powers. As to Switzerland, the number of anarchists and nihilists
who had taken refuge there, and the murder of the Empress of
Austria by one of them shortly before, at Geneva, in broad
daylight, had thrown discredit over the ability of the Swiss
Government to guarantee safety to the conference; the Russian
Government therefore proposed that its sessions be held at The
Hague, and this being agreed to, the opening was fixed for the
18th of May.

From the first there was a misunderstanding throughout the world
as to what the Emperor Nicholas really proposed. Far and near it
was taken for granted that he desired a general disarmament, and
this legend spread rapidly. As a matter of fact, this was neither
his proposal nor his purpose; the measures he suggested being
designed "to put an end to the constantly increasing development
of armaments."

At the outset I was skeptical as to the whole matter. What I had
seen of the Emperor Nicholas during my stay in Russia had not
encouraged me to expect that he would have the breadth of view or
the strength of purpose to carry out the vast reforms which
thinking men hoped for. I recalled our conversation at my
reception as minister, when, to my amazement, he showed himself
entirely ignorant of the starving condition of the peasantry
throughout large districts in the very heart of the empire.[8]
That he was a kindly man, wishing in a languid way the good of
his country, could not be doubted; but the indifference to
everything about him evident in all his actions, his lack of
force even in the simplest efforts for the improvement of his
people, and, above all, his yielding to the worst elements in his