fare of their country no longer rests upon an inviolable
constitution, but upon the caprice of the ministers.

In 1898 the reactionists succeeded in getting one of their tools
appointed as Governor-General. No sooner had General Bobrikoff taken
his high office than he declared that the Finnish right to separate
political existence was an illusion; that there was no substantial
foundation for it in any of the acts or words of Alexander I. The
people were amazed, appalled. But this was not all. Pobiedonostseff,
the Procurator of the Holy Synod, and other men as reactionary as he,
discovered the fact, or gave birth to the idea, that the fundamental
rights of Finland could be interfered with if these fundamental rights
interfered with the welfare of the Russian Empire. In other words, they
discovered a loophole which they termed legal, on the principle that
the parts should suffer for the whole, and that this principle was an
integral part of the plan of Russian government.

The abrogation of maintenance of Finland's ancient rights would seem by
this decision to rest on the arbitrary interpretation on the part of
Russia as to whether or not they interfered with the welfare of the
empire. It is possible that, according to the individual opinions of
Russian autocrats, they might all interfere with the standard of
welfare which certain individuals have arbitrarily established to fit
the occasion.

In justice to the Russian Government it should be stated, however, that
the joy of persecution was not the motive which led to the arbitrary
acts. During the time that Finland was under Swedish control, the Finns
had learned to dislike everything Russian. These anti-Russian
tendencies were accentuated, after Finland became an appanage of the
Russian crown, by the restrictive and often reactionary policy of the
Imperial Government. Such a form of government was repugnant to the
Finns, who had learned to be governed by good laws well administered,
and by an enlightened public opinion. At the same time, owing to their
larger liberties, their higher culture, and their susceptibility to
western ideals, the Finns exerted an attractive influence over the
peoples of the Baltic provinces, and even of Russia proper. A Finn
would very seldom become Russianized, while many Russians became
Finnicized. Unlike his Russian brother, the Finn enjoyed the privileges
of free conscience, free speech, and free press.

To the average Russian such a lif