Lesbia Newman (1889)/Chapter 25
CHAPTER XXV.
Another Victim of Juggernaut.
Although Lady Humnoddie’s regular receptions were on Fridays, she was glad to see any old friends who chose to come in to tea on Sundays; and this eventful week our heroine and her uncle found her alone about half-past five. The conversation, of course, turned upon the Cabinet Council.
‘They won’t do anything, bless you, Mr Bristley,’ she said, in reply to a question of his; ‘it'll all end in smoke, you'll see. We shall never fight for Afghanistan,—had enough of that hornet’s nest; and, after all, Afghanistan is not India. If the Afghans like the Russians for masters, I don’t see what we can do to prevent their having them.’
‘What’s up now, I wonder?’ said Lesbia, going to the window. ‘What a row the newsmen are making down the street! What can they have got hold of on Sunday afternoon? Surely not the result of the Cabinet Council already?’
‘Throw the sash wider open, Lesbie,’ said the marchioness; ‘some humbug, I suppose; but let’s hear.’
The men came within hearing, selling copies of a new Sunday halfpenny sheet at every area railing.
‘Telltale, special! Telltale! Assassination of the Emperor of Russia by ladies of the Court! Full particulars! Telltale, special! Telltale!’
‘Good heavens, how horrible!’ exclaimed Lady Humnoddie, ringing the bell. ‘Get one of those papers, please;’ and the servant re-appeared with one in half a minute, and handed it to her.
‘Can it be true? the Emperor shot dead in the throng of a summer festive gathering, by two Nihilists, ladies in the Empress’ suite! The assassins not yet arrested! What dreadful days we live in!’
‘I am very grieved to hear it,’ said Lesbia. ‘Poor Czar! Pity the sorrows of a despotic monarch! And so useless to the cause of freedom! They'll only put up another in his place, perhaps a more tyrannical one.’
‘There is no proof that any of the modern Czars have been personally tyrannical,’ said Mr Bristley, recovering from his amazement at the tragic news; ‘they have probably been the tools of an interested clique, and this is how they have to pay the penalty for a system into which they have been born and bred, and from which it is hard for them to escape. What a pity it is! Give me any respectable place in the world rather than that of a Russian emperor; but if I were one, I would infinitely rather take my chance of being murdered by my own rascally underlings than go about in perpetual fear of those who can pose before the world as the champions and martyrs of popular liberty. I would adopt Garibaldi’s motto, ‘Se cadro, cadro da fute, il mio novue resteia.’ How much better, how much more satisfactory to heart and conscience, to incur personal danger in the cause of reforms, which would draw together prince and subjects, and win for my country the confidence and approbation of Europe, than to incur it by perseverance in courses which have the very opposite of those effects!’
‘It’s very sad,’ said Lady Humnoddie; ‘but as for that, I fancy the Panslavonic party in Russia hold that the territorial expansion of the country cannot reach its proper limits except under the autocracy.’
‘Then how comes it,’ asked Mr Bristley, facing her full, ‘that constitutional and democratic England has accomplished her territorial expansion all round the globe? It has come to pass because the faculty of such expansion depends upon the character of a people, and not upon its form of government. But you mistake me if you imagine I am inveighing against the Russian autocracy. On the contrary, I believe there is very much to be said for it, or would be, if only the despotic monarch sat enthroned above a European constitution, instead of above a barbarous and corrupt bureaucracy. ‘The imperial prerogative and veto might be the final appeal from the laws even of a thoroughly republican constitution; and a good despotism of this sort would have many and obvious advantages over a simple republic. But the links of a constitution are indispensable, in order to connect the monarch with his people. The Russians themselves, I believe, have a saying, ‘Heaven is high, and the Czar is far off.’ He ought not to be far off; and the practical way of bringing him near is to create a constitution whereby genuine, not manufactured, public opinion may reach his ear.’
‘Meanwhile, I wonder how this will affect the foreign policy of Russia,’ said Lady Humnoddie thoughtfully. ‘Will it make for peace or war?’
‘For war, I fear,’ said Lesbia, to the surprise of both the others. ‘Murder does not bring good, and perhaps the Conservative party in Russia may prefer the risks of war abroad to those of revolution at home.’
‘Yes, if they can choose between them,’ said the Marchioness. ‘But they might get both.’
‘So might we,’ rejoined Lesbia.