RUSSIA UNDER THE TZARS. By Stepniak. Rendered into English by William
Westall. New York: _Charles Scribner’s Sons_.
This is the second contribution of the author to an understanding of
the social and political conditions which make the Russia of to-day
the reproach and horror of modern civilization; and it is a successful
attempt to throw light on the true relations of the revolutionary
movement known to us as Nihilism to those conditions. The first book
“Underground Russia,” was a comparatively slight work, treating the
salient facts of Russian bureauocracy from the standpoint of the
dramatic story-teller, and assuming that the world was fully acquainted
with the national causes which have led to the dreadful outcrop of
repeated assassination as the logical and necessary outcome. In the
present work Stepniak surveys the field from the point of view of the
philosophical historian and essayist, and reviews elaborately all
of the antecedent conditions and the present complexity of evils,
which have laid such cruel responsibilities on the would-be reformer.
Allowing for that margin of exaggeration and warmth of coloring which
are inseparable from the attitude of the enthusiast, it remains clear
that the author has framed an overwhelming indictment against the
Government of Russia, as a blot on modern civilization so black and
evil, as to justify the abhorrence of all who have a just regard for
the rights of man. Even the most austere moralist is tempted to admit,
in view of such facts, that there may arise conditions where “killing
is no murder.” Stepniak has written much in the English newspapers and
reviews on the real causes of Russian Nihilism, and the woful facts of
imperialism and bureauocracy, which have called forth such a drastic
and bloody remedy, if that can be called a remedy which is still vainly
struggling with the accumulated weight of centuries of governmental
crime. In the book under notice he sums up in a consecutive whole what
he had previously stated in fragments.
Beginning with the old Russia, which antedated the founding of the
present Romanoff dynasty, under which all the previous elements and
tendencies toward misgovernment have become crystallized, he states
some very remarkable facts in the political history of his native
land which are not known to the general reader. One of the sources
of discouragement to the observer of Russian affairs has been the
dread that there was nothing in the traditions and training of the
people to serve as a foundation for a more just and liberal form of
government and an establishment of social order, once revolution had
wrought its work in overthrowing the present imperialism. Stepniak
dissipates this notion very effectively, and throws a new light on the
elements entering into the problem. Previous to the time of Ruric, the
various principalities now making up Imperial Russia were governed on
a democratic principle even more complete than that which inspired
the republics of Italy in their brightest days. The people of each
literally determined their own laws and alliances by open council, in
which the utmost freedom of debate occurred and the meanest citizen
had a voice. True, princes were at the head of these governments, but
they were purely electoral, and were so completely at the mercy of
the people that they could be dislodged at any time. They were merely
military chiefs, with no voice in the making of the laws and with no
fixed time of holding position, merely servants of the people with
vastly less power and responsibility than are possessed by any one of
the higher officials who rule under a representative system. These
democracies, though turbulent, disorderly, and quarrelsome, served
effectively for several centuries as the medium for the promotion of a
high degree of prosperity; and several of them, notably that of great
Novgorod, became leading commercial marts of Europe. The tradition is
still faintly preserved in the grand annual fair, to which traders
flock from all quarters of the East. Internal wars and the tremendous
pressure of the Tartar hordes which afterward overran Russia in large
part, tended to consolidate these democracies under one ruler. It would
be beyond our purpose to trace even in outline the steps by which the
haughty autocracy of Tzardom was finally fastened on the country, but
it is a singular fact that in the _mir_, or system of village communes,
which exists side by side with imperialism in Russia, we have to-day a
survival in an humble form of the old Sclav democracies. Stepniak finds
in this a hopeful basis for building up free and successful government,
when revolution shall have thrown off the incubus of the Romanoffs and
the bureaucratic system, of which this dynasty is both the creator and
the slave.
The picture which the author gives of life in Russia could hardly be
painted in darker colors. No man’s house is safe from domiciliary
visits, and the least word of indignation or protest is likely to cause
one to be thrown into a prison to rot, or to be exiled for life to
the mines of Siberia. Even if found guiltless in court he may be sent
into exile by the order of the chief of police. This dread official
seems to have almost absolute power. Even a man against whom no charge
has been made may be banished to a distant province and compelled to
live under police supervision. Any anonymous denunciation is considered
sufficient for the police tribunals to act on, and the accused has
not even the privilege of confronting his accuser. The action of this
terrible and implacable power has paralyzed all healthy intellectual
life in Russia, and men who dare to think, either quit Russia, as did
Turguenieff, or enroll themselves in the ranks of the revolutionists
to plot and work in secrecy like moles, biding their time for open and
resolute action. The culmination of the crime of imperialism against
the life of the empire is found in its dealing with education in all
its branches, from the universities down to the most primitive schools.
Under the management of Count Tolstoi—the most base and unscrupulous
of the imperial advisers—the universities are watched and governed by
_manchards_, who now usurp the place of once learned professors, and
discipline is enforced by the prick of the bayonet and the crack of
the Cossack whip. Every student is watched as closely as the condemned
wretch on the eve of execution, and no social intercourse is allowed.
History, science, and literature are sedulously discouraged as studies,
because they are “dangerous” guides, and the dead bones of Latin and
Greek taught in the most pedagogic fashion are regarded as the only
proper food. Even primary schools are watched by spies and soldiers,
and babies are made to feel the weight of the police lash. Everywhere
is found the iron, inflexible hand of official power, and bureauocracy
crushes out the life of the land. The press, both in the provinces
and in the great centres, has been completely extinguished, and only
those papers which slavishly reflect the opinions of the Government are
allowed to exist. Reviews and magazines are placed under an equally
rigorous _surveillance_, and Count Tolstoi’s _Index Purgatorius_ puts
a ban on the printing or sale of every book calculated to stimulate
thought or arouse ambition. All that is worthy in science, art, and
literature is tabooed, and prurient French novels are nearly the only
foreign books permitted an unrestricted circulation. The Greek Church
is thoroughly allied with the Government, and a tool more useful
in a country where the majority of the ecclesiastics are knaves and
parasites, and the majority of the people, ignorant and superstitious,
can hardly be imagined. It is in the hands of this power that all the
primary schools have been transformed under the present _régime_, and
the results can easily be imagined.
While officialdom thus crushes the life out of the nation, it is
honeycombed through and through with corruption and dishonesty.
Bribery, theft, mendacity, and malversation of office rot every
branch of the public service, and the imperial treasury is robbed
as unscrupulously as the people are trodden under foot. Gigantic
peculations are continually being discovered, and yet are permitted to
go unpunished. Stepniak asserts that if Russia were plunged into a war
to-day, she would find herself in a condition similar to that which
made French armies so utterly unable to cope with the forces of Germany
in the last conflict. The examples of public spoliation carried on by
officials high in the confidence of the Emperor, cited by our author,
are such as have hardly a parallel in Europe. It has come to be a
by-word in Russia that the ordinary vulgar criminal, however flagrant
his offence, is leniently dealt with. It is only against the political
offender that the severe terrors of the law are invoked.
It would be difficult to find, at least in recent history, any
record which matches the plain recital of the wrongs and villainies
perpetrated under Russian imperialism. It is against this system that
Nihilism is struggling, impotently in appearance, but always earnestly,
persistently, intelligently. However the mind may revolt from certain
phases of Nihilism and condemn some of its methods, it is impossible
that, on the whole, intelligent minds should not sympathize with it and
regard its success as the only hope of national salvation. Stepniak
intimates that the time of terrorism, the era of assassination has
passed. The propaganda of liberty has been pushed with great success
in the ranks of the army, and at least a quarter of the commissioned
officers below the rank of colonel, including many of the bravest and
most skilful men in the service, are affiliated to Nihilism. Russia
cannot remain for many years in her present condition. The mills of
the gods, though grinding slowly, are grinding exceedingly fine. If
the statements made by our author are true, the power to make an open
and armed revolt effective is being forged and tempered rapidly. We
believe that at least nine-tenths of men of AngloSaxon race will give
that revolt a God-speed when the time does come. Stepniak’s book,
which is singularly free from harsh invective and sounding adjectives,
is terrible by the weight of its simple, direct, and, we believe
on the whole, accurate statements. It certainly throws a light on
Russian affairs such as the reader can obtain, probably, from no other
contemporary work.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By Hippolyte Adolph Taine, D.C.L. Oxon, Author
of “A History of English Literature,” “Notes on England,” etc.
Translated by John Durand. In three volumes. Vol. III. New York:
_Henry Holt & Company_.
This is the concluding volume of Taine’s history of the French
Revolution, and in vividness of presentation, charm of style, and
clearness of statement it surpasses even its predecessors. The views
of M. Taine in regard to the causes of the French Revolution, and his
characterizations of the men who rose to the top during its fierce and
bloody progress, have been severely criticised. Nearly every historian
of the period is borne along by a strong partisan bias. It seems
impossible for the writer to enter on this troubled and tempestuous
period to keep himself aloof from the agitations which swell the
events and motives he depicts. So all historians of the period are
at odds with each other. M. Taine is more severe and sweeping in his
condemnation of the men that guided the revolution than most of his
rivals. Perhaps no better explanation of the view and attitude of
the author can be given than that found in his eloquent and striking
preface, which we give entire:
“‘In Egypt,’ says Clement of Alexandria, ‘the sanctuaries of the
temples are shaded by curtains of golden tissue. But on going farther
into the interior in quest of the statue, a priest of grave aspect,
advancing to meet you and chanting a hymn in the Egyptian tongue,
slightly raises a veil to show you the god. And what do you behold? A
crocodile, or some indigenous serpent, or other dangerous animal, the
Egyptian god being a brute rolling about on a purple carpet.’
“We need not visit Egypt or go so far back in history to encounter
crocodile worship, as this can be readily found in France at the end
of the last century. Unfortunately, a hundred years is too long an
interval, too far away, for an imaginative retrospect of the past.
At the present time, standing where we do and regarding the horizon
behind us, we see only forms which the intervening atmosphere
embellishes, shimmering contours which each spectator may interpret
in his own fashion; no distinct, animated figure, but merely a mass
of moving points, forming and dissolving in the midst of picturesque
architecture. I was anxious to have a nearer view of these vague
points, and, accordingly, transported myself back to the last half of
the eighteenth century, where I have been living with them for twelve
years, and, like Clement of Alexandria, examining, first, the temple,
and next the god. A passing glance at these is not sufficient; a step
further must be taken to comprehend the theology on which this cult is
founded. This one, explained by a very specious theology, like most
others, is composed of dogmas called the principles of 1789; they were
proclaimed, indeed, at that date, having been previously formulated by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the well-known sovereignty of the people, the
rights of man, and the social contract. Once adopted, their practical
results unfolded themselves naturally; in three years the crocodile
brought by these dogmas into the sanctuary installed himself there on
the purple carpet behind the golden veil; in effect, he was intended
for the place on account of the energy of his jaws and the capacity of
his stomach; he became a god through his qualities as a destructive
brute and man-eater. Comprehending this, the rites which consecrate
him and the pomp which surrounds him need not give us any further
concern. We can observe him, like any ordinary animal, and study his
various attitudes, as he lies in wait for his prey, springs upon it,
tears it to pieces, swallows it, and digests it. I have studied the
details of his structure, the play of his organs, his habits, his mode
of living, his instincts, his faculties, and his appetites. Specimens
abounded. I have handled thousands of them, and have dissected hundreds
of every species and variety, always preserving the most valuable and
characteristic examples, but for lack of room I have been compelled to
let many of them go because my collection was too large. Those that I
was able to bring back with me will be found here, and, among others,
about twenty individuals of different dimensions, which—a difficult
undertaking—I have kept alive with great pains. At all events, they are
intact and perfect, and particularly the three largest. These seem to
me, of their kind, truly remarkable, and those in which the divinity
of the day might well incarnate himself. The bills of butchers, as
well as housekeeping accounts, authentic and regularly kept, throw
sufficient light on the cost of this cult. We can estimate about how
much the sacred crocodiles consumed in ten years; we know their bills
of fare daily, their favorite morsels. Naturally, the god selected the
fattest victims, but his voracity was so great that he likewise bolted
down, and blindly, the lean ones, and in much greater number than the
fattest. Moreover, by virtue of his instincts, and an unfailing effect
of the situation, he ate his equals once or twice a year, except when
they succeeded in eating him. This cult certainly is instructive, at
least to historians and men of pure science. If any believers in it
still remain I do not aim to convert them; one cannot argue with a
devotee on matters of faith. This volume, accordingly, like the others
that have gone before it, is written solely for amateurs of moral
zoology, for naturalists of the understanding, for seekers of truth,
of texts, and of proofs—for these alone and not for the public, whose
mind is made up and which has its own opinion on the Revolution. This
opinion began to be formed between 1825 and 1830, after the retirement
or withdrawal of eye-witnesses. When they disappeared it was easy to
convince a credulous public that crocodiles were philanthropists; that
many possessed genius; that they scarcely ate others than the guilty,
and that if they sometimes ate too many it was unconsciously and in
spite of themselves, or through devotion and self-sacrifice for the
common good.”
The volume is divided into the following sections: “Establishment
of the Revolutionary Government;” “The Jacobin Programme;” “The
Governors;” “The Governed;” “The End of the Revolutionary Government.”
The author gives a luminous picture of the facts and conditions which
preceded the Reign of Terror. In reading these brilliant pages we
are carried along so swiftly that it is hard to realize at first the
enormous research and weighing of authorities, which we soon recognize
by glancing at the foot-notes. The various elements entering into the
situation were complex, but they are unravelled with great dexterity
and presented with no less clearness. When we come to those pages
which deal with the Reign of Terror proper, M. Taine rises to his most
graphic and picturesque power. His description and characterization of
Danton, Marat, Robespierre, Hebert, St. Just, and the other bloodhounds
that led the pack, are masterpieces. Carlyle, whose account of the
French Revolution is a lurid and magnificent prose poem, does not
give a more powerful and vivid realistic picture, while the present
author without doubt has by far the advantage in the accuracy of his
statements, the reliability of his facts, the judicial weight of his
opinions. It may be unquestioningly stated that among recent historical
books there is none worthy to be ranked in interest and importance with
this study of one of the most remarkable periods in the world’s history
by M. Taine.
LOUIS PASTEUR: HIS LIFE AND LABORS. By his Son-in-law. Translated from
the French by John Durand. New York: _D. Appleton & Co._
The career of M. Pasteur is one of those which rank among the greatest
in the value of the results which he has obtained. Starting as a great
chemist, he went on, step by step, making great discoveries in the
line of his work, till he finally proved absolutely the germ theory of
disease, which, prior to his investigations and experiments, had been
merely an hypothesis. The great crowning work of his life, however, has
been the establishment of the fact that vaccination, as discovered by
Jenner is not an isolated truth, but one of a class of similar truths,
which could be utilized to the incalculable blessing of the world; in
other words, that it is possible in the case of a great many diseases
to make the system proof against contagion by inoculation with an
attenuated virus of the same nature. He has been splendidly successful
in the cases of splenic fever and of hydrophobia, and all the analogies
indicate that this is only the beginning of a much wider extension of
the same principle. Pasteur’s conclusions are now accepted by the whole
scientific, and a host of ardent and ingenious disciples are working
along the same line of experiment and investigation. The beneficent
results are likely to be of such a character as to revolutionize
the whole treatment of disease. Before Pasteur had reached the
culmination of his great career, he had saved millions of francs per
annum to France by his discovery of the means to cure diseases in
vines, and the method of saving silk-worms from the parasitic ailment
which threatened the whole silk culture of France. But in absolutely
demonstrating, starting from the germ theory of disease as a basis,
that disease could be guarded against, at least in certain cases, by
inoculation with attenuated virus, he has opened the way probably
for results the greatness of which we do not yet appreciate. Like
Dr. Robert Koch, of Berlin, he has been experimenting with cholera,
but, unlike Dr. Koch, he denies that the cholera germ, or _bacillus_,
has yet been found. Investigators are, however, on the road to the
truth, and we confidently anticipate that the goal will be reached not
only in cholera, but many other diseases. If so Pasteur’s name will
shine _primus inter pares_ among those who most contributed to such a
beneficent revolution in the methods, of grappling with the most fatal
forms of disease and death. The story of Pasteur’s life, of his methods
of work, of his progress from discovery to discovery, is told by his
admiring disciple and son-in-law in a very fresh and attractive style,
unencumbered by technical terms and with a peculiarly French vivacity
and grace of touch. There is a very interesting summary of the results
of Pasteur’s work written by no less an authority than Professor John
Tyndall, who does ample justice to the genius and ability of his great
French contemporary. Pasteur is now only sixty-two years of age, and as
his health has lately been re-established, the world may expect still
more important discoveries than any which he has yet made.
A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN A SERIES OF LETTERS. Intended for
the Use of Schools and of Young Persons, etc., but more especially
for the Use of Soldiers, Sailors, Apprentices, and of Ploughboys. By
William Cobbett. With Notes by Robert Waters. New York: _A. S. Barnes
& Co._
Next to Lindley Murray (and he is rather a name, _clarum et venerabile
nomen_, than an authority) no work in the English language on grammar
is more famous than this of Cobbett. The book is written with great
charm of style, and is cast in the form of familiar letters, being
addressed to his son. It is the only grammar in the world, probably,
which can be read with pleasure by a casual person picking it up
for an hour’s recreation. Its methods and principles of teaching
have been widely commended by the most experienced grammarians and
instructors. The book is so well known as not to need any special
words from us in praise or criticism. We find an amusing sentence on
the title-page which is not without significance. After the general
statement of the title of the book we find these, “to which are added
six lessons intended to prevent statesmen from using false grammar and
from writing in an awkward manner.” There is no doubt that some such
special department is needed, but it is dubious whether the aforesaid
statesmen could be made to realize the fact. The notes which are added
by the editor, Mr. Waters, are suggestive and useful, and written in
an easy and engaging style, modelled somewhat after that of Cobbett
himself.