Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/221

Rh and supremely stupid means of mystifying people was devised—namely, the enshrinement of the incorruptible body of a Saint whom nobody knew anything about. The stringency of the Censor was increased. Religious persecution was made more severe. The State of Siege (i.e., the legalization of lawlessness) was continued, and the state of things is still becoming worse and worse.

And I think that all this would not have happened if those enlightened, honest people who are now occupied in Liberal activity on the basis of legality, in Local Governments, in the Committees, in Censor-ruled literature, etc., had not devoted their energies to the task of circumventing the Government and—without abandoning the forms it has itself arranged—of finding ways to make it act so as to harm and injure itself: but, abstaining from taking any part in Government or in any business bound up with Government, had merely claimed their rights as men.

'You wish, instead of Judges of the Peace, to institute Zemsky Natchálinks with birch-rods: that is your business, but we will not go to law before your Zemsky Natchálinks, and will not ourselves accept appointment to such an office. You wish to make trial by jury a mere formality: that is your business, but we will not serve as judges, or as advocates, or as jurymen. You wish, under the name of a "State of Siege," to establish despotism: that is your business, but we will not participate in it, and will plainly call the "State of Siege"