large measure of Home Rule in Finland, in Poland, in Trans-Caucasia, in Little Russia, and unless they are attended by an even larger measure of local self-government, and last, not least, unless they are attended by a concession of religious liberty—which has ever been the foundation of political liberty. The main condition of any future progress in Russia is that the Edict of Toleration of 1905 shall cease to be a dead letter.
VII
Unfortunately for the prospects of reform the ideals and the activity of the Government were still being diverted before the war, by the menace of the German Peril and the fascination of the Far East, from the pressing home-problems. What the Russian people really want are better roads, more railways, better housing, better sanitation, better schools, a more liberal Church, a more liberal administration. But instead of the activities of the Government being turned in that direction, the huge revenue of the Empire had to be largely spent on increasing an already huge and unwieldy army, and the political energies of the ruling classes were being devoted to the ambitious and peril-
