Dr. Francis on Russian Conditions

Dr. A. Francis, D.D., of England, who has been the pastor of the Anglo-American Church in St., Petersburg for the past 14 years, and who has been intimately connected with Russian court circles, gave an interesting lecture in the New Lecture Hall last night on "The Political Conditions in Russia."

Dr. Francis, defending the position taken by the government, presented the problem of Russian conditions from a point of view opposite to that of Aladyin and Tschaykovsky, who spoke in the Union about two weeks ago. He said that the Russian people had just awakened from a period of inertia, and a flush of activity is now passing over them: but it is difficult to find any moral or intellectual impulse in this activity. On the country, licentiousness and gambling were never more prevalent. The great cry of the people has been for more land, but it is a well-known fact, that the land already possessed by the peasants is very rarely cultivated sufficiently to support them. Violences have occurred, quite as much on the part of the people as on the part of the government, and these actions have been among the most valuable assets of the government.

The defeat by Japan opened the eyes of the Russian aristocracy and led them to consider the introduction of foreign governmental institutions, like those of England and France. The first Douma was the greatest concession of the government, but it was too great an opening for the peasants. The peasants had been restrained all their lives by the government, and upon receiving the opportunity of freedom, as it may be called, they carried its privileges to a great excess. Now it is the endeavor of the government to get the peasant back to his original state, and let him out of his confinement by gradual stages, but the step which has been taken cannot now be retracted; the peasants will never relinquish the small claims to freedom which they have obtained.

One of the great elements in the degradation and violence of the Russian people has been the excessive taste for liquor, even among what should be the hardy element of the population. In all the struggles the people will be at a continual disadvantage, having poor equipment and no unity or confidence in each other. The political advancement of the people can be attained only by moral education, and while this is being fostered, the population must be held in check by the aristocracy.