, 1875-03-27

no more enter into the processes of the
Government than any private conversation
of a dozen personal acquaintance. Were
the members summoned In twenty times
the numbers, and with twenty times the
formality, the Emperor would probably
hesitate no more about quasAing a disa-
greeable resolution Of theirs than our own
James |. when he met the celebrated Pro-
testation Of his Parliament in 1921, chat
the liberties, franchises, and Jurisdictions of
Parliament are the ancient aud undoubted
birthright and inheritance Of the subjects If
England" by straightway sending tor the
Journals" of the House of Commons and
tearing out the Protestation with his "
most Royal hand. The conyeniences, and
still more, the necessities Of States are,
in the Iong-run, superior to the most
tenacious traditions. So long as Russia
was one enormous slave plantation
of course, we do not mean any eXaggera-
tioa by the use OF this exaggerated phrase
with an intermediate group of noble
overseers aud q single and absolute pro-
prietor above all, the very completeness
Of the ~despotism allowed Of Its being cs-
s~entialiy uucompIicated an easy to WELD.
In fact, as in constitutional theory, there
was ouly one will in the Empire, that Of
the Car and his Privy Council. Even
of his Princes and Barons, tho Emperor
Paul was able to say, with considerable
verncjtY, "The only man who Is noble in
my domiuions is the man to whom Ispeak,
and for the time that I am speaking to
him" But times have changed. Since
the Ukase Of Emancipation, free wills by
scores of millions have been recognised to
exist, and it is no longer possible to gov
ern those millions on the system Of d
patrjarchal STAKEHOLDER. The concern has
become too complicated. The very bust
ness before the SUPPLEMENTARY Coun-
Gil at St. Petersburg is evi lence of the
fact. What talk and what trouble could
there be about "c0ntraCts," in the days
when mems obligations were determined,
not by agreement, but by inherited con
dition7 Freedom is a grand premiss, the
mighriest and most productive of premis-
ses. We're the Gar all the political ecouO-
mi,ts of humanity rolled into one, he
must be Obliged to enlarge the machinery
which sutliced in a bygone epoch to ascer-
tain and satisfy the requirements of his
Empire. There must be some sort Of re-
preventative, be it only consultative, ar
rangement by which the ever more aud
more Involved wants and developments of
an emancipated ciyiIisation, of an enamel
pated barbarism even, can be adequately
brought under the notice of the legislative
and executive authority. The Gar, be he
ten times an autocrnt, must in the long
run satisfy in his administration the mate
rial wants Of bis people; and since he
has transformed that people from a semi
mechanical mass only capable of receiving
impulsion from outside into a freely COM
bining aggregate Of individual men, he
must take the uIterior~ consequences Of the
revolution he has already sanctioned.
The people is never consulted by the Sove-
reign in the commandments Of Parliament
tary legislation, except when the dangers
of legislating in the dark outweigh the
dangers of taking the people into council.
Those halfdozen mayors and merchants at
St. Petersburg We're summoned because in
the full meaning of the word their advice
was wanted, and the still more serious
question of agrarinn legislation which is
already mooted, and which must 60 down
to the very foundations Of Russian society,
will necessitate still more urgently the
calIing-in of the people to assists at moulding
the destinies of the people. Such presidents
inevitably repeat themselves, however