y might incite the Japanese to active resistance,
but Japan would not commit the insane folly of challenging her
giant rival to mortal combat. The whole question could be settled in
accordance with Russian interests, as so many similar questions had been
settled in the past, by a little skilful diplomacy; and Manchuria could
be absorbed, as the contiguous Chinese provinces had been forty years
ago, without the necessity of going to war.

When these comforting illusions were suddenly destroyed by the rupture
of diplomatic relations and the naval attack on Port Arthur, there was
an outburst of indignant astonishment. At first the indignation was
directed against Japan and England, but it soon turned against the home
Government, which had made no adequate preparations for the struggle,
and it was intensified by current rumours that the crisis had been
wantonly provoked by certain influential personages for purely personal
reasons.

How far the accounts of the disorders in the military organisation and
the rumours about pilfering in high quarters were true, we need not
inquire. True or false, they helped greatly to make the war unpopular,
and to stimulate the desire for political changes. Under a more liberal
and enlightened regime such things were supposed to be impossible, and,
as at the time of the Crimean War, public opinion decided that autocracy
was being tried, and found wanting.

So long as the stern, uncompromising Plehve was at the Ministry of the
Interior, enjoying the Emperor's confidence and directing the police
administration, public opinion was prudent and reserved in its
utterances, but when he was assassinated by a terrorist (July 28th,
1904), and was succeeded by Prince Sviatopolk Mirski, a humane man of
Liberal views, the Constitutionalists thought that the time had come for
making known their grievances and demands, and for bringing pressure
to bear on the Emperor. First came forward the leading members of the
Zemstvos. After some preliminary consultation they assembled in St.
Petersburg, with the consent of the authorities, in the hope that they
would be allowed to discuss publicly the political wants of the
country, and prepare the draft of a Constitution. Their wishes were
only partially acceded to. They were informed semi-officially that their
meetings must be private, but that they might send their resolutions
to the Minister of the Interior for transmission to his Majesty. A
memorandum was accor