Vermont Phœnix

THE PERTURBATIONS IN RUSSIA.
Distracted Condition of the Country-Political Troubles.
'The latest intelligence from Russia shows that the political difficulties of that country are becoming complicated, while the rapid spread of incendiarism threatens the destruction of the richest part of the Empire. A writer in the last London Review thus succinctly describes the present state of affairs :
ONE THOUSAND YEARS OLD.
"The thousandth anniversary of the existence of the Russian empire is close at hand. A thousand years have all but passed away since the time when Rurik gathered up the scattered reins of government, and consolidated the failing republican institutions of the north into the vigorous Slavonic monarchy. 'On the 26th of August, 1862, I shall astonish Europe," the Emperor Alexander II. is stated to have said. On that day, when Russia completes its millennium, a great festival was to have been celebrated at Nijny-Novgorod. The emperor was to have gone there, and delegates from all parts of the empire were to have assisted him in solemnly inaugurating a great monument, erected in honor of the fatherland, and dedicated to the memory of its illustrious dead. But it is now reported that the festival is to be postponed till September, on account of the ominous excitement which is manifesting itself throughout the empire, and the emperor will have another month in which to consider in what manner he may most efficiently accomplish a European surprise. Meanwhile many an anxious eye is gazing in the direction of St. Petersburg, and very uneasy must be the minds of the watchers who strive to read the signs of the times from the palace windows of Vienna and Berlin. Strange sounds are wafted to their ears on the breeze which blows from what used to be the stronghold of despotism. Long-silenced voices are making themselves heard, names which were scarcely whispered in olden times are now being spoken aloud by a thousand tongues, and the unfamiliar murmur of an angry people is waxing stronger day by day.
EMBARRASSMENTS OF THE EMPEROR.
"It is difficult to conceive a more embarrassing position than that of the Emperor. He has been styled Alexander the Well-meaning, and he fully deserves the epithet. His intentions are, to all appearance, excellent, and he is sincerely desirous of carrying them out. But he stands almost alone, and he does not possess the force of intellect and strength of character which have enabled some rulers to bear down all opposition, and to accomplish to the full the plans they have silently matured. He is greatly influenced by the personal friends whom his affectionate nature makes him desirous of pleasing, and their opposition constantly disarranges his schemes and unsteadies his purposes. Hence arises the vacillation in his progress towards reform, and the hesitation which he manifests in annihilating many abuses. But there is one point from which he will not allow his attention to be diverted. He is determined to accomplish the emancipation of the serfs, and towards this end he is working with an unswerving will and an energy which never flags. But the difficulties with which he has to deal are enormous, and at present the machinery which he has set in motion has proved inadequate to the task it had to perform, and he must see that his operations, as far as they have yet gone, have been productive of very little success.
"By the decree of the 19th of February, 1861, agreements were to be drawn up between every proprietor and his serf, by which it was to be settled how much he was to receive in return for their emancipation. It was hoped that they would buy the land they required from him, either giving the money at once to him or arranging to pay it by instalments. Even if they did not feel inclined to buy he could compel them to do so, but in that case he could only ask for eighty per cent. of the price fixed upon. But if he were unwilling to part with his land they could not force him to sell. If the parties had not come to an agreement at the end of the year the government was to interfere and settle the business. Unfortunately for the success of the scheme, it was discovered in February, 1862, that only fourteen thousand agreements had been drawn up out of one hundred and forty thousand, so that a tenth part only of the task was done.
COMPLICATIONS.
"In some cases the proprietors refused to sell, and in a great many the peasants showed no inclination to buy. The land, they said, already belonged to the community, and they ought not to be called upon to purchase what was already their own. Individually they could not claim it, but collectively they had a right to it, and their proprietor ought not to expect them to pay for what was his property. The new law released them personally from his sway, and therefore he had now no longer any power over them, or what they considered their fields. He had better go away and live in the great cities, where the Emperor would support him, and recompense him for his losses; and so, in a great number of cases, the serfs used to avail themselves of the benefits offered them. In others, the proprietors offered a passive resistance, declining to do anything themselves, and leaving it to the government to make the necessary arrangements. But the Minister of the Interior found himself unable to cope with the gigantic task of settling the details of some hundred and twenty thousand complicated bargains, and the government was obliged to confess that some new regulation must supersede that which had resulted in failure. Meanwhile the peasants are growing impatient, and manifesting a very angry feeling towards the nobles, who are accused of preventing the Emperor from bestowing on the people the benefits which he wishes to give. The Russian nobility forms a population of about seven hundred and twenty-two thousand individuals, and their interests are opposed to those of about sixty-four millions in Russia alone. If the two classes are brought into collision, a terrible state of things must ensue. The Russian peasant is cruel to a degree when his passions are fully roused, and if a servile insurrection broke out it might be marked by a series of atrocities like those committed by the Ruthenians in Gallicia, when they attacked the Polish nobility in 1848, and destroyed three hundred families at a blow. Such an insurrection would no doubt be suppressed by the army, but the former state of affairs could not be restored, and the result would be the establishment of a military despotism of the sternest nature.
PRESENT DANGERS.
"In Russia itself the peasants are suspicious of the nobles, and their smouldering anger may at any moment blaze out into hot wrath. Little seems to be known as to the origin of the conflagrations which have been lately raging in the great cities. It appears certain that they are caused by incendiaries, but the actual culprits have not yet been detected. The conservative party are accused of instigating the people to excess, in order to make the Emperor relinquish his reforms in disgust. But the suspicion seems to be unfounded, and it is probably the agents of the republican propaganda who are now writing their gospel in letters of fire, with the intention of frightening the government into more rapid progress, and of startling the people into revolt.
"The lower classes of St. Petersburg are panic stricken, and will most probably be driven to fearful excesses if the fires continue. It is said they flung two suspected incendiaries into the flames during the recent burning of the Apraxin Drov, one of the cheap bazaars of the city, and in such cases the innocent generally suffer for the guilty. So common are the threatening notes now being circulated in the capital, that the very children play at fire-raising, and a boy of eleven years old was detected a few days ago, writing on his tutor's door, This house shall be burned down to-night. Even if the accounts are exaggerated, it is evident that there is ground for serious alarm, and it is with the greatest interest that we should watch the progress of events, and very deep should be our feeling of respect for the ruler who is striving to hold the even tenor of his way, though surrounded by an opposing court, and menaced with the ingratitude of an angry people."