Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1878 — A Bad Place for Newspaper Correspondents. [ARTICLE]

A Bad Place for Newspaper Correspondents.

Among the peculiar circumstances which make this a barren land for news is the fact that Russia has no Cabinet. Each Minister looks to the affairs of his department, and holds no relation with another beyond the needs of its special services. They report themselves separately to the Emperor, and do not even meet in a body. There Is, indeed, a council of Ministers, so called, which assembles at the Hermitage Palace every Tuesday; but it is never attended either by the Sovereign or by the Ministers. The Under .Secretaries of each department punctually arrive, in full uniform, decorations and white cravat; the Grand Duke Constantine, head of the navy, often takes the chair; but what these gentlemen do under his presidenep is a question unanswered. *lt follows from this system of individual responsibility that each department, ignores the business of its fellow. The Emperor alone knows, or has tbe means of knowing at least, all that is going oh. When, as at present,“ the heads of one Ministry is dispatched on special service, their colleagues are not asked for an opinion beforehand,' nor are consulted on events that arise, save only in so far as their departments may be interested. Officially they are hot better informed than are “ outsiders,” unless the Emperor lets fall a hint.

Whatever the disadvantages of this custom, which is strictly logical for a government that avq ws itself autocratic, it is well adapted to baffle the newsmonger. ’ He has so little fact to build upon that his inventions gain no credit. St. Petersburg is not atown of “ shaves” or canards. It has wild reports of English or Austrian ddings, but none of its own policy. At this moment there is no person who can be even asked for news with any probability of success.— St. Petersburg Cor. London Standard. - m m 1 ; —r —Miss “Little-Women” Alcott is said to be suffering from overwork,