Mackey – Encyclopedia Of Freemasonry Vol. 1

THE NIHILISTS 235of the Nihilists was discovered in the Ministry of Marine ;its director committed suicide . Encouraged by the disasterswhich had befallen the Nihilists, the emperor ventured toreturn to St. Petersburg, and on the i ith of Septemberattended the fete of Alexander Nevsky, the patron-saint ofthe emperor, but slightly guarded, without evil results ; andin the exuberance of his feelings he went so far as to extendhis clemency even to the Nihilists, for on October 4 hegraciously commuted the sentence of death, passed by asecret tribunal, on two Nihilists for having murdered apolice spy, to perpetual labour in the mines-and yet theNihilists were not conciliated ! For when, on the 21stNovember, the emperor and empress paid a visit to St .Petersburg extra precautions were taken on the part of thepolice and military authorities ; all along the route, from therailway-station to the palace, police-officers in sledges andon foot were met with at every half-dozen yards ; policemenwere posted at regular intervals in the centre of the street,and the bridges over the canals were closely guarded by themarine -police . But the emperor maintained his serenity,As the Official Gazette informed its readers : " Towards theend of December the new chief of police, General Grossler,had the honour of exhibiting before his Imperial Majestyseveral policemen attired in the latest new and last olduniforms of the force . His Majesty carefully examined thedifference, consisting mainly in alterations of colours andbuttons ." He also began to think of his coronation, whichwas announced to take place at various dates during thecurrent year ;but the ceremony was postponed from time totime, and did not finally take place until 27th May 1883 .629. Coronation, and Causes of Nihilistic Inactivity.-Greatsurprise was excited by the peaceful nature of the coronation; but it appeared by the trial (in April 1883) of seventeenNihilists at Odessa, five of whom were sentenced todeath, that the conspirators had made the most extensivepreparations for killing the emperor at his coronation, asproposed in 1881 and 1882 ; but by the vigilance of thepolice, and the denunciation of spies, their schemes werefrustrated, and the terrorists found it impracticable to makethe attempt in 1883 . As they themselves declared afterwards,they came to the conclusion that such an attemptwould damage their interests . They argued that the revolutionarymovement .in Russia embraces many persons of moderateviews, whose opinions must ,be taken into consideration ;that the people, who came to the coronation would not