We are experiencing now the suspense of an _entr’acte_ before the curtain rises once more on the next act of the revolutionary drama. This will probably occur when the Duma meets in April. People of all parties seem to be agreed as to one thing, that the present state of things cannot last. There is at present a reaction against reaction. After the disorders here in December many people were driven to the Right; now the reactionary conduct of the Government has driven them back to the Left. So many people have been arrested lately that there is no longer room for them in prison. An influential political leader said to me yesterday that a proof of the incompetence of the police was that they had not foreseen the armed rising in December, whereas every one else had foreseen it. “And now,” he said, “they have been, so to speak, let loose on the paths of repression; old papers and old cases, sometimes of forty years ago, are raked up, and people are arrested for no reason except that the old machine, which is broken and thoroughly out of order, has been set working with renewed energy.” The following conversation is related to me—if it is not true (and I am convinced that it is not true) it is typical—as having taken place between a Minister and his subordinate:— The Subordinate: There are so many people in prison that there is no possibility of getting in another man. The prisons are packed, yet arrests are still being made. What are we to do? Where are these people to be put? The Minister: We must let some of the prisoners out. The Subordinate: How many? The Minister: Say five thousand. The Subordinate: Why five thousand? The Minister: A nice even number. The Subordinate: But how? Which? How shall we choose them? The Minister: Let out any five thousand. What does it matter to them? Any five thousand will be as pleased as any other to be let out. It is interesting to note that last November the Minister of the Interior was reported to have said that if he could be given a free hand to arrest twenty thousand “intellectuals,” he would stop the revolution. The twenty thousand have been arrested, but the revolution has not been stopped.