ooner or later fall. Like the Roman Emperor, Alexander II. might be
glad if revolt had but a single neck. But is it possible for him to
imagine that there exists but one party of malcontents? Do not the very
arrests just mentioned belie such an assertion?

Conspirators are laid hold of by the Czar's _sbirri_ together with men
who would not think of armed resistance. Despotism is frightened, in
fact, by the very shadows on the wall. Even the Slavophil and Panslavist
parties--still the ready instruments of aggressive policy--have both
become imbued with Constitutional ideas that look like sacrilege in the
eyes of the Pope-Czar. The revolutionists of _Land and Liberty_ ("Zemlja
i Wolja"); the Socialist Jacobins who follow the doctrines of the
_Tocsin_ ("Nabat"); the Nihilists, properly speaking; and the moderate
Constitutionalists, are all alike the enemies of the present form of
Government. In some districts the peasantry have risen; and, remarkable
to say, the first troop of Cossacks that was led against the insurgents,
refused to fight them. These are portents whose gravity cannot be
mistaken.

Ten years ago, when the Napoleonic Empire still stood erect, I said, in
an article on "The Condition of France," in the _Fortnightly Review_:--

"A mighty change is undoubtedly hovering in the air. There may be
short and sharp shocks and counter-shocks for a little while; but,
unless all signs deceive, the great issue cannot be long delayed.
The calmest observer is unable to deny the significance of the
electrical flashes occasionally shooting now across the atmosphere.
It is as if words of doom were traced in lurid streaks, breaking
here and there through the darkened sky. We are strongly reminded
of the similar incidents which marked the summer of 1868 in Spain.
Those incidents were then scarcely understood abroad; yet they
meant the subsequent great event of September. Even so there are
now signs and portents in France--only fraught with a meaning for
Europe at large."

This was published in December, 1869. In the following year, September,
1870, Bonapartist rule was a thing of the past.

Czardom, on its part, may play out its last card by embarking upon a
fresh war. It will only thereby hasten its doom. Though in Russia
concentrated action, for the sake of overthrowing a system of
Government, is surrounded with greater difficulties than in France, I
fully expect