compared to which Louis XIV.'s treat- that hinder its accomplishment sorely To ment of the Huguenots was humane. try his temper. Thus, shortly after he And firmly convinced that all these acts had ascended the throne he summoned are the embodiment of the will of the his finance minister, Bunge, and desired Almighty, his astonishment is extreme him to draw up a decree ordering the at the indignation they arouse in the paper rouble to be treated in future as very people who approve the severity the exact equivalent of the gold rouble. of Saul and laud the obedience of M. Bunge replied that that was imposAbraham. sible. "Not if I expressly command it, These symptoms may be character- and am prepared to abide by all the istic of religious mania or political folly; consequences," urged the emperor. but those English apologists of the czar this M. Bunge offered a respectful rewho warmly approve autocracy in a ply, followed by an explanation which country where it is alleged to be insep-bristled with technical terms that anarable from theocracy, are surely bound gered the monarch as O'Connell's to accept the natural consequences, and hypothenuses and isosceles triangles are put out of court when they appear roused the ire of the Dublin fishwoman. there to object or complain. What At last he could endure it no longer, Moses and Joshua accomplished for the children of Israel, the czar is striving to effect for the people of Russia; and if he be fully persuaded—and of the sincerity of his conviction there cannot be the shadow of a doubt that he is but an instrument in the hands of God himself, then logic compels us either to approve the policy of the ruler, or to condemn the entire system of government in these respects. Alexander III. is not one whit less obedient to the voice of his conscience than was Arch-siderations." bishop Laud or Oliver Cromwell. and summarily dismissing his minister, exclaimed, "Send me a man who can talk Russian." Whereupon M. Ostroffsky, the brother of the playwright, was deputed to give his Majesty a lesson in elementary finance. On another occasion, when a measure which he suggested was objected to by his minister on the ground that it would depreciate the value of the rouble, he scornfully replied: "I am not a stockbroker; I care nothing for such mercantile con In a thousand other cases this desire to exercise the power Having taken his religious role thus he possesses manifests itself in acts seriously, the czar has always consis- some of which appear overbearing or tently endeavored, as far as possible, to childish. In 1888 he made a trip from hold the reins of power in his own Batoum in a steamer commanded by hands, and to confine the activity of his Captain Radloff, whom he interrogated ministers to formulating his wishes in as to the rate of speed and the probable technical language, and to setting in number of hours needed to complete the motion the usual machinery for execut- trip. "Now I want to reach my desing his commands. Although this, if tination," said the czar authoritatively, feasible, would entail many serious"in so and so many hours. Do you inconveniences, it would confer an ines- translate that into steam and steering." timable boon upon the bulk of his peo-"If the steamer were as obedient as I ple, seeing that in Russia the abuse of am, your Majesty," returned the capdelegated authority reaches beyond the tain, "there would be no difficulty; but Hercules' Pillars of the endurable. The the fact is the boilers Here the sun itself never burns so terribly as the emperor turned angrily on his heel and arid sand it heats, and the blind fury of left the captain to finish the sentence to a John the Terrible is more endurable the waves. and less pernicious to the people at large than the continual exactions and interested zeal of a million greedy officials. But the plan is absolutely impracticable, and some of the obstacles The result of this direct interference of the emperor in the conduct of affairs was especially visible during the early years of his reign, when contradictory measures followed each other in rapid which the German statesman now attributes a very different origin. Even in the present conjuncture of affairs, no one who knows the emperor would credit him with the serious intention of entering into a formal alliance with France, detailed reports of which periodically fill the columns of the daily succession, like the raindrops in a trop- and smoothed the way for anarchy. ical downpour, bewildering and demor- This loathing for socialism, democracy, alizing the people. In the Foreign and anarchy is the true explanation of Office, as the least technical department his friendship for Prince Bismarck, to of the administration, his personal influence has been most direct, personal, and beneficial. The will of this one man, opposed by his courtiers, his officers, and his favorite journalists, is the only barrier that stands between Europe and a sanguinary war. But to him this war is a ghastly reality, all the horrors of which rise up before him at mere sound press. Circumstances may induce him, of the name; and he feels a much stronger aversion to contribute, directly or indirectly, to provoke it than even to incur the danger involved in mounting a spirited young charger. Too much should not, however, be hoped from his prejudice or his moderation. No barriers would hold out for a moment against the tide of conscientious conviction or the revealed commands of religion; and the will of an individual so amenable to suggestion, and whose armed millions stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start, is not a rock to build castles on. No more striking instance of the ease with which he subordinates his will to that of Heaven could be desired than the suddenness with which, although favorably disposed to the Baltic provinces, and positively charmed with the Finns, he preferred the higher interests of patriotism and "religion" to the promptings of his heart and the dictates of common justice, and set about Russifying and converting these populations. Another equally instructive instance is afforded by the gradual drifting of his foreign policy into a direction diametrically opposed to his own most cherished wishes. While devoid of active sympathy for the German people, and keenly appreciative of all that is attractive in the character of the French, Alexander III. would infinitely rather see Russia a member of a Triple or a Quadruple Alliance composed of monarchs pledged to crush the hydra of democracy, infidelity, and socialism, than to afford the slightest support, military or moral, to a government which has banished religion from the State, much against his will, to co-operate with the Republic in the coming war, and everything points unmistakably in that direction at present; but he is firmly resolved not to enter into a political mariage de convenance which he abhors, and to avail himself, in order to remove the necessity for contracting such an alliance, of the first opportunity that offers. The bane of the emperor's character is his irresistible propensity to judge by categories, which unfortunately does not bring with it a capacity for rising up to the level of noble, universal ideas. These categories usurp the place of the concrete ideas of experience and warp his judgment of men and things. They remind one of the white circles chalked upon the floor which keep the foolish hen for a time imprisoned as effectually as an iron cage. A man to him is not so much Count X. or Mr. P. as a Liberal, a Nihilist, a "scurvy Jew," an honest man, a patriot, a zealous member of the Orthodox Church. To the czar most words are polarized, and that individual must be an utter stranger to his Majesty's character, or else a hopeless imbecile, who could not contrive to prejudice his mind against the apostles themselves were they to be found preaching in his dominions or to inspire him with a spark of sympathy for Auld Nickie Ben. But underneath all the idiosyncrasies of the individual lie the characteristics of the race which stamp the emperor as a man of his time and country. And the knowledge of this fact should have moderated the zeal of his English apologists and deterred them from setting over one hundred million human souls and bodies. The judgment of the historian who weighs motives as well as acts will be indulgent to the man; but what must be the feelings of his people who, having analyzed the principles and examined the conduct of the monarch, descry nothing in either calculated to dart E. B. LANIN. him up as a paragon of morality whom | strychnine for sulphonal, his conscieneven Nonconformists could consistently tiousness will not avail to save his vichonor. His ethics require to be gauged tims. And the czar's victims number by a very different standard. His most intimate companion is General Tsherevin, a sour-visaged, red-faced officer, who represents his master at Church ceremonies, funerals, and other" functions," and against whose example the very cornet of the Line inveighs without even lowering his voice. Now it is impossible to pass over onions without smelling of them, says the Arabic prov- A beam of hope athwart the future years? erb, and General Tsherevin's influence upon the czar cannot truthfully be termed beneficial. Less insuperable difficulties in the way of the emperor's enthusiastic apologists are his vindictiveness and unforgiving temper which were manifested on many memorable occasions, but seldom more strikingly than in a needless aggravation of the condign punishment which he meted out to his intimate friend and comrade, Prince Baratinsky. And it should not be forgotten that the sandal-tree when rubbed or cut does not emit the odor of the skunk, nor is a vengeful disposition the outcome of any moral virtue. From Macmillan's Magazine. THE SAND-WALKER OF ABBLESEY. I. ON the north side of the village of Abblesey there is a high, rocky promontory of dark sandstone against which the sea frets itself whatever the state of the tide; but southward from the little harbor the cliffs are low and the beach flat, and at low tide a vast bare waste of sand and shingle stretches away as far as the eye can reach. In truth, his morality is emotional; That beach has always been and will and when his feelings have been worked always be a desert. Our centuries of upon by any strong impressions or im- civilization have had no effect upon it, pulses — fondness for his children, for except to produce now and again a little instance — they are capable of swamp-foul flotsam. It slowly shifts its posiing his ethics and leaving him stranded tion as the sea washes away the land, upon the quicksands of moral laxity. but its character is unaltered and unOne may fancy to oneself with a smile, alterable. It is more waste and inhosthe emperor modestly refusing the prof-pitable than the sea itself. The rich, fered and uncoveted title of Puritan, habitable land beyond it is all claimed with the remark that to have deserved and there is none vacant, but this is an it one should at least have been a strict unknown wilderness that mocks at huobserver of the Ten Commandments, man pretensions. No man cares to and his English apologists insisting enter upon it, save for very strong with a respectful bow: "But your Maj- cause. Ugly mud banks spread over it esty has demonstrated the contrary. in some places, and in others there are Whatever his faults and virtues, Alex-even quicksands. Long, deep waterander III. has made, and still continues pools, known to the fishermen as gyles, to make, deep impressions in the sands reveal themselves unexpectedly beof Russian history, and mountains of tween high banks of sand, which when the displaced particles have covered up the tide is rising may prove death-traps venerable monuments, buried honest for the lonely wanderer. pilgrims, and worked incalculable harm Therefore people whose business lies to the nation at large. In all this he is southward from Abblesey always choose well-meaning and conscientious; but, the path which runs along the edge of like the apothecary who should dispense the cliff and abandon the beach to the coastguardsman on duty or to the soli- | edge," answered the first speaker. tary fisherman in search of bait, and" And I'll warrant there's been many you might wander over it for miles another that I haven't kept reckon on. without seeing any sign of life, except | And besides that, he got thirty or forty sea-birds; for the clayey cliffs on one all to himself when the great passenger side are just high enough to shut out boat was sunk off the Dollies." any view of the inside country, and on the other is nothing but the turbid 'waters of a shallow sea. You could scarcely imagine a more dispiriting scene. "Curious how he snuffs 'em out, him and his dog," remarked another. Meanwhile the object of their conversation had nearly reached the town. Ay, no doubt of it now," said Jim. Yet there was one man who from "He's passed the Sar' and Ann, and 's choice spent nearly the whole of his life going straight for the coastguard staamid this desolation, until he became as tion. No mistaking what that means.” savage and desolate as the waste over The man's road lay close past the which he walked. This man was Con- lifeboat-house. As he approached it, ger the Sand-walker, a man at whom the fishermen withdrew awkwardly to all the good folk of Abblesey looked the furthest corner of the building and askance. He was not a native of Abblesey. Whence he came no one knew; it was only known that for the last thirty years or more he had lived in the cuddy of an old, unclaimed fishing-boat which was drawn up above high-water mark just beyond the village, and that during all that time he had gone in all weathers twice each day along the south shore, closer under the shelter of its master's searching among the unwholesome leav-legs as they passed. ings of the ebb-tide there. If you had listened to the conversation of a little knot of fishermen as they loitered sheltering behind the Abblesey lifeboat-house one stormy day in the autumn, you would have learned something about this man and his ways, and would have understood better why people disliked him and shunned him. They were watching his movements on the beach away in the distance, and making comments upon them. Sure enough he has," said one broad-chested fellow to the others. "He'd never come straight for the town like that if he hadn't, and that devil's whelp of his would never stick so close to his heels." •You're right, Jim," remarked another, after a careful scrutiny of the distant figure. "He's turning aside for nought, and that isn't his usual way when he's out yonder. I wonder who the poor chap'll be." "How many'll that make ?" asked a third. "Over a score odd ones to my knowl were suddenly all intent on scanning the horizon. Not one of them cared to face the old man or to meet his eye. He, on his part, noticed the movement, and grinned maliciously, as if he found some savage amusement in their behavior; but the poor mongrel which followed him drew up sideways still They were indeed a miserable pair, this dog and man. There was something so unclean and repulsive about them, that the feeling of pity which one should have felt for such wretchedness was choked. The man looked less than human, and the brute looked more than dog. If he had stood upright, the man would have been tall, but his back was so arched that the line of his shoulders ran quite horizontal. Yet this stoop seemed to be the result of habit and not of actual deformity; and you felt in looking down on him that he might at any moment suddenly rise up quite above you. In walking, his face with its long, grizzled beard hung vertically at right angles to his shoulders. His dull, glaring eyes and long, sharp nose were almost the only features not hidden under the tangle of his hair and beard. As he moved stealthily forward with head well in advance, you saw at once why the Abblesey folk, finding him nameless, had given him the name of the most evil-looking of fishes. As for the dog, it had "mongrel" written large in every feature, from the halo of | else except Mother Harmby, the neighhair round its shapeless black muzzle to bors would doubtless have resented the the bald tip of its thin, bare tail. But, kindness shown to him as a personal unlike its master, there was no fierce- insult to them all. But every one knew ness about it, nothing to be afraid of. that Mother Harmby could no more It had that look of depressed endurance help being kind, even to this most of a hopeless fate which tempts the evil-wretched being, than she could help minded to the throwing of stones. Men living. She was one of those largewho were afraid of the master, revenged themselves upon the dog. bodied, large-hearted creatures whose sympathies seem wide enough to embrace the whole of creation. Being the childless wife of a sailor she lived much alone, but was never lonely. Her husband was mate on a large barque, sailing on year-long voyages from one of the great ports to the north, and his visits home were short and far between; but he never failed to send his wife a fair share of his earnings, and she cherished his memory and forgave Such were the pair that went past the lifeboat-house and made their way to the coastguard station. What their business there was, the fishermen had well divined. They had found one more dead body on the shore, and the Conger had gone to report it and lay claim to the reward of five shillings which was paid on such occasions. It was business they had become well accustomed to, and no wonder the fisher-him his faults. The children she had men should hate the sight of them. It born had all died in infancy, and she was not a pleasant thing to know that if sought to fill the void in her life by her any mishap occurred to you out there care for other people's families and on the treacherous sea and you went affairs, and took the whole village for below, it would almost certainly fall to her family circle. The Abblesey folk your lot sooner or later to be dragged recognized this and always called her up out of reach of the tide by this old" Mother." Their respect for her was man, and that he would glare with his unbounded, and when her strong voice dull eye into your sodden face to see was heard in expostulation or command who you were, and would chuckle and it was rarely raised in vain. laugh when he found that it was really Therefore it was indeed fortunate for you, you who had never taken the the old Sand-walker that Mother Harmtrouble to conceal your hatred of him, by was his friend. As matters stood and had yet come to him at the last and between them she was practically the all unwillingly done him a great kind-only means of communication which ness. The dog would find you first, perhaps, and would run his hairy muzzle over your face, and then yelp for his master to come. Can you wonder when you think of it, that the fishermen of Abblesey should hate the sight of the Conger and his dog? Yet, in spite of all, this miserable man was not entirely friendless. There was one woman in the town to whom he could turn without being rebuffed, and to whom he could also safely look both for food and for protection. And it was fortunate for him that the influence of this his one friend was great among her neighbors, for through her intervention he was saved from more serious persecution than that he already underwent. If it had been any one the old man had with his race, the only one in the village who would approach him or allow his approach. The manner of their communion was curious and characteristic. Every day, when the rising tide had driven him from the beach, the Sand-walker stole up the road on the outskirts of the village which led past her gate, always as if his going that way had been quite casual. He did not even look towards the house, but Mother Harmby knew when to expect him, and he rarely failed as he passed the gate to hear her cheery voice calling to him to stop. Then he stood waiting, looking away from her out over the open sea, until she came to the end of the garden path, bearing food in her hands. |