well known that the Emperor, and some at
least of his principal advisers, have for some time had ever-increasing
constitutional, even democratic, sympathies. It has been more and more
felt of late that what is called Russification, as practised towards the
Finns, would go no further; and indeed, as far as they were concerned,
would be reversed. No thoughtful person who has marked the trend of
events since 1908 could doubt the direction in which higher and
responsible Russian thought was moving. But who can possibly foresee the
far-reaching effect of raising up a great Polish nation once more and
recognizing the Roman Catholic Church as the Church of that part of the
empire, with Russians and Poles, Orthodox and Roman Catholic living
together in amity and international unity?

"I have just been staying," writes Mr. Stephen Graham in the _Times_ for
October 29, 1914, "in the fine old city of Wilna, a city of courtly
Poles, the home of many of the old noble families of Poland. It is now
thronged with Russian officers and soldiers. Along the main street is an
incessant procession of troops, and as you look down you see vistas of
bayonet-spikes waving like reeds in a wind. As you lie in bed at night
you listen to the tramp, tramp, tramp of soldiers. Or you look out of
the window and see wagons and guns passing for twenty minutes on end,
or you see prancing over the cobbles and the mud the Cossacks of the
Don, of the Volga, of Seven Rivers. In the days of the revolutionary
outburst the Poles bit their lips in hate at the sight of the Russian
soldiers, they cursed under their breath, darted out with revolvers,
shot, and aimed bombs. To-day they smile, tears run down their cheeks;
they even cheer. Whoever would have thought to see the day when the
Poles would cheer the Russian troops marching through the streets of
their own cities? The Russians are forgiven!"

No one who has known Russia and Poland before the war could read this
description without deep emotion.

"A very touching spectacle," he continues, "may be seen every day just
now at the Sacred Gate of Wilna. Above the gateway is a chapel with
wide-open doors showing a richly-gilded and flower-decked image of the
Virgin. At one side stands a row of leaden organ-pipes, at the other
stands a priest. Music is wafted through the air with incense and the
sound of prayers. Down below in the narrow, muddy roadway kneel many
poor men and women with prayer-books in their hands