and especially in broader classes, gratefully approve of the course you
have taken."

It will scarcely be known to any one in the West that when signatures
were being gathered for the great mass-address of protest dispatched to
St. Petersburg in 1899, those who refused their signatures numbered
martyrs among them. There are some who for their courage in refusing
their signatures suffered ruin and disgrace and were imprisoned on
trumped-up charges. Moreover, the agitators aimed at infecting the
lower classes of the population with their intolerance and their hatred
of Russians, but, it must be said, with scant success.

With regard to the essence of the question, I repeat that in matters of
government temporary phenomena should be distinguished from permanent
ones. The incidental expression of Russian policy, necessitated by an
open mutiny against the Government in Finland, will, undoubtedly, be
replaced by the former favor of the sovereign toward his Finnish
subjects as soon as peace is finally restored and the current of social
life in that country assumes its normal course. Then, certainly, all
repressive measures will be repealed. But the realization of the
fundamental aim which the Russian Government has set itself in
Finland--_i.e._, the confirming in that land of the principle of
imperial unity--must continue, and it would be best of all if this end
were attained with the trustful cooperation of local workers under the
guidance of the sovereign to whom Divine Providence has committed the
destinies of Russia and Finland.


SERGIUS WITTE