America, out of a population of 76,085,794 in 1900 there were 14,822,126 children in elementary schools, and 602,469 in higher institutions. And Pobedonostseff condemns popular education.' And Government and Church are both absolutist and autocratic. But they cannot continue so. The schisms which have been described run through the nation, and the Church will be unable to retain its mediæval supremacy when intelligence and independence of opinion spread among the people. The mere expansion of industry, the introduction of manufactures, the development of the resources of the country, will bring in the spirit of personal freedom, of independent individual action. The eight years from 1892 to 1900 reveal how fast these new influences are increasing their power. Men cannot be kept from thinking, and however strong an argument for autocracy can be made in theory, it will not be possible to hold men permanently in such subjection. Both Church and State are bound to be liberalized once the outlines of the Russian framework are clearly defined and the work of inner development succeeds the era of territorial expansion. The latter will allow fictions which the former will shatter. "Among the impressions left by study of contemporary Russia," says Mr. Norman, "perhaps the most interesting is that of an approaching social change. Hitherto, speaking generally, there was no artisan class—no great social stratum below the nobility except the illiterate, stupid, kindly, superstitious peasantry. The growth of industry is producing such a class-a proletariat. Association in large numbers, the discussion of affairs, the influence of the fluent speaker, the circulation of the newspaper, the use of machinery, residence in towns-all these combine to confer a certain education. With this rough education come new aspirations and the consciousness of ability to realize them. When a dozen men insist upon 1 Reflections of a Russian Statesman, pp. 75–84. 2 Norman, All the Russias, p. 370. something hitherto denied them, a policeman may move them on; a hundred men may be dispersed by a troop of gendarmes; five hundred men may be surrounded by a regiment of Cossacks. But when two or three thousand men demand a change, for instance, in hours of labour, and not in one town only but in half a dozen towns simultaneously, their demand must be considered on its merits. This means a new class and a new era in Russia-a vital modification of a society hitherto resting upon the two pillars of autocracy and theocracy." "1 And apart from the matter of industry, Russia cannot remain aloof from the influences of the great thoughts which are here to mould the whole world. Undoubtedly Russia is to contribute her share to the determination of the form in which these great thoughts are to find permanent lodgment in human society. Western individualism may well be checked by Russian socialism, our sense of liberty by her sense of authority, our mobility by her stability. But the future of the world belongs to no one race, neither AngloSaxon, Slav, nor Mongol. And that race does unwisely, whether it be ours or the Russian or the Chinese, which claims a supreme and isolated authority, and denies so far that human brotherhood, the recognition and service of which is the only valid title to greatness, whether of nations or of men. 1 All the Russias, pp. 452f; The Independent, Art., "The Russian Situation from the Inside," June 20, 1901, pp. 1412ff. |