Christianity and Patriotism
to-day. For every Russian peasant, the question under what Government he will be living (since he knows that he will be equally plundered whichever it is) has incomparably less significance than—I won't say even whether the water is good—but whether the clay is soft and whether the cabbage grows well.
But it may be supposed that the indifference of the Russians arises from the fact that any Government under whose rule they may come will certainly be better than the Russian, because there is none worse in Europe. But this is not the case. To the best of my belief, the same thing has been observed in English, Dutch, and German emigrants who settle in America, and the emigrants of various other nationalities who settle in Russia.
The change from being subject to one Government to being subject to another, from the Turkish rule to the Austrian, or from the French to the German, makes so little change in the position of working people, that it cannot in any case be a cause of discontent among them, unless they are artificially stirred to that feeling by the efforts of Governments and governing classes.
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