interpreted against certain sins in modern politics. The
corruption system in Russia is old, organized, and respectable. Stories
told of Russian bribes and thefts exceed belief only until one has been
on the ground.

Nicholas began well. He made an imperial progress to Odessa, was
welcomed in the morning by the governor in full pomp and robes and flow
of smooth words; and at noon the same governor was working in the
streets with ball and chain as a convict. But against such a chronic
moral evil no government is so weak as your so-called "strong"
government. Nicholas set out one day for the Kronstadt arsenals to look
into the accounts there; but before he reached them, stores,
storehouses, and account-books were in ashes. So at last Nicholas folded
his arms and wrestled no more. For, apart from the trouble, there came
ever in his dealings with thieves that old timid thought of his, that,
if he examined too closely their chief tenure, they might examine too
closely his despot tenure.

We have shown this vague fear in Nicholas's mind thus at length and in
different workings, because thereby alone can be grasped the master-key
to his dealings with the serf system. Toward his toiling millions
Nicholas always showed sympathy. Let news of a single wrong to a serf
get through the hedges about the Russian majesty, and woe to the guilty
master! Many of these wrongs came to Nicholas's notice; and he came to
hate the system, and tried to undermine it. Opposition met him, of
course; not so much the ponderous laziness of Peter's time as an
opposition, polite and elastic, which never ranted and never stood
up--for then Nicholas would have throttled it and stamped upon it. But
it did its best to entangle his reason and thwart his action. He was
told that the serfs were well-fed, well-housed, well-clothed,
well-provided with religion; were contented, and had no wish to leave
their owners.

Now Nicholas was not strong at spinning sham reasons nor subtle at
weaving false conscience; but, to his mind, the very fact that the
system had so degraded a man that he could laugh and dance and sing,
while other men took his wages, his wife, and homestead, was the
crowning argument against the system. Then the political economists
beset him, proving that without forced labor Russia must sink into sloth
and poverty.

Yet all this could not shut out from Nicholas's sight the great black
fact in the case. He saw, and winced as he saw, that, while