d, and among these errors
he places, in the first rank, the views and principles of the advanced
Liberals, who have a blind admiration for Western Europe, and for what
they are pleased to call the results of science. Like the Liberals of
the West, these gentlemen assume that the best form of government is
constitutionalism, monarchical or republican, on a broad democratic
basis, and towards the realisation of this ideal all their efforts
are directed. Not so our Conservative friend. While admitting that
democratic Parliamentary institutions may be the best form of government
for the more advanced nations of the West, he maintains that the only
firm foundation for the Russian Empire, and the only solid guarantee
of its future prosperity, is the Autocratic Power, which is the sole
genuine representative of the national spirit. Looking at the past from
this point of view, he perceives that the Tsars have ever identified
themselves with the nation, and have always understood, in part
instinctively and in part by reflection, what the nation really
required. Whenever the infiltration of Western ideas threatened to swamp
the national individuality, the Autocratic Power intervened and averted
the danger by timely precautions. Something of the kind may be observed,
he believes, at present, when the Liberals are clamouring for a
Parliament and a Constitution; but the Autocratic Power is on the alert,
and is making itself acquainted with the needs of the people by means
far more effectual than could be supplied by oratorical politicians.

With the efforts of the Zemstvo in this direction, and with the activity
of the Zemstvo generally, the Prince has little sympathy, partly because
the institution is in the hands of the Liberals and is guided by
their unpractical ideas, and partly because it enables some ambitious
outsiders to acquire the influence in local affairs which ought to be
exercised by the old-established noble families of the neighbourhood.
What he would like to see is an enlightened, influential gentry working
in conjunction with the Autocratic Power for the good of the country. If
Russia could produce a few hundred thousand men like himself, his ideal
might perhaps be realised. For the present, such men are extremely
rare--I should have difficulty in naming a dozen of them--and
aristocratic ideas are extremely unpopular among the great majority of
the educated classes. When a Russian indulges in political speculation,