On this page
- Departments (3)
-
Text (9)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
( Surnptntt femrirntn
-
Untitled Article
-
(iDrpnnafimm af tljt ffrajile,
-
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
invariably follow ! But the time is past ; the theatres are closed ; and I cannot get up an apotheosis now . . Meanwhile the Bachelor Mind is , as I said , in a somewhat objectless condition as to its evenings . There is the Olympic , it is true , but one can ' t go every night there , with the best of intentions ; there is the AdelpU , —but that theatre , never a fav urite of mine , always plays the same pieces for ° an indefinite period . Sadler ' s Wells is worth visiting . But , on the whole , unless dinner parties commence shortly , I shall grow into a misanthrope . Vivian .
Untitled Article
This T > age is accorded to an authentic Exposition of the Opinions ' and Acts of the Democracy cf Europe : as such ¦ we do not impose any restraint on the utterance ot opinion , and , therefore , limit our own responsiDiiity to the authenticity of the statement .
Untitled Article
( Concluded from our last , p . 975 . ) The frequent rebellions and risings of the pea-Bants * are the best testimony to the social tendency of her fermentations , which have reached a much higher degree than is dreamt of in other countries , ¦ who only see the surface , glossed over with the Imperial colours . The first great protest of the agricultural people against their oppressors was the insurrection headed by Poogacheff , from the year 1773 to 1775 . This insurgent , who was but a common Cossack , under the mask of the resuscitated Peter III . collected three different times an enormous army , took several fortresses , conquered Kazan , and
advanced from the Ural to Tambor . The sectarians formed his main strength . Castles were burnt down , mounds of dead nobles and functionaries marked ihe road he had marched through . Upwards of 100 , 000 people lost their lives in this rebellion . The inhabitants of Moscow anxiously avvidted his arrival , and Catherine II . trembled on that throne ( she had stained it with the blood of her husband ) even when Poogacheff was already defeated and taken prisoner . He was , of course , executed ; but his memory , as the hero of the people , still lives : the people h-. ive never ceased to speak wi-h pride of the " Poogachefsheena" ( the time of Poogacheff ) .
After the conclusion of this sanguinary insurrection and the execution of all the ring-leaders , the people kept quiet until the year 1812 , which , was the dawn of a new era for Russia . A Democratic party of nobles entered into negotiation with Napoleon , purposing to free the people by his ; tid from the yoke of a fearful slavery ; but this magnificent opportunity of acquiring a real grandeur was rejected by the Conqueror , and the Russian Democrats turned the popular insurrection , organized in his and their own people ' s favour against him . They succeeded in enticing ltastopchecn , the governor of Moscow , to lay the ancient capital in ashes ; a comp liance which Alexander chastized with his disgrace , as he never forgave him that deed , albeit he feigned before the
Untitled Article
NATIONAL CHARTER ASSOCIATION . The executive met as usual on Wednesday . The Secretary reported that the monthly circular was ready . A letter was read from Mr . C . 1 \ Nicholls , olliiijully informing the executive that be had been elected on the Parliamentary Reform Association ; and stating that he thought himself bound to notify the fact , as he had been nominated for the vacancy in the executive , and the policy of the step might bo disapproved , lie also stated that he accepted the election with pleasure .
Untitled Article
Christian Socialist Office , 183 , Fleet-street , London , October XI , 1851 . Sut , —Having been nominated to iill up the vacancy in the executive , caused by the resignation of Mr . Reynolds , permit me to state through your columns that I respectfully decline . There are noble men already nominated who will do more essential Hervico to the cause , independent of the superior talent they possess , than my present position enables me even to promise . When , however , ? ' Ministers resign , " and their year of olHco has neurly expired , I bhall feel honoured in being permitted to sit as one of the acting Hervants of Democracy for the truly eventful lHi ) 2 . I urn , Sir , yours , Sec , John James 1 $ i : zi : k .
Untitled Article
Douirr . —It in the business both of religion and philosophy " to prove nil things , " and , therefore , to doubt all things until we have proved them , or otherwise satisfied ourselves of their having n reusonnblo basis . Let us shrink , not from doubt , hut from that moral degradation which is involved in the uct ot simulating u devotion not felt . Let iih direct our abhorrence , not against atheistical confessiono , but against those atheistioiil hypocrisies , too common , we fear , in the conventional state of woriety in which we live , w here doubts of the existence of a Divine-Ucing are often cherished , and not acknowledged ; win re religion >» worn as a mask ; where , with tho name of ( iod upon the ; lips , the heart i » set upon tho attainment of rank or wealth , and the only ( Jod really worshipped is " the god of thia world . "—i ' rom Wcatminater llevieio for October ,
( Surnptntt Femrirntn
( Surnptntt femrirntn
Untitled Article
* The best proof that these rebellions are frequent are the following provisions Nicholas has made in the laws since 1842 : —
II . General Duties of the l * easants . 1 . Obedience to Laws . All pea « ants arc bound by oath to an inviolable fidelity to the sacred person of his Imperial Majesty the limperor ( vol . xii . § 171 ) , and vol . xiv . $ 180 ) . None of them in to be < linobcclient to legally instituted authorities ( Ibid . § 180 ) . NeverthelpHs / should disobedience and disorder arise , and extraordinary measures ami the employment of troops had recourse to , to oppose them , in such a case all expenses caused thereby will be supported by the guilty people ( Ibid . $ 179 ) .
livery rebellion of the peasants or servants against their masters , and against communal or rural authorities , is considered as a resistance to the authority inntitiited by the Government ( Penal Law of 1845 , $ ' 288 ) . Simple ; disobedience of Imperial peasants towards governmental or communal authorities is punished by imprisonment ( Ibid . $ 29 / 3 ) . The peasants are liable to corporal punishment tor certain crimes ; the following are nevertheless executed : — 1 . Communal guardians of districts , and clerks of al ' Imperial appanage peasants , if they have received th
4 . All those who have passed their 70 th year ( how charitable !) Moreover , all the Imperial and appanago peasants are exempt from corporal punishment as long as they belong to a bailiwick ( Ibid . . Supplement No . 1 ) . Ignorance of the . law in inadinii . nul ) le ( Collection of Laws , vol . xii . y 178 ); hence all supreme ukazes and regulations of tin ; Government are i cud in the churches and in the communal meeting * ( ll ) id . vol . xii . $ 177 ) . Uncalled-for ineetingH of peasants cannot lake place . In case of fire , immdulion , or other hucIi calamities , alarms can lie . given , but only witli the consent of the responsible ctiiuinuuul authorities ( Ibid . vol . xii . $ 18 (> , and tho Appanage Itegultttioua of 1813 , vol . iv . 6 29 ) .
whole world , that he had been apprised of it . The conaagration of Moscow , that holy city of the Russian people , being naturally ascribed to the enemy , awakened the whole nation from its lethargy ; the "iant awoke in all his vigour , and from the confines ' of Siberia even a year- afterwards , multitudes of volunteers arrived to avenge , the object of their idolatry . There were now , in consequence of this war , numerous free corps spread throughout the whole empire , which , especially in the Governments of Moscow , Twer , &c , actually refused to resume their socca « -e labour , loudly declaring that they had won battlefield ite of thos
their freedom on the - . In sp e commotions being subdued , still since 1842 , the rebellions of the peasantry have become permanent . Every year gives birtU to a dozen of them in the various districts , and they have acquired already such dimensions , that , whilst formerly only single communes and districts used to rise , the insurrection now embraces at once several governments , for the people being everywhere penetrated with the same tendency , take up arms at the first news of an insurrection in a neighbouring district . The greatest savageness , but also the most exalted heroism is displayed in those popular insurrections . In tho rebellion which broke out in 1 S 31 , on account of the cholera , 200 , 000 peasants were in arms in Novgorod and Pskov ,
once independent Republics , now governments of the Russian Empire . They killed all the landowners , officers , and functionaries , in the coolest blood , no matter whether they were their friends or foes . It so happened , that a landed proprietor remonstrated with his revolted peasants , that he bad always been kind and just to them , and why , then , did they wish to kill him ? " True , " replied an old peasant , with tears in his eyes ; " but we have sworn to kill all the nobles without exception ; consequently , you must die . But , as you have always been kind to us , you shall have an easy death . " Another peasant gave him his tobacco-pipe , that he might not , in his last moments , be deprived of his favourite enjoyment .
In the Government of Simbirsk , about nine years ago , a 3 'oung peasant was executed , for having been the ringleader of such a revolt . The whole commune accompanied him to the scaffold , singing hymns , and uttering lamentations . " Never mind , friends , " exclaimed he ; " lam not the first , and shall not be the last ! " Five or six years ago the peasants of the Government of Simbirsk burnt their villages down with their own hands , at the same time accusing the nobles as having been the incendiaries , merely to avenge themselves on the Tsar ' s contemplated emancipation of their serfs .
We thus nee that in Russia , not only the abolition of serfdom , and jicrsonal freedom , are the mooted point ? , but also a claim upon the soil . The peasants reason about this matter quite openly ; they never say , " the ground of our master : but our soil . " The character of the future Russian revolution is thus pointed out in advance as a social one , and , in fact , it is embodied in the character of the People , and in their communal institutions . The soil belongs to the commune ; individually the peasant is but the usufructuary of it ; the righ t of inheriting only regards moveable property , never the land ; and every twenty or twenty-live years it undergoes a new distribution .
To encroach , even with the best intention , upon these communal regulations would be fraught with great danger to the landlord ; nay , it would be his death-warrant . In this anxiety for the improvement of their condition , in that readiness of revolting , all the peasants , without distinction , whether those of the Crown , of the state , or the serfs , are perfectly unanimous ; for , in spite of that denomination , their fate is all the name ; viz . wretched , and undeserved . Although according to their denomination the peasantH , belonging to the two first categories , are not Herts , like the- peasants of the nobles , still their condition is precisely the same , nay frequently worse ,
ho much so , that they are heard to exclaim : — " Would to ( jiod we could belong to a nobleman ! " The peasants of tho Crown have merely exchanged thepatriarchical relation to their landowners ( which frequently was of a mild character ) , or the arbitrariness of some of them , for a general and systematical oppression and extortion by the public ofheers . Now , the ollicial world in Russia is a perfectly hierarchici / . ed whole , a ladder of iiniumerabhi ruudles , on none of which , if you wish to reach tlio pinnacleviz . the autocrat -you must tread . ' 1 'he Russian proverb says : — " Heaven is luijh , and the . Emperor is far off . "
It is thus easy to conceive ; what , a bog of leeches tho Russian bureaucracy is to the people , with what barcfacedneKs they are cheated , tyranizod , and in the bargain condemned , without being able to obtain justice ; for all the complaints addressed to the Tsar , remain in the archives of the higher rogues . Let us illustrate it by nn example : —Several yearn ago , in consequence of an unfavourable harvest , the peasants in tin : government of l ' ensa received from the Government sonic pot . utocs lor seed ; hut the potatoes , owing to the interfc rence and speculation of the contractors , were transformed into rotten ones , and tho pooaautu rcluaed to put them in tho around : but
the public officers compelled the peasants to sow the rotten remnants of potatoes , and then ascribed their not coming up to the unfavourable weather . A revolt of the exasperated peasants ensued , which was crushed , and the peasants pacified , by grape shot and the mighty knout . * * * # It will not be difficult to perceive , from what we have recorded , that the Russian People is approaching , in its revolutionary tendencies , the point
of maturit } ' , towards which it is impelled , by the diabolical system of oppression and corruption prevailing throughout the vast empire of Russia . It is , moreover , evident , that the future Russian revolution will not only be political—a mere change of dynasty—but a social revolution , in which , if the insurrection be successful , the present order of things will unavoidably be replaced by the reign of purely democratic institutions .
The martyrs , who , in 1826 , died on the scaffold for the idea of establishing a democratic republic in Russia , —those hundreds of victims , who , for having shared their faith , have been transported to the mines of Siberia , are incorporated as piivate soldiers , deprived of . promotion , in the Transcaucasian army , —tho continually revolting peasants , who , in their untrained minds , kill and destroy all that embodies the opposite principle of democracy—and the exiles in foreign lands , who , like allBakoonin , cherish republican principles , aresymptoms justificatory of our expectations ; symptoms , which authorize us to infer
that the state of mind prevailing among the Russian nation , well known by the autocrat , must have prevented him from pushing his armed hordes towards the heart and the west of Europe , in order to execute his plans , viz ., to restore throughout Europe the * ' Order reigning in Warsaw . ' His well-known clear * sightedness forbids us accusing him of mere delay in carrying out his liberticide designs ; he knows too well that ' 62 will be too late , that the progressive spirit of the age , which undermines " all absolutism , will thenbe too extensively spread and deeprooted , and that all remedy , even that of the k nout , will prove of no avail .
Yes ; it will be too late , and we earnestly hope that even the Tsar ' s continuousness , to which , as it would appear , he was forced to submit , in order to at least save his own ship from the threatening storm , will be unavailable , as her crew , too , will then be of ripe age ; and , as such , being guided by the compass of an enlightened and emancipated mind , join the other European nations in their efforts to establish the reign of Divine justice in lieu of iniquity , the sovereignty of the Peoples in lieu of the abject despotism of a few families , and follow no other idea but that which tho motto " God and the People " conveys .
(Idrpnnafimm Af Tljt Ffrajile,
( iDrpnnafimm af tljt ffrajile ,
Political And Social.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1851, page 1023, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1906/page/19/
-