Show Russian Civilization Whatever the faults of England and they are neither few nor small it remains unquestionably true that Anglican prestige pres-tige stands for the best that European civilization has to offer in all parts of the globe The English flag has everywhere I been the herald of representative institutions insti-tutions and the shield of religious and political freedom Russia on the other hand is essentially Asiatic in her theories and in her methods Napoleon said if you scratch a Russian you come upon a tartar So it is with Russian civilization civiliza-tion Under a thin varnish of conventional conven-tional politesse is to be found the most formidable enemy in existence of representative repre-sentative institutions and of social and religious freedom Unless religious liberty lib-erty is a fraud and political liberty a snare and delusion the further aggran disement of Russia at the expense of England would be not simply the elevation eleva-tion of one power and the decline of another but the triumph of absolutism over freedom and the pushing back of civilization itself Prof C K Adams Lecture |