Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1902-05-16


Pnrty-Interesting Facts In Com
nection with Plan Approved by
Alexander ii. just Before He Was
Assassinated.
The Russian capital is full of rumors
regarding the cars attitude toward
the revolutionary movement which has
been spreading in this country at such
a rapid rate during the last few years
and which appears to be nearing a
crisis, writes the st. Petersburg CORE
spondent of the New York Commercial
Advertiser under date of April II. One
hears all sorts of conflicting stories as
to what the emperor expects to do. In
formation from authoritative sources
points to important reforms. The most
persistent reports have it that Nicholas
H. is inclined to grant the constitution
which Colnt Loris Melikoff. the favor
ite of his unfortunate grandfather,
drafted in 1881. This is known in Rus
sian revolutionary circles as the 'un-
dersized constitution" being ridiculed
and vilitied as sop calculated 10 bam-
boozle the people and to deaden the
movement for real reform.
The story of the Melikoff reform
scheme is full of interesting detail
Loris Melikon was an Armenian by
birth. he was the son of merchant
in Titis and was disliked in higher
Russian circles as an upstart. During
the last two or three years of the reign
of Alexander H., when the Tcrrorists
were making attack after attack on the
monarch and some of his highest offi-
cials, Melikoff, who had impressed the
emperor as level headed statesman,
endowed with remarkable insight and
tact, was made minister of the interior.
In February, 1881, there was an eXplo-
sion in the dining hall if the Winter
palace. The cZar had a narrow escape.
A few days after that Loris Melikoff
sion organized with a view to 'pacify-
ing the population" He was clothed
with almost unlimited power and was
generally regarded as a regent.
Soon after Loris Melikoff's appoint
ment to this lofty position he was shot
at by revolutionist named Molodetz-
ky. The nihilist missed his aim, but the
attempt added to the sense of inse-
curity which was growing on the czar
and quickened his desire to see his peo-
pie "pacified," as Melikoff was fond of
putting it. The latter then drew up his
famous constitution. 1t called for the
convocation of general commission to
examine into the general state of af-
fairs and consider questions of reform.
The project was framed in the most
guarded terms. and great care was
taken to keep out of it anything which
might contain anything like a direct
suggestion regarding the granting of a
constitution. Moreover. the plan rec
ommended left all at the mercy of the
throne, the representatives to be elect
ed being regarded as loyal subjects
commanded to express an opinion rath-
er than deputies or representatives of
the people in the western sense of the
term. In addition, the elections We're
hedged about by all sorts of provisions
and were to be so conducted as to leave
everything in the hands of the crown.
There was not the slightest hint at real
representation or at anything like an
honest, though rather limited, constitu-
ton.
| Still. it is quite possible that Loris
Melikoff meant well and that he chose
this "undersized constitution" of his as
the best sort of entering wedge. AT all
events. there is some reason to believe
| that if the party of the "Will of the
! People" the underground organization
which was responsible for all the polit-
ical assassinations and attempts of the
period) had been aware of the exist
ence of such a project the life of Alex
ander II. would have been spared. In
deed. they had declared repeatedly in
their pronunciamentOs as well as in
the speeches of their leaders at the big
political trials that they were pledged
| 10 ABANDON the terror the moment
the czar granted the country free
speech. Although the project of Loris
Melikoff did not contain the remotest
allusion to any reform in that direction,
yet certain privileges along the lines in
question would have followed, as a
matter of course. from the general
trend of the measure.
The project was returned to Loris
Meikoff with the approval Of the czar
at 12 o'clock on March 13, 1881, for
further consideration by the cabinet,
after which March 1G) it was to be
published in the imperial Messenger.
Two hours after the czar returned the
document he was killed by nihilist's
bomb on the Ekaterininsky canal.
Alexander III. read the same project
with much interest and wrote on the
margin of the paper, Every good" At
the meeting of the cabinet at which
the measure was read Pobiedonostseff,
the curator of the holy synod, and sew
eral others took a firm stand against