From much of what was spoken and written on the subject, Sergey Ivanovitch differed on various points.

He saw that the Slavonic question had become one of those fashionable distractions which succeed one another in providing society with an object and an occupation.

He saw, too, that a great many people were taking up the subject from motives of self-interest and self-advertisement.

He recognized that the newspapers published a great deal that was superfluous and exaggerated, with the sole aim of attracting attention and outbidding one another.

He saw that in this general movement those who thrust themselves most forward and shouted the loudest were men who had failed and were smarting under a sense of injury--generals without armies, ministers not in the ministry, journalists not on any paper, party leaders without followers.