Evening star., 1905-11-05

view Of the coming meeting of the
4 Russian douma and the constitution
promised to ole Russian people, II is
~ interesting to recall the fact that in
the year 1919 by order of Alexander l,
a constitution was framed and received his
favorable consideration. The death of the
czar in 1920, however, prevented his giving
to his people that amount of liberty and
of self-government which it seemed to have
been his wish to give. Most Of the under
lying ideas of that constitution came from
the czar himself, but the man who really
framed the document was one of his per-
sonal friends, named Nowossilzof.
That it was really the czar who fur
nshed the principal ideas is proved by
report written in French by Mr.. Schmidt,
Prussian consul general at Warsaw, to the
secretary of foreign affairs, Count Won
Bernstorf, at Berlin. That report, dated
October 81 1913, states that the night
Of October 16. of that year, Alexander read
the first rough draft of Nowossilzofs con-
stitution, made several suggestions and
dered that the whole be completed within
three months from that date.
Alexander died soon afterward, however,
and his successor, Nicholas I. was too much
occupied with other matters to give the
subject serious attention. The scheme was
almost forgotten until the year 1881 when
the dangerous Polish revolution broke out.
In that year there were printed 1900 copies
found among the papers of Nowossilzof.
That constitution became for the Polish
revolutionistS one of the principal things
for which they were lighting, and for some
time the authorities feared that the Rus
sian people would accept 1t in the same
way that the Spanish constitution of 1872
was accepted by most OF the southern Eu-
ropean countries, which In a short time,
succeeded in obtaining an equal amount OF
freedom from their different rulers. 1t
was only natural therefor that Nicholas, as
h. IlD1fc Fanl md n
should take steps to prevent the Polish con-
stitution from falling into the hands Of
other discontented subjects.
X
The Russian General Witte collected near
ly all the copies of the Polish edition, and
on November 81. 1891 these were burned
In the courtyard of the arsenal in the
Kremlin at MOSCOW. The manuscript of
Nowossilzof was brought to Russia and
buried in the secret archives at st. Peters
burg November %. And 1t would still be
there If the Russian historian, Prof. b.
Bilbassof. had not brought it to light
few years ago. Alexanoers constitution,
constructed in 1919. resembles in many re-
speets the charte constitutionelle with
France, and has a still closer resemblance
to the constitution of the French reyoiu-
ton of % Frimaire of the year Z.
1t is divided into six chapters and con-
tains l9l articles. The first chapter deals
with division of the entire empire. The
second chapter, which is very important
one deals with the powers of the emperor
and his ministers. Article II of the
constitution comedies to the emperor abso-
lutte power, but the third chapter gives
the people certain securities against 1t.
The fourth chapter deals with the legisla-
tive power and forms the basis OF the
douma or parliament. ne fifth chapter
deals with the judicial power, and the sixth
chapter contains, besides some general re-
marks of the czar to his people. list OF
oppressive regulations which were to be
abolished The document is written both