many it is impossible to say;
between the various estimates there is an enormous discrepancy. At one
of the first volleys Father Gapon fell, but he turned out to be quite
unhurt, and was spirited away to his place of refuge, whence he escaped
across the frontier.

As soon as he had an opportunity of giving public expression to his
feelings, he indulged in very strong language. In his letters and
proclamations the Tsar is called a miscreant and an assassin, and is
described as traitorous, bloodthirsty, and bestial. To the ministers
he is equally uncomplimentary. They appear to him an accursed band of
brigands, Mamelukes, jackals, monsters. Against the Tsar, "with his
reptilian brood," and the ministers alike, he vows vengeance--"death
to them all!" As for the means for realising his sacred mission, he
recommends bombs, dynamite, individual and wholesale terrorism, popular
insurrection, and paralysing the life of the cities by destroying the
water-mains, the gas-pipes, the telegraph and telephone wires, the
railways and tram-ways, the Government buildings and the prisons. At
some moments he seems to imagine himself invested with papal powers, for
he anathematises the soldiers who did their duty on the eventful day,
whilst he blesses and absolves from their oath of allegiance those who
help the nation to win liberty.

So far I have spoken merely of the main currents in the revolutionary
movement. Of the minor currents--particularly those in the outlying
provinces, where the Socialist tendencies were mingled with nationalist
feeling--I shall have occasion to speak when I come to deal with the
present political situation as a whole. Meanwhile, I wish to sketch in
outline the foreign policy which has powerfully contributed to bring
about the present crisis.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND FOREIGN POLICY

Rapid Growth of Russia--Expansive Tendency of Agricultural Peoples--The
Russo-Slavonians--The Northern Forest and the Steppe--Colonisation--The
Part of the Government in the Process of Expansion--Expansion towards
the West--Growth of the Empire Represented in a Tabular Form--Commercial
Motive for Expansion--The Expansive Force in the Future--Possibilities
of Expansion in Europe--Persia, Afghanistan, and India--Trans-Siberian
Railway and Weltpolitik--A Grandiose Scheme--Determined Opposition of
Japan--Negotiations and War--Russia's Imprudence Explained--Conclusion.

The rapid growth of Russia is one