nalist Conservatives.
Nay, more than that, all the races of Russia understood that a challenge
had been thrown out to Russia by Germany that morally compelled her, in
the interests of the whole and of the various parts, to forget for the
time all quarrels and grievances.

This showed itself in the most natural and inevitable way with the
Poles, of whose national culture Germanism is the sworn foe. The
well-known manifesto of the Commander in Chief did not awake this
feeling among the Poles of Russia, but simply met it and gave it
support. Equally natural and elemental was the patriotic outburst that
spread among the Jews of Russia. In their case the political and social
Radicalism which we always find in the Jews turned by some sound
instinct against German militarism, which had shown itself the chief
cause and occasion of a world catastrophe.

The German declaration of war on Russia at once dispersed all doubts and
hesitations in the many millions of the population of the Russian
Empire. Some may put in the forefront of this war the struggle with the
uncivilizing militarism of Prussia. Others may see in it, above all
things, a struggle for the national principle and for the inured rights
of nationalities--Serbians, Poles, and Belgians. Others, again, see in
the war the only means of securing the peaceful future of Russia and her
allies from the extravagant pretensions of Germany. But all alike feel
that this war is a great, popular, liberating work, which starts a new
epoch in the history of the world. Thus the war against united Germany
and Austria-Hungary has become in Russia a truly national war. That is
the enormous difference between it and the war with Japan, whose
political grounds and objects, apart from self-defense against a hostile
attack, were alien to the public conscience.

There is one other consideration which cannot be passed over in silence.
In Russia many are convinced, and others instinctively feel, that a
victorious war will contribute to the internal recovery and regeneration
of the State. Many barriers have already fallen, national and political
feuds have been softened, new conditions are being created for the
mutual relations of the people and the Government. There is every reason
to think that some members of the Government--unfortunately, it is true,
not all--have understood that at the present time of complete national
union many of the old methods of administration and all the old
Govern