Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/268

256 Accusation, to be found among university students and professors and among the higher nobility, and some of them are generals or governors of provinces. An ex-judge is said to have expended some thousands of pounds in propagating the doctrines of the sect, and a rich proprietor has become the travelling distributor of prohibited Nihilist book's. It is more credible that ladies of good family have devised for themselves occupation and amusement in the management of the widely-spread conspiracy. The frivolous and weary life described in Russian novels justifies the well-known epigram on a society which was rotten before it was ripe. It is possible that, instead of a round of corrupt and frivolous intrigue, young men and women in search of excitement may dabble in revolutionary and anarchical projects. If it is true that in one large province the local board of nobles subscribes in support of the agitation, it may be inferred that the upper classes desire to use for their own purposes the discontent of the peasantry. It has long been the policy of the imperial government to exclude the gentry from political influence, and to rely on the devotion of the mass of the people. The conspiracies of former generations were always managed by nobles, and it is possible that they may in their turn express their dissatisfaction by allying themselves with plebeian malcontents. The emancipation of the serfs, of which the emperor not unjustly received the credit, was effected at the expense of the landed proprietors. Although common enmities may for a time unite the most dissimilar associates, it is certain that Nihilism will make no real progress among the upper classes. They at least have no rehgious enthusiasm which could tempt them to encourage a revolution which would only be accomplished at their own expense. Although the tenets of the sect extend to the negation of other institutions as well as of property, those who have something will instinctively revolt from the doctrine of nothing. It is more probable that teachers of Nihilism may be found in the universities, for sophistry and pedantry have often an affinity for revolution.

Although it is probable that many extravagant doctrines are taught in the wide expanse of the Russian empire, there is no reason to suppose that they involve any serious danger to the government. There is no instance in history of great results produced by secret societies, although they may sometimes, as in southern Italy and Sicily, and from time to time in Ireland, render exceptional measures necessary for the preservation of public order. Since the accession of Nicholas there has been no symptom of disaffection in the army, which is strong enough to suppress with the greatest ease any popular rising. It is not improbable that the government may regard with indifference theoretical conspiracies which are directed more immediately against private property than against the State. The spread of disaffection with social institutions would furnish an additional reason for strengthening the central power. To the peasantry Nihilism can mean little except the abolition of the rents and other payments which have since the emancipation of the serfs been substituted for personal services. The commune, which is, according to the doctrines of the sect, to be the sole political organization of the future, already exists. The burdens of the conscription and of imperial taxation are imposed by irresistible force; and they are probably regarded as dispensations not less inevitable than pestilence or conflagration. No considerable part of the Russian population, except in the large towns, depends on wages; and the mention of the proletariat as a principal element of society indicates the importation of French phrases and fallacies. It is not known that distress is common among a rural population which is scattered over a vast territory. Ignorance, superstition, and the exertions of agitators are much less effective agents than hunger, though they may easily produce a crop of delusions. The domestic troubles to which Russia may perhaps, like other countries, be at some time exposed are probably remote. The middle class is small and feeble; the nobility have no political influence; and the mass of the people are incapable of understanding any but an absolute government. On the whole, Russian society is in a position of stable equilibrium which would be immediately resumed if it had been temporarily disturbed.