of

found in- the ordinary calculations
world-conquering Governments.
What that influence is, or is
that,
supposed to be, need not be
stated; enough to say
investigating from the ground
upward, the right imagination
must look into that also. Why
not? In cognate business af-
fairs it would certainly be done,
and science is believed to be
right in taking nothing for
granted. It happens, however,
that the sacred question of the
Czar's goodness of heart and
But it is
sincerity of purpose need not
be disturbed much.
impossible that a sane political
imagination should not dwell
upon the dubious autocracy of
the Czar, the extent to which
he is managed by Ministers
even in this matter, his ulti-
mate and perhaps but half-con-
scious control by the "machine,"
which in Russia is more power-
ful, more unvarying and mys-
terious, than anywhere else out
of the Vatican. Even the fact
that the Czar is mortal cannot
be excluded when engagements
are discussed which, if they do
proceed from his sole initiative,
may depend altogether on his
for their validity
existence
а
where they are proposed.
Thus may the political im-
It is not,
agination be described in its
natural processes.
of course, the only kind to
which the Czar's rescript would
appeal; but, wherever politics
keep their sanity, it is thought
to be the only one that is
capable of dealing with such
matters usefully and without
danger. Our competitive sen-
timentalists are of a different
opinion. There is another sort

1048

motives hitherto

variable.

In a case like this, it surveys the actual conditions in which the Russian Government stood when the rescript was issued. What the domestic outlook; what the financial situation relative to it, and to the demands of a prodigious expansion scheme; at what stage that scheme now stands; what the facts as to armamentswhether complete in Russia and whether as complete elsewhere; what the Russian need (or no-need) of rest, cash accommodation, and the confidence of other countries,-such foundation-facts as these being arrayed as fully and clearly as may be, the business of political imagination is to trace their natural effect upon the mind of any Government, and then of the Russian Government as known by experience. By that effect the meaning of the rescript is then judged; but not till imagination takes account of possible new influences, powerful enough (though not, perhaps, so readily estimated) to give the rescript an independent, a different, or In most modified meaning. cases of a like character the possibility that new, strange, unseen influences may be at work is admitted, and searchlights are thrown out into the dark accordingly.

Here appearances are more simple and explicit. The incursion of a very remarkable influence is alleged, and it is said to give the rescript an origin and a meaning of its own, entirely independent of

order to insinuate half a doubt.
We admit that it is wrong to be
suspicious where there is nothing
more blameless as a matter of
fact, and nothing more neces-
sary according to our most
anxious convictions. We hardly
dare whisper the most probable
motives in the mind of the
not the Czar, of
Russian Government (the Gov-
ernment
course), though one of them is
cash accommodation from Eng-
land, with leisure to spend at
large on fortifications, military
roads, military colonies, and
other purposes not portentous
of peace; or if of peace, the
peace that is the dream of most
conquering nations. But how
is this timidity to be described ?
It is in part a very miserable
kind of hypocrisy, and in all
deplorable cowardice: which, in
their general effect, and apart
being wholesome occupants of
from this matter, are far from
the public mind.

As to that, however, the
more immediate concern is that
assert itself over the mind of
the tyranny of sentiment may
the Government as well as of
the public. Were I asked to
state in what way there is any
likelihood of that, I doubt
whether I should venture to
reply; for the answer is, on
the arbitration point. On some
of the minor points good will
be done, no doubt: the others,
their impracticability or their
danger coming out, may drop
It
without irremediable disappoint-
ment; but not if arbitration is
included amongst them.
seems to be determined both
within and without the circle
of competitive sentimentalism

A Tyranny of Sentiment.

1050

has been seen so many times on
earth that it may almost be
regarded as a continuous spec-
tacle. It is the rivalry which,
in one shape or another, goes
on everywhere in the living
world, and has correlatives
even in the innocent "vege-
table kingdom." There is no
particular reason for complaint
on the one side or the other
when this rivalry is understood
for what it is; the "baseless"
fear, what there is of it, is that
which always comes true at
last the fear of being beaten
down in the fight; and the
talk of "hate" to which we are
subjected is the introduction of
domestic moral principles into
regions where they have never
yet existed, and where they
cannot be practised without an
even ridiculous amount of risk
cer-
-principles, too, which
tainly should not be of partia
and particular application.

All this is so plain that there
ought to be no difficulty in
making a stand upon it; and
its assertion is so important that
the stand ought to be made in a
positive, outspoken, uncompro-
But what hap-
mising way.
does
Common-sense
pens?
make some protest on its own
behalf, and on behalf of im-
mutable facts, unvarying ex-
perience, and the only expecta-
tions that can be deduced from
them reasonably and safely.
But so forbidding is the senti-
mental Terror that this is done
in the feeblest, most timorous,
and apologetic way. In depre-
cation of the Terror and its
handling of our morals, we pre-
tend half-beliefs where we know
that credulity is dangerous, in

THE NEGATIVE RULER OF FRANCE.

FIVE years ago an obscure artillery captain, of whom although he had a good professional record-no one outside a very limited circle had ever from heard, was deported France to the other side of the world and placed in circumstances of isolation so appalling in their suggestion of hopeless cutting off from all that a man holds dear, that the words "living death" are weak to describe them. In going to his place of despair he had to carry with him the memory of a day of torture, not indeed physical, one but more unbearable to worthy to be called a man than the rack or the boot of Middle Age cruelty. For an officer who had served his country, and gained a good repute for zeal, ability, and diligence, to be made a spectacle of degradation to his army comrades,—his insignia of rank stripped from his clothing, his sword taken off him, broken, and thrown at his feet, and the name "traitor" loudly proclaimed over him, must be an ordeal almost beyond the bounds of human to inflict It is endurance. upon him that which, whether he be guilty or not, must him fill with an anguish such as mere physical torture could never cause to wring the spirit of a man of courage. The more brave the man, the more terrible the horror of the trial, the more deep and lacerating the penetration of the iron into the soul. No one read the story of it without a shudder of

was

none can

own

pain, no soldier who stood on
duty when the dread sentence
was executed can have been
That the unspeak-
unmoved.
ably wretched performer of the
title-rôle in the ghastly drama
a brave man
doubt. For, guilty or innocent,
he went through his part
as only a man brave beyond
most of his fellow-creatures
One of our
could do.
countrymen who was present
has testified that in that scene
on the Champ de Mars the
degraded officer "was the single
actor who behaved himself with
dignity"-a dignity so marked
that the spectator left the scene
with a profound conviction in
his heart, and full of forebod-
ing. The memory of it all to
and
the unfortunate sufferer must
done
have been-must be now,
as long as what was
shall not have been officially
undone a memory without
No time could
alleviation.
weaken, far less efface, the lines
cut deep into the being who
had endured that awful quarter
of an hour, into which every-
thing of shame that man can
his brother man
inflict upon
had been unsparingly meted
out to the helpless and hopeless
prisoner.

Picture him, then, on his barren islet in a tropical sea, with no relief from the deadly his palisaded monotony of patch of ground, exposed to a deadly climate and a burning sun, watched by silent guards, learning nothing of the world's doings, having no communi