The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-04-13

Legal Mode of Government the Ob-8
 feet in View.
 St, Petersburg, April 13.-1:t5 d. m,--s The formation of national profession
 al reform league to unite the activities of lawyers. doctors, teachers, engineers and other professional classes of Russia to bring about the Characterization of the government and the institution of
 a representative parliament and re-
 sponsible ministry is the ambitious project set on foot by the national con
 gress of lawyers, which finished its
 work here last night. The plan propos- ed is the formation of national associa- tions of the various professional classes each of which shall elect delegates to a
 central bureau which is to direct and
 coordinate the efforts of the .'intelIec-
 tuals" in the direction of reforms. oth-
 CT classes which have openly manifest ed liberal tendencies on many oeca- sions and notably the doctors at their recent congress in Moscow are apt to i accept the invitation, and unless inter- l fered with, powerful reform force is likely to spring into being soon.
 l The deliberations of the lawyers 1 which were carried to conclusion in direct disregard of police orders and i which were participated in by 173 dele- l gates representing every judicial dis trict in Russian except Siberia. resulted 1 in the organization of the National Legal association and the election of
 central bureau of thirteen which is em- | powered to select legal representatives l for a proposed central committee to draft preliminary plans for the organi- l zation of that body ~.. l The leaders Of the movement declare 1 that their plans do not contemplate 1 any assault on the rlonarchical form of | government or disloyalty to the em- | pire, but the elimination of absolutism and the establishment of participation by the governed in the direction of af- fairs and especially in certain mat ters, as the budget and taxation; and l the point of the rejection, though by a
 small majority, of a resolution commit ting the assembly to "extra legal meas
 ures to show hatred of the existing or
 der and bring about a democratic and legal mode of government in Russia" :" 1 bears out this declaration. A feature of the meeting was a special honor shown the Polish delegates at the first l session, when the entire assemblage rose and remained standing facing the 1 section occupied by the Poles while a
 speaker pronounced a panegyric upon
 them. The Poles, however, did not par
 ticipate in the following sessions, which were held in defiance of the police,
 merely sending their visiting cards each
 day.
 The delegates met in accordance with
 secret arrangements, at different pri- ! vate houses, assembling before the ar- rival of the police and disregarding
 orders to cease their sessions.
 l At yesterdays session, however, the
 police promptly placed a cordon around 1 the house in which the delegates were | to meet and prevented all but fifteen
 from entering and sent word to these that all delegates not residents of St. | GlGISUuIE IlluSl lSelfS llIe Clly lilIfl6- diately. AS the congress had finished
 it's programme, adjournment sine die was pronounced, the lawyers as a final
 thrust, drafting 8 statement to the
 chief of police that this general order to delegates en bloc to leave the city
 was illegal, and that they would rec
 ognize the withdrawal of permission to
 remain in the city only if it were deliv-
 cred to each delegate personally.
 Another zemstvo congress has been
 called to meet in Moscow on May 8, in
 which representatives of the nobility
 also will participate. From three to five delegates from each provincial
 zenstvo have been invited. It is re-
 ported that an endeavor will be made
 to align the moderates with the nobility
 in favor of reforms without going to 1 the length of the constitutionalism of western Eurole. .. s