people; and it may safely be asserted that at least four out of five of them are so poor that they are allowed to pursue their studies free of cost. Their only prospect in life was, and still is, to pass the necessary examinations, and then to be admitted to the lower grades of the Civil Service. For it must be borne in mind that in Russia the Government service is the only career which allows any scope for ambition. In other countries, commerce and industries of all kinds offer a vast field of enterprise to young men. But, in Russia, trade and manufacture are but little developed, and agriculture, which remains in the hands of the liberated serfs, constitutes almost the sole industry of the country at large. Nor do the learned professions offer any great advantages, for the white clergy (as the priests are called, to distinguish them from the black clergy, or monks) are utterly despised in Russia, and in fact only treated a little better than the common peasant; the army is almost entirely reserved to the nobility, and trial by jury and freedom of discussion in courts of justice are of too recent introduction and too little appreciated to afford much scope to the advocate; while a literary career is even less remunerative in Russia than elsewhere.

once.

Despairing of being able to pass the necessary examinations in consequence of their ignorance of classics, many of the students thought it best to leave the universities and colleges at Without means of existence, without position, and without any prospect in life, they became ready converts to Nihilism, the ranks of which were constantly augmented, not only by students who had failed to pass, but also by those who, having succeeded, were nevertheless unable to obtain admittance to the Civil Service. For, since the number of the students at the various universities had so largely increased, the Government was no longer able to provide situations for all the young men who had creditably passed their examinations.

Count Tolstoy rendered himself further unpopular to the students by repealing and abolishing many of the privileges which had been granted by his predecessor in office. Most of the former obnoxious regulations were restored. Professors and students were again forced to wear uniforms and subjected to military discipline, and the hated curators were reappointed. These curators are officials who represent the Imperial Government at every university, and are for the most part retired generals and colonels. Students, professors, and even the senate and the rector, are all alike subject to their orders and frequently to their eccentricities.

Herzen tells us of a Prince Galyzin, who, when curator of the Moscow University, issued

an order that, whenever any one of the professors should be prevented by sickness from teaching, his colleagues should all take it in turn to lecture in his stead, no matter what their specialty might be. The result was, that on one occasion a priest who taught logic was called upon to lecture on obstetrics, while at another time the celebrated accoucheur Richter was obliged to hold forth on theology. Another pious old gentleman, curator of the Kazan University, ordered that detached portions of human bodies, which had been used for the study of anatomy, should be afterward solemnly interred with funeral rites. The curators strongly disapprove of all intimacy between the students and their professors, and attach much more importance to the political ideas of the latter than to their capacities for teaching. An excellent regulation ordains that professors of universities and Government colleges should be called upon to retire after twentyfive years' service on a full-pay pension. They may, however, be reëlected for a further term of ten years, in which case they draw both their salary and their pension. This regulation has always been held out as a great inducement to men of talent and learning; and formerly the various " chairs were creditably filled. Now, however, the curator has the power of vetoing their reëlection; and this, together with the strict supervision to which they are subjected, has latterly caused a scarcity of competent professors.

The administration of the educational department has been accused, with some justice, of being more anxious to propitiate the Government of the time being than for the welfare of the youth committed to its charge. And this may in a certain measure account for the otherwise inexplicable changes which are of so frequent occurrence.

On one day privileges are withdrawn, on the next others are granted; now certain studies are specially favored, a few months subsequently entirely different ones will have the preponderance. This continual uncertainty and change have a most discouraging and irritating effect on the students. Naturally disinclined to serious study, these interruptions both confirm and excuse their natural indisposition to serious work, and it is not to be wondered at if they discuss among themselves the injustice with which they are treated. Subjected to a system of espionage, there is a risk that any unfavorable expression of opinion concerning Count Tolstoy's administration may reach his ears, in which case it will probably be looked upon as treason; and, indeed, apart from any evidence of disaffection, students are frequently expelled and even exiled, on the merest suspicion and without any hearing.

Thus, for instance, a student at the St. Petersburg University, named Organoff, was suddenly seized by night in 1876, and detained for over two years in a distant town by the police, merely because he had had the misfortune to incur the displeasure of his superiors, nor was he ever able to obtain any hearing, or even explanation of the severe treatment to which he had been subjected.

The Government, on the other hand, consider themselves justified in adopting very severe and even harsh measures in dealing with these institutions, which they regard as the very hot-bed of discontent. This has especially been the case since the trial of Netchaïeff and Solowjew brought to light the fact that at least three quarters of the Nihilist party are composed of graduates, students, and young men and women who, for one reason or another, have been unable to complete their academical career. The history of the ex-student Solowjew, who attempted to assassinate the Czar on the 2d of April last, is merely that of most Nihilists. He was the son of a poor village apothecary on one of the estates of the late Grand Duchess Helena. After spending several years at the St. Petersburg Gymnasium, he matriculated at the university, the Grand Duchess very kindly defraying all the expenses of his education; but, for some reason or other, he was obliged to leave without having completed his studies, and consequently experienced great difficulties and delays in obtaining a situation as village schoolmaster at Toropez. While there he became a convert to Nihilism, and was dismissed in 1875 for having been in communication with suspected persons. In imitation of M. Tschernyschewsky's Rakhmetoff, he now devoted his time to wandering about the country disguised as a common laborer, occasionally working at the anvil and propagating revolutionary doctrines among the people. In 1876 he married a young woman of the name of Catherine Tschelichteff merely in order to render her independent of her. parents' authority. They separated soon after the marriage, and Solowjew continued his wanderings under an assumed name till 1878, when he came to St. Petersburg and took up his abode there. He remained busily occupied in distributing Nihilist proclamations, pamphlets, and books, until April, when he made his attempt to assassinate the Czar. It may be added as characteristic of this Nihilist, who was hanged a few weeks later, that he spent the night preceding his crime in a house of ill fame.

Before proceeding further we would now draw the reader's attention to the history of Michael Bakunin, the founder of the doctrines of Nihilism, some of whose speeches we have quoted in the early part of this article.

He belonged to a rich boyard family, favorably known both at court and in the army. One of his nearest relations is at the present moment an aide-de-camp-general of the Czar, while another cousin occupied until quite recently the post of Governor-General of Eastern Siberia.

Born in 1814, Michael Bakunin, in accordance with the traditions of his family, was destined for a military career in the Imperial Guard. At the age of twenty he entered the School of Gunnery at St. Petersburg, where, however, he already began to show signs of discontent and insubordination. The consequence was that, although he passed an excellent examination, he was refused admittance into the Guards, and appointed to a line regiment quartered in some out-of-theway part of the country. In order to fully appreciate the hardship which this treatment entailed, we must explain that while the Guards are stationed at St. Petersburg and Moscow, the officers of line regiments have the prospect of spending their whole lives in some small Russian village or provincial town, Thoroughly disgusted, Bakunin now became a complete misanthrope, and neglected his military duties to such an extent that he was obliged to leave the army.

Thus he found himself, at the age of twentytwo, without any occupation or prospect in life. Taking up his abode in Moscow, he joined Alexander Herzen and several other well-known Russians in forming a club for the discussion and study of Hegel's social philosophy, which was then in vogue. He soon became the acknowledged chief of his circle, and surpassed all his friends in enthusiasm for this new German philosophy; in fact, he began to consider that it was his special mission to propagate its teaching in Russia. In 1841 he went to Berlin in order to pursue his philosophical studies at their very source. Hegel himself was already dead, but his tenets still enjoyed the utmost consideration.

Bakunin lived here for a time with the celebrated novelist, Ivan Tourgeneff; but he soon frightened all his Russian friends by the wild fanaticism with which he sought to adapt Hegel's theories to every-day life. In 1843 we find him at Dresden, writing the most rabid articles for a socialistic review, under the pseudonym of Jules Elizard. A year later he went to Paris, informing his friends that there was nothing more to learn in Germany.

Paris was then regarded as the spot whence the social reorganization of the world would originate; and Proudhon and Louis Blanc were then at their height of influence. The Russian Government, however, which had begun to look upon Bakunin with suspicion, now thought fit to request his return to Russia, and refused to renew his passports. Disregarding his recall, he

spent the next five years of his life partly in France and partly in Switzerland, dependent to a certain extent on the good will and pleasure of the police, owing to his being without papers. In 1847, however, he was formally expelled from French territory at the request of the Emperor Nicholas, in consequence of his having made a speech at a banquet on the anniversary of the Warsaw insurrection, urging the overthrow of the Czar's Government, and the establishment of a confederate republic in its place. Tracked everywhere and constantly watched by the police agents of the Russian Government, which had offered a reward of ten thousand rubles for his capture, he was forced to wander about from one place to another, until the Revolution of 1848 rendered his return to Paris possible. But he was greatly disappointed when the Provisional Government turned a deaf ear to his tempting proposals that France should take the lead in revolutionizing all Europe; and he soon received significant hints which caused him to leave France again toward the end of the year.

Proceeding to Prague he made an abortive attempt to incite the youth of that city to revolt against the Government. Pursued by the Austrian police, he escaped to Dresden, where he arrived just in time to take a very prominent part in the serious disturbances of 1849. The insurgents were in possession of the city, and only surrendered after a three days' siege to the Prussian and Saxon regular troops. Bakunin, whose proposal to set fire to the city when its defense was no longer possible had exasperated even the insurgents against him, was captured on the 10th of May, 1849, at a short distance from Chemnitz. After a year's imprisonment he was condemned to death by the Saxon court-martial. However, before the sentence could be carried into effect, the Austrian Government demanded, and obtained, his extradition. Sentenced to death a second time by the Austrian judges for his doings at Prague, he again escaped the penalty, in consequence of a request made by the Emperor Nicholas that he should be transferred to the Russian Government for punishment. From 1851 to 1856 he remained a close prisoner in the dungeons of the St. Peter and St. Paul fortress at St. Petersburg.

Owing to powerful intercession made in his behalf, Alexander, on the occasion of his coronation, commuted his punishment to banishment for life to the eastern part of Siberia. Being nearly related to Count Mouravieff, the GovernorGeneral of the province, he was treated with comparative leniency, and even allowed a certain amount of liberty on parole. In 1861 he managed to escape in an American trading schooner' to Yokohama, whence he traveled through the

United States to England. Here he was received with open arms by his former friends, Alexander Herzen, Ogareff, and the little Russian colony of political refugees established in London.

Herzen was at that time engaged in editing a Russian newspaper, called the “ Kolokol" (the Bell), directed against the despotism of the Government. The illegitimate son of a Prince Jakowleff, and possessing a large fortune, he was at all times much more moderate in his political views than Bakunin, whose twelve years of prison had only had the effect of developing more thoroughly his doctrine of universal chaos. Herzen, although what we should call an ultra-radical, was never at any time of his life an adherent to Nihilism. Notwithstanding the fact that his paper was strictly forbidden in Russia, it was extensively read and appreciated throughout the empire until the time of Bakunin's arrival in London. The coöperation of the latter in the editorship had a most injurious effect upon it. The comparatively moderate views which it had until then professed were discarded, and Nihilism and universal anarchy preached in every number. In consequence it speedily lost the consideration and influence which it had enjoyed. After taking a prominent part in the organization of the Polish insurrection of 1863, Herzen and Bakunin transferred their quarters to Geneva, where the "Kolokol" shortly afterward died a natural death. Soon after their arrival in Switzerland, Bakunin separated from his friend Herzen (who died in 1870, leaving behind him several works of much interest, which are being published by his son), and lost no time in actively interesting himself in the various European revolutionary organizations. In 1867 we find him not only a prominent member of the "Internationale," but also on the permanent committee of the "League of Universal Peace" in Switzerland. The attempts which he made to convert these two organizations to his views met with but little success, and in 1868 he was formally expelled from both associations. Thereupon he founded the "Alliance Internationale de la Révolution européenne," in connection with the Nihilist party in Russia, of which he now became the acknowledged chief. A year later we find him in personal communication with the notorious Netchaïeff, whom he ended by sending back to Russia accredited as the emissary of the chief committee of the Nihilists.

In 1870, after the fall of the empire in France, he published a pamphlet entitled "L'Empire Knouto-Germanique et la Révolution sociale," in which he summons the proletarian classes of all Europe to assist France in bringing about a social revolution, and to free her from the government which German bayonets had imposed on

her. It also advocates the dismissal of all officials, the imprisonment of all landed proprietors, capitalists, and priests, the distribution of government and private property, and concludes by recommending that all Bonapartists should be transported for life. After the publication of this piece of literature, he betook himself to Lyons, hearing that the Commune had been proclaimed in that city. He arrived there on the morning of the 20th of September, and, after having been most warmly received by Cluseret, Richard, and other Communists, assisted at the storming of the Hôtel de Ville by the insurgents.

Twenty-four hours later the National Guards had recaptured the Hôtel de Ville and dispersed the provisional government established there. Bakunin himself was conducted to the railwaystation and seated in a train which brought him back direct to Geneva. The remaining years of his life were spent between Berne, Zurich, and Geneva, and actively employed in directing the revolutionary work in Russia. He died a few months ago at Geneva, and has been succeeded, as leader of the Nihilist party, by a M. Drogomonow, who resides in the same city.

Netchaïeff, whom we have referred to in connection with Bakunin, was a déclassé student of the St. Petersburg University. In 1869 he came to Geneva, saw Bakunin, and obtained from him a card bearing the following mystic words: "Alliance révolutionnaire européene; le Comité Général, 12 mai, 1869." Armed with this document, he returned to St. Petersburg and spent the next four years in comparative ease, living at the expense of others. Russians still retain much of the Asiatic weakness for conspiracies, and Netchaïeff had only to show the card in order to be received with the utmost enthusiasm by students and the discontented youth of both sexes, who regarded him almost in the light of a supernatural being, and were ready to obey his slightest behest.

He greatly impressed them by frequently talking about his "secret chief," and succeeded in swindling many people out of large sums of money, which he demanded in the name of the revolutionary committee. Whenever there was the slightest hesitation about complying with any of his demands, he dropped hints about the deadly vengeance of the committee. In 1873 a young man of the name of Ivanoff, having declined to submit any longer to his extortions, and threatened to betray him to the police, Netchaïeff stabbed him in the back, wounding him mortally. Although he managed to escape to Zurich, the Swiss Government made no difficulty about surrendering him to the Russian authorities as a common murderer, and in 1874 he was tried with closed doors at Moscow. In consideration of the

important revelations which he was good enough to make, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life in the mines of Siberia.

According to a preconcerted arrangement, the one hundred and eighty-three persons implicated by his confessions were all seized on the same day, the 20th of May, 1875. They consisted chiefly of the sons and daughters of priests, tradespeople, Jews, and small officials, and were accused of having sought to propagate Nihilism among the lower classes of the people. Some very curious facts came to light during the trial. One of the accused, a girl named Idalia Polheim, acknowledged that she had received orders from the central committee to become the paramour of a wealthy old landed proprietor, and then to poison and rob him of his riches in favor of the cause. On another occasion the same girl had been instructed by the committee to become the mistress of a certain Larinoff, who had threatened to desert the revolutionary party. A student of the name of Ituschin also confessed that a boy at Moscow had been persuaded to murder and rob his own father, and to hand over the plunder to the committee. Some astonishment has been expressed at the large number of young girls implicated in all these Nihilist conspiricies, who seek to emulate the conduct of M. Tschernyschewsky's Vera. We would, however, remark that in Russia, as elsewhere, women are apt to rush to extremes in politics as well as in religion; with them the heart is stronger than the head.

It is greatly to be regretted that this monster trial, which lasted over eighteen months, should have taken place with open doors, for the conduct of the judges who presided was so weak, and even unseemly, that the dignity of the Court must have suffered in the eyes of the auditors.

The most extraordinary scenes were of daily occurrence. The accused were not only allowed to address the Court, but even to preach the most rampant Nihilism from the prisoners' dock. The lawyers for the defense not only seized every opportunity to vituperate the Government, and to hold up the accused as martyrs to its despotism, but also to excite the popular feeling against the gendarmerie and police, who, after all, had only obeyed orders in arresting the prisoners. On one occasion some of the counsel were even allowed to go so far as to insist on the withdrawal of an officer of the gendarmerie from the court, on the ground that "the sight of his hated uniform excited the public." The proceedings were not terminated until the month of December, 1877, when ninety-nine of the accused were sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia, thirty-six subjected to police supervision for a certain number of years, and the remainder acquitted.

The great trial was scarcely over, when the