a time in their country houses, while the more active
revolutionaries were exiled, imprisoned, or compelled to take refuge
abroad. All this gave the police a good deal of trouble, especially when
the Nihilists took to Socialist propaganda among the common people, and
to acts of terrorism against the officials; but the existence of the
Autocratic Power was never seriously endangered. Nowadays the Liberals
have no fear of official reprimands, and openly disregard the orders
of the authorities about holding meetings and making speeches, while a
large section of the Socialists proclaim themselves a Social Democratic
party, enrol large numbers of working men, organise formidable strikes,
and make monster demonstrations leading to bloodshed.

Let us now examine this new Opposition a little more closely. We can
perceive at a glance that it is composed of two sections, differing
widely from each other in character and aims. On the one hand, there
are the Liberals, who desire merely political reforms of a more or less
democratic type; on the other, there are the Socialists, who aim at
transforming thoroughly the existing economic organisation of Society,
and who, if they desire parliamentary institutions at all, desire them
simply as a stepping stone to the realisation of the Socialist ideal.
Behind the Socialists, and to some extent mingling with them, stand a
number of men belonging to the various subject-nationalities, who have
placed themselves under the Socialist banner, but who hold, more or
less concealed, their little national flags, ready to be unfurled at the
proper moment.

Of these three sections of the Opposition, the most numerous and
the best prepared to undertake the functions and responsibilities of
government is that of the Liberals. The movement which they represent
began immediately after the Crimean War, when the upper ranks of
society, smarting under defeat and looking about for the cause of the
military disasters, came to the conclusion that Autocracy had been
put to a crucial test, and found wanting. The outburst of patriotic
indignation at that time and the eager desire for a more liberal regime
have been described in previous chapters. For a moment the more sanguine
critics of the Government imagined that the Autocratic Power, persuaded
of its own inefficiency, would gladly accept the assistance of the
educated classes, and would spontaneously transform itself into
a Constitutional Monarchy. In realit