And do you know, gentlemen, whence this absurd theory sprang up on the European Continent?  It was the idea of Panslavismus—­that is the idea that the mighty stock of Sclavonic races is called to rule the world, as once the Roman did.  It was a Russian plot—­it was a dark design to make out of national feelings a tool to Russian preponderance over the world.

Perhaps you are not aware of the historical origin of this plot.  It was after that most immortal act of tyranny, the third division of Poland, that the chance of fate brought the Prince Czartorinsky, to the Court of Catherine of Russia.  He subsequently became minister of Alexander the Czar.  It was in this quality that, with the noble aim to benefit his fallen fatherland, he claimed from the young Czar the restoration of Poland, suggesting for equivalent the idea of Russian preponderance over all nations of the old Sclavonic race.  I believe his intention was sincere; I believe he did not mean to overlook those natural borders, which, besides the affinity of language, God himself has drawn between the nations.  But he forgot that he might be no longer able to master the spirits which he would raise, and that an undesired fanaticism might force sundry fantastical shapes into his framework, by which the frame itself must burst in pieces.  He forgot that Russian preponderance cannot be propitious to liberty; he forgot that it cannot be favourable even to the development of the Sclave nationality, because Sclavonic nations would by this idea be degraded into mere Russians, that is, absorbed by despotism.

Russia got hold of the fanciful idea very readily!  May be that young Alexander had in the first moment noble inclinations; the warm heart of youth is susceptible to noble instincts.  It is not common in history to find young princes so premature in tyranny as Francis-Joseph of Austria.  But a few years of power were sufficient to extinguish every spark of noble sentiment, if there was one, in Alexander’s heart.  Upon the throne of the Romanoffs the man is soon absorbed by the Autocrat.  The traditional policy of St. Petersburg is not an atmosphere in which the plant of regeneration can grow, and the fanciful idea became soon a weapon of oppression and of Russian preponderance—­Russia availed herself of the idea of Panslavism to break Turkey down, and to make an obedient satellite out of Austria.  Turkey still withstands her, but Austria has fallen into the snare.  Russia sent out its agents, its moneys, its venomous secret diplomacy; it whispered to the Sclave nations about hatred against foreign dominion—­about independence of religion connected with nationality under its own supremacy; but chiefly it spoke to them of Panslavism under the protectorate of the Czar.  The millions of his large empire also, all oppressed—­all in servitude—­all a tool to his ambition; them too he flattered with the idea of becoming rulers of the world, in order that they might not think of