men who had been swept
onward by the current were fast coming to their senses, while others
were already sane, eager to stem it and anxious for moral sympathy from
outside.

From out of the revolutionary welter, the _expose_ continued, certain
hopeful phenomena had emerged symptomatic of a new spirit. Conditions
conducive to equality existed, although real equality was still a
somewhat remote ideal. But the tendencies over the whole sphere of
Russian social, moral, and political life had undergone remarkable and
invigorating changes in the direction of "reasonable democracy." Many
wholesome reforms had been attempted, and some were partially realized,
especially in elementary instruction, which was being spread clumsily,
no doubt, as yet, but extensively and equally, being absolutely
gratuitous.[262]

Various other so-called ameliorations were enumerated in this obviously
partial _expose_, which was followed by an apology for certain prominent
individuals, who, having been swept off their feet by the revolutionary
floods, would gladly get back to firm land and help to extricate the
nation from the Serbonian bog in which it was sinking. They admitted a
share of the responsibility for having set in motion a vast juggernaut
chariot, which, however, they had arrested, but hoped to expiate past
errors by future zeal. At the same time they urged that it was not they
who had demoralized the army or abolished the death penalty or thrown
open the sluice-gates to anarchist floods. On the contrary, they claimed
to have reorganized the national forces, reintroduced the severest
discipline ever known, appointed experienced officers, and restored
capital punishment. Nor was it they, but their predecessors, they added,
who had ruined the transport service of the country and caused the food
scarcity.

These individuals would, it was said, welcome peace and friendship with
the Entente, and give particularly favorable consideration to any
proposal coming from the English-speaking peoples, in whom they were
disposed to place confidence under certain simple conditions. The need
for these conditions would not be gainsaid by the British and American
governments if they recalled to mind the treatment which they had
theretofore meted out to the Russian people. At that moment no Russian
of any party regarded or could regard the Allies without grounded
suspicions, for while repudiating interference in domestic affairs, the
French, Americans,