with them, when they were summoned to disperse by beat of drum. Immediately up went three signal rockets, and the troops came pouring into the town, taking up

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pre-arranged positions in all the open spaces and main thoroughfares, and then commenced the wanton butchery by the Czar's soldiers of his unarmed defenceless Polish subjects, whom in his rescript not three weeks before he had declared to be equally objects of his care' with his Russian subjects. A severe punishment was being administered as a mark of fraternal affection. It is estimated that at least forty of his Polish subjects were killed or have died of their wounds, and several hundreds more were wounded by the fire of the troops.

The reason assigned by the Viceroy in justification of this atrocious crime is, that the people had pelted the troops with stones. This allegation we believe to be altogether false. As an act of desperation after the firing had commenced, a few stones might have been thrown; and one soldier was killed by a student, who, seeing his fellow-student stretched dead by his side, rushed on his murderer, wrenched his bayonet from his musket, and stabbed him on the spot.*

The real reason unquestionably was, that representations had been made to the Viceroy of the demoralizing effect upon the troops of allowing them to be brought in contact with the people and exposed to their jeers and insults without acting; and General Melinkoff, Commandant de la Place, had been placed in arrest for not having used force on the Sunday evening against the crowd when they assembled before the Society's building.

VOL. LXIII. NO. CCCLXXVII.

TT

The Viceroy also was becoming uneasy at the news which arrived from the country districts of similar demonstrations; and he had no doubt heard by telegraph of the abandonment_ of his post by the Governor of Lublin, and his surrender of the administration into the hands of the bishop and gentry.

The ferocity of this massacre has been enhanced by the seizure of the dead and wounded. Soldiers were sent through the town on the night of the 8th to ravish from mothers, wives, sisters, and friends, not only the bodies of their dead victims, but the living and innocent wounded, who were inhumanly hurried off as prisoners to the fortresses, there to linger and suffer unwatched by the tender care of their relatives, who in their turn are left in an agony of intolerable despair. It is Russian officers who in the nineteenth century have the honour of having discovered this exquisitely refined system of torture.

The first massacres of the 27th of February have already taken effect in causing demonstrations in Kieff, the ancient and sacred capital of Russia, which are reported to have been suppressed by a similar massacre of its citizens. The immediate effect of this second and more extensive massacre has been the resignation of the principal men in the Government of Poland,

including all the chief members of the Council of Administration, both Russians and Poles. Governors of provinces have also resigned, and it yet remains to be seen what will be the effect in Russia itself beyond the Polish frontier.

For our own part, we believe that these massacres will hasten events in Russia, and that ere long the Czar will regret not having taken the only means which were open to him, and which, in the temper of the Poles and with the credit of his name for 'good intentions,' would have succeeded in tranquillizing the country and making it even loyal. These were, to have set aside the bureaucracy, to have sent for the president of the Agricultural Society, and through him and the committee elaborated some measure which would have satisfied the just but by no means exorbitant demands of the people. If this vile act has been done by his subordinates, the Emperor may even now repudiate it, and by removing its perpetrators enter upon a conciliatory course. If not, we fear that his reign will be stained by a course of confiscations and banishments similar to those which have outraged Europe since 1831. It were well that he should avoid this sad alternative. The House of Romanoff has too many black spots in its annals to risk the addition of more.