l law and order, was itself most
rigidly governed, with a Russian prince elected as its chairman, a man
of striking ability, who, nevertheless, I believe, owed his election
more to the fact that he was a nobleman than to the recognition of his
intrinsic worth. And another point which interested me much was that
this prince ruled his obstreperous subjects after the fashion of
Russian despotism, rather than according to the liberal ideas of the
country in which he was domiciled. I have known him more than once
ruthlessly overturn the action of the majority, stamp his foot, smite
his huge fist on the table, and declare so and so should not be done,
no matter what the vote was. And the thing was not done, either.

At the more recent period of which I speak, the chairmanship of the
London anarchists was held by a weak, vacillating man, and the mob had
got somewhat out of hand. In the crisis that confronted us, I yearned
for the firm fist and dominant boot of the uncompromising Russian. I
spoke only once during this time, and assured my listeners that they
had nothing to fear from the coming friendship of the two nations. I
said the Englishman was so wedded to his grotesque ideas regarding the
liberty of the subject he so worshipped absolute legal evidence, that
we would never find our comrades disappear mysteriously from England
as had been the case in continental countries.

Although restless during the exchange of visits between King and
President, I believe I could have carried the English phalanx with me,
if the international courtesies had ended there. But after it was
announced that members of the British Parliament were to meet the
members of the French Legislature, the Paris circle became alarmed,
and when that conference did not end the _entente_, but merely paved
the way for a meeting of business men belonging to the two countries
in Paris, the French anarchists sent a delegate over to us, who made a
wild speech one night, waving continually the red flag. This aroused
all our own malcontents to a frenzy. The French speaker practically
charged the English contingent with cowardice; said that as they were
safe from molestation, they felt no sympathy for their comrades in
Paris, at any time liable to summary arrest and the torture of the
secret cross-examination. This Anglo-French love-feast must be wafted
to the heavens in a halo of dynamite. The Paris anarchists were
determined, and although they wished the co-oper