hang a hundred of the Duma”; and this attitude is entirely in keeping with their stubborn disregard of countless warnings and appeals, not merely from loyal subjects, but also from numerous members of the Imperial house itself. If ever a dethronement was the result of a monarch’s own blindness it was so in the case of Nicholas II, and his consort. And that is why we protest most vigorously against the idea that they should be allowed to come to England during the war. Their presence would be a perennial source of friction between the British and Russian peoples, and is highly to be deprecated in the interest of the dynastic principle in our own country. If the Russians like to send them to Denmark, that is another matter.
A word of caution is needed with regard to the position of the Orthodox Church. In the religious, as in the political, sphere the revolution may be expected to have a cleansing effect. The Holy Synod has been put under the control of M. Lvov, a prominent Churchman whose dignified speeches in the Duma aroused considerable attention at the height of the reaction. Rasputin’s nominees—such as the Bishop of Tobolsk—are being dismissed, and men of high character and enlightenment appointed. The Synod has struck a reassuring note in its first message: “The fall of the old Government is the work of God, in whose hands is the fate of kingdoms and nations.” The proclamation of liberty of worship by the new Government will doubtless put an end to the intolerance and proselytism which disfigured the Russian occupation of Galicia and caused such alarm in Catholic circles. This is certain to react upon the movement for Slav solidarity and strengthen still further the enthusiasm of the oppressed Slavs of Austria-Hungary for Russia.
A Philosophy of Pacifism
Principles of Social Reconstruction: Bertrand Russell. 1916. (Allen & Unwin.)
Mr. Russell’s book contains a good deal of common sense, along with deep thinking about war and permanent peace; but it is his common sense rather than his philosophy that will impress both the general public and the specialists. Mr. Russell is a pacifist, but, like almost all pacifists, he deprecates Utopias. He also denounces those pacifists who naïvely
342
