The conduct of the Dukhobors in Canada raises once more
the old question whether it is possible for a whole people to go mad. These Russian immigrants were settled and prosperous when the fancy suddenly seized them that they had no right to kill or work animals, which were as entitled to liberty as man, and that if they wandered to some unknown point in Manitoba they would meet Jesus Christ. They con- sequently turned their animals loose, to be immediately appro- priated by their neighbours, and set out with their women and children through the forest. They had little to eat, and less to wear, leather boots or fur clothes being forbidden, and the Government of Canada were at a loss what to do. By the latest accounts, however, they have arrested the women and children to preserve their lives, and will, when the men are sufficiently weakened, send them back by railway to their locations, there, let us hope, to fall under some less inconvenient delusion. Their conduct recalls that of many of the followers of Peter the Hermit, who, it is recorded, in later life quite perceived his folly; or of the Flagellants ; or of the South African tribe who in our own time believed they were ordered to kill all their cattle, and did it. That there is a possibility of mental infection when multi- tudes are gathered together is certain from the long history of panics, but the deep religious feeling of the Dukhobors ought to enable them to possess their souls in patience until the Avatar which they expect. One point in the present delusion is, we believe, unprecedented. There is no previous record of men willing to walk barefoot out of pity for the " slavery " of beasts.
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