The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-13


Standing, not as with US, for President,
Senate, House of Representatives, Cover
nor. Legislature, Mayor. Council; but for
Nicholas. He is 1t. and with so big an I
that in the alphabet of mundane power
there is no other letter. 1t is true there is
a Council of State. a Council of Ministers.
a Committee of Ministers. a Ruling Senate
and a Holy Ruling Synod. together with
innumerable specially instituted bodies. ten
ministries and four others which are such
in everything but in name. These are the
principal divisions of governmental central
ization and detail. Only this and nothing
more, for each and every one Of them is
confined to the purely consultive or adj
ministrative. no measure of any character
originating except through the En-
peror. That, perforce, this must be
largely theoretical, is apparent. Yet there
is no authority extant for such construc-
ton, and the attempt is heroically persist
ed in by Nicholas to maintain the letter as
well as the spirit of precedents. Not. it
would seem from his habitual bearing,
through a sense OF t~ranscendent self-im-
portance. but in the strict Interpretation
of his duty. This, rigidly construed, means
that the basis of every administrative act in
the empire must be his personal signature.
The veto power. as we are accustomed 10
see 1T employed in this country, would be
simply child's play in Russia. No matter
how extended the period devoted to a meas
ure by the Countil of State, the Council of
Ministers, the so-called Ruling Senate, or
other ostensibly deliberate institution, its
conclusions are so imperative when they
reach Nicholas that, without so much as a
thank-ee, he can chuck the whole business
into the waste basket. issuing in its stead
an edict or ukase Numerically the opposite
in effect. And it goes as he may say, not
as they may advise.
THE IMPERIAL POWER.
Interesting, as emanating directly from
the present Emperor, are the %subjoined
excerpts from the Russian Statesman's
Handbook, showing the Interpretation,
recognized as th~eocratic, of the funda-
mental laws of the empire:
1.-The Emperor is a monarch, autocratic
and unlimited. The sovereign power in its
entirety is concentrated in his person
The Russian Emperor is called
autocratic to distinguish him from consti-
tutional monarchs, as he does not share
his sovereign rights with any institution
or class in the state. . The rights of
state power in their entire extent belongs
TO the Sovereign Emperor. . The i'm
perial power acts directly in the first place
in legislation; no state institution can in
dependently establish a new law, and no
law can be carried out without the con-
frmation of the sovereign power. .
AS head of the state the Emperor disposes,
independently, of all the personal and ma
terial forces of the empire. He commands
the army and navy, appoints to all offices
in the civil-service. the army and navy,
and confirms the appointment of officials
to posts in the provincial, municipal and
class administrations. The sovereign power
alone can impose general taxes and con-
tributions, or can order the employment of
state funds by confirming the estimates
OF revenue and expenditure. . . AS
head of the government the Emperor has
supreme supervision over the course of
the whole government of the state. . = .
Though the duty of justice consists exclu-
sively in the exact application, under His
Majesty's specific authority, Of the acting
laws to separate cases, nevertheless the
monarch confirms the verdicts of the
Courts of Law. . . . AS the source of
mercy, being above justice, the sovereign
has the right of pardon and mitigation of
punishments, beyond the limits assigned to
justice itself. . . = AS distinguished from
the rights of the sovereign power in the
regions of legislation, administration and
justice, stand the prerogative Of the mon
arch which raise him above all persons
and Institutions in the state. . . . He is
exempt from the action of general laws;
as these laws proceed from himself the
power does not exist which could call the
sovereign to account"
1t is impressive, in the recognition of the
strength of religious feeling among man
kind everywhere, that Russia, so exception
al in temporal rule, is not so as TO the spir-
itual. The only restraint. admitted to exist,
upon the power of the Car is that In con-
nection with the Church. Explanatory of
the designation of the Emperor as "a mon
arch, autocratic and unlimited" the Hand
book states: The term unlimited points
TO the absence of any laws restricting the
| ruling power Of the Emperor. An exception
is formed only by the laws of the estab-
lished religion. and the order of succession
to the throne; the Emperor must profess
the orthodox faith, and. on ascending the
throne, he pledges himself to strictly re-
/ Specl the laws Ol SuCCeSSlOH 10 IT,
UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
In addition to the multitudinous response
bilities devolving upon him in the affairs of
state, Nicholas has nc end Of duties TO OBJ
serve through his vows to the church
Where the state leaves off and the church
commences, or vice versa, is, in Russia, one
of those things no fellow can find out. The
two are so inseparably interviewer in the
warp of everyday life and conduct, official
as well as unofficial, that the stranger may
rightly be pardoned confusion of impress
sions until he is in the deepest perplexity
as to whether the Russian is in point OF
fact a sectarian or a secular government.
No anteroom or bureau of ministerial chief
or subordinate. more than salon or retiring
chamber OF individual, without its 'Icon''
or shrine; no palace. ministry. state or pub
lie institution without its chapel.
"As a Christian sovereign" saws the
handbook, 1.-The Emperor acts with suprem-
acy In church affairs. in so far as they refer
TO civil relations. Independently OF dogma
and internal hierarchal administration He
is supreme defender and protector of the
dogmas OF tie Established Orthodox Greek
Catholic Church. He therefore protects the
orthodoxy and purity OF the church and
u --.--- ~