OCR Text |
Show RUSSIA AND SELF-GOVERNMENT. . It seems probable that Eussia will, at last, adopt some form of representative government. The development and working out of the new system sys-tem will be watched with interest. Hitherto it has been believed that self-government, in order to succeed, suc-ceed, needs an educated and self-reliant people. Are the Eussian peasants fitted for the experiment ? We know that the vast majority of them are densely ignorant and intensely superstitious, conditions that greatly favor the advent of the impostor and the fakir in politics. The serfs were emancipated ' I less than seventy-five'years ago. Nothing has been done to improve their moral or intellectual condition. condi-tion. They are yet barbarians. "Scr'uch the Eussian, Eus-sian, you will uncover the Tartar," said Napoleon. This is true today. Poland has presen-ed -he traditions tra-ditions of liberty. Finland is educated, trained to self-government, but dissatisfied and disorganized. The nobility may sincerely desire the uolif'ing of the masses. Eeform usually means the recognition of the rights of these masses, the curtailment of the "divine right" privileges of the aristocracy. Will the good intention of the latter be -tror.g enough to make it brave the Imaginary feors of the new regime? Will the nobility realize that the political po-litical and social betterment of the poopk can only strengthen its own position if it grasp the- situation situa-tion intelligently; that its members, by their rank and education, are looked up to at present as natural nat-ural guides, and that they can easily assume he leadership and conduct the new movement safely along constitutional lines ? The danger is that the aristocracy will let this golden opportunity pass and will endeavor-to continue the old system under a new name. The present advocates of reform are extremists and little is known of their plans. Eadicals are good preachers. They are usually failures in the practical application of their doctrines. Our own woeful, if not disastrous, experience in the attempt to transform quickly and by legal tint, an ignorant. slave or serf into a full-fledged freeman; free-man; the history of the black republics, whoso citizens citi-zens seem to be returning to original African barbarism, bar-barism, reveal the difficulty o the evolution of self-government. Wc earnestly hope that irL.rms will be initiated iu Eussia; wc pray that they will j succeed; that the people will be gien a voice in their own government! . Nevertheless, the situation is difficult and dangerous: No one can foretell trie - - end. Let us hope that liberty will eivr , a of individual responsibility and will pi-'.v H ,. ' and beneficial educator. 1 ' . |