iform--have become
the signe de ralliement. Almost all the professors and many officers
take the part of the students. The newspaper critics openly defend
their colleagues. Mikhailof has been convicted of writing, printing and
circulating one of the most violent proclamations that ever existed,
under the heading, 'To the young generation!' Among the students and the
men of letters there is unquestionably an organised conspiracy, which
has perhaps leaders outside the literary circle. . . . The police are
powerless. They arrest any one they can lay hands on. About eighty
people have already been sent to the fortress and examined, but all this
leads to no practical result, because the revolutionary ideas have taken
possession of all classes, all ages, all professions, and are publicly
expressed in the streets, in the barracks, and in the Ministries. I
believe the police itself is carried away by them! What this will lead
to, it is difficult to predict. I am very much afraid of some bloody
catastrophe. Even if it should not go to such a length immediately, the
position of the Government will be extremely difficult. Its authority
is shaken, and all are convinced that it is powerless, stupid and
incapable. On that point there is the most perfect unanimity among
all parties of all colours, even the most opposite. The most desperate
'planter'* agrees in that respect with the most desperate socialist.
Meanwhile those who have the direction of affairs do almost nothing and
have no plan or definite aim in view. At present the Emperor is not in
the Capital, and now, more than at any other time, there is complete
anarchy in the absence of the master of the house. There is a great deal
of bustle and talk, and all blame they know not whom."**

* An epithet commonly applied, at the time of the
Emancipation, to the partisans of serfage and the defenders
of the proprietors' rights.

** I found this interesting letter (which might have been
written today) thirty years ago among the private papers of
Nicholas Milutin, who played a leading part as an official
in the reforms of the time. It was first published in an
article on "Secret Societies in Russia," which I contributed
to the Fortnightly Review of 1st August, 1877.

The expected revolution did not take place, but timid people had no
difficulty in perceiving signs of its approach. The Press continued
to disseminate, under a more or less