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206 hending its operation or of appreciating the beneficent results destined to flow from it, they have made the tardy realization of its blessings a fresh departure for denunciation of the authorities, who, as they aver, ever seek to defraud the people of their rights. The influence of these apostles of disorder and evil is still sorely felt, but it has diminished, and must eventually yield to the era of progress and enlightenment inaugurated by Alexander the Emancipator.

Russia is not alone subject to the reproach of extraordinary and extravagant ideas, nor may their existence be solely attributed to the ignorance and degradation of her people; they have had their counterpart in England and in America, under very different conditions. The Ironsides of Cromwell, the Puritans of New England, bear strong resemblance to the Old Believers, and for originality, eccentricity, and multiplicity of religious creeds, the Anglo-Saxon is in no whit inferior to the Muscovite of White Russia. The great republic of the New World and the vast empire of the North complacently find many points of contact, and this one is, perhaps, of all, the most remarkable. Prophets and prophetesses of divers revelations have rallied around them, in America, disciples by thousands; no doctrine has been too absurd, no creed too subversive of order or of morality, to find acceptance and gather adherents there among Mormons, Millerites, advocates of free love, and multitudinous sects of similar description.

This singular analogy between two people of such different antecedents and character, surrounded by influences so opposite and antagonistic, is susceptible, in some degree at least, of explanation. In one case there has been extraordinary exuberance of ideas, excessive individuality of opinion, a vigorous spirit of initiative and