"Those who are now under arrest," the professor continued, "will probably most of them soon be let free, for I do not believe that the authorities have at present any desire to raise much of a storm. But as many of them as are Jews will in all probability be more severely punished, if only for statistical reasons." "I understand." "Oh yes. You know that the police have their special code for the Jews, so as to prove that the discontent is entirely due to them. Plehve asserts that he has forty thousand political indictments, eighty per cent. of the indicted being Jews. That is made up to suit themselves, and has nothing to do with turbulence. On the other hand, I dare say, that quite often just for this statistical reason, and because the Jews are punished quite differently from the sons of distinguished families, the Jews are urged by their congeners not to expose themselves; but they, too, are of course infected by the general fanaticism of self-sacrifice." "But from what do the special student disturbances about which we hear so much proceed? Are they not caused by troubles in the universities?" "Only in the very rarest cases. It is occurrences of general politics which find a particularly lively echo among the students; the reforms which are demanded for the university by us, the professors, are even repudiated by the students, because they do not wish to let the causes of their discontent be removed." "What is the nature of the reforms in question?" "General Wannowski, former minister of education, was perhaps a man of limited capacity, who considered the university a barracks, the professors colonels and other officers, the students privates, and explained that the only thing lacking was non-commissioned officers to keep their respective squads in order. Still he showed us the consideration of asking us eighteen questions which were to be answered by the faculties. Look here"--the professor pointed to a heavy bundle of printed matter--"here you have the results of our inquest." "And what is the substance of your wishes, to put it into a very few words?" "One word is sufficient, 'Autonomy.' We want independence in teaching, 'Lehrfreiheit' as it is in Germany, independent regulation of our own affairs, and liberation from the direction of another department which has neither interest in us nor understanding of us. This demand was unanimously expressed by all the universities; in Moscow only two professors in the whole faculty declared themselves for the prevalent system." "Was anything accomplished by this inquest?" "To a slight extent. We obtained a university court, constituted of professors, and the permission to form scientific societies among the students." "That is not so bad. And you say that the students are not in sympathy with that?" "No, they are afraid that discontent may be lessened by these concessions, and they wish to be discontented until they have accomplished everything." "What do you mean by 'everything'?"