The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-20
.EVENTFUL DAY IN
 RUSSIAN HISTORY
Meeting of ZemStvoS is Red
 Letter Event
MIRSKY PROTECTS THEM
Proposals Are Discussed for Elective Body Which Will Give Peasants Voice In the Gov
 ernment.

St. Petersburg, November 19.-The meet ing of representatiass of the zemstvos, which has been lsoked forward to with so much hope. was held this afternoon at a private residence in this city, but at the last moment the government withdrew the official auspices under which was to be held, because the representatives declined to adhere to the original pur- pose of the conference.
 hundred earnest men, included among whom were some of the most prominent figures In Russia, met and dis- oussed carefully prepared memorandum, embodying a recommendation for a na- tional representative body to have share in the government. This memoran- dunn will be presented to the czar. Prince Sviatopolk- -Mirsky, the minister of the interior, guaranteed the meeting protec- tion from police interference, but se- crecy was maintained as to the place of meeting, and this effectually prevented the demonstration which had been antici- pated would be made by students. The memorandum includes ten sections, of which seven were endorsed at today s meeting. The remainder, it is expected, will be approved at a meeting tomorrow
 
 conspicuous place in history, Is as fol- lows:
 Proposal Is Submitted. A preamble of proposals on the ques- tion of general conditions pertaining to the normal course and development of our social life submitted to a private confer ence of workers November 19 and 20 in St. Petersburg
 Section 1. An abnormal system of gov- ernment is prevailing among us and is due to the complete estrangement of government and people and the mistrust of each in the other.
 Sec. 2. These relations between the gov ernment and the people originate from apprehension of the development of pop ular initiative and persistent efforts to exclude the people from participation in international government. With this ob- ject the government endeavored to ex- tend centralized government to all branches of local government, and inn pose tutelage in every branch of na- tional life, admitting cooperation with the people solely for the purpose of bringing popular institutions into har- mony with the views of the government. Sec. 8 The bureaucratic system of causing estrangement of the supreme power and the people creates a field for wide scope of administrative arbitrari- ness and personal caprice. Such condi- tion deprives the nation of the necessary assurances that the rights of each and all will be protected and not undermine confidence in the government
 Sec. 4. The normal current of state and nation is possible only under the condi- ton of close living and union, and the cooperation of the imperial power with the people.
 Be Submitted to Authority.
 Sec. 5. In order to exclude the possibil- ity of the display of administrative ar- pitrariness and to guarantee personas rights, 1t $ necessary to establish and consistently apply principle by which no one will be subjected to punishment, or to the restriction of rights without the cecision of independent legal authorities Sec. $. For the unrestricted expression of public opinion, and the free exposition and satisfaction of popular needs it is essential to guarantee freedom of con science and speech, and of the press, and also freedom of meeting and association Sec. '. Self-reliance is the chief con- dition of the proper and successful devel- opment of the political and economic life of the country. A considerable majority of the population of Russia belonging tc the peasant class, it is necessary first Of all, to place the latter in position fa- vorable for development of self-reliance and energy. and this is attainable only by radical alteration of the present un- equitable and humiIiating condition of the peasants.
 For this purpose it is necessary (a), to equalize the civili and political rights of peasants with the other classes; (b) release rural self-government from ad- ministrative tutelage; Co, safeguard peas l ants by proper courts of justice Placed in New Conditions. I Section B. Zemstvo institutions sn | which local and popular life is mostly 1 centralized, must be placed in conditions | in which they may successfully carry