New-York tribune., 1905-08-06
CAR FASTENING REFORM.
PLANS FOR ASSEMBLY.
Report That Fez0 Changes Haze
Been Made in Original Scheme.

St. Petersburg, Aug. 6.-After months of prep
aration and anxious waiting the project for a
popular representative assembly. innovation
in the Russian political system of greater i'm
portaACe than the emancipation Of the peas
antry the establishment of zemstvos. is now
undergoing final revision, and it's completion
and PRONUNCIATION thought to be matters of
days only. The Emperor, it is we'll known.
hopes to mark the first anniversary of the birth
of the infant heir apparent by manifesto sum-
moning the representatives of the people, and in
the long meetings of the commission at Peter
hof he has driven the work of revision as fast
as it was possible, in order to have it finished
before August Il.
The nature of the future assembly cannot be
stated with exactness until the labors of the
commission are finished and Emperor Nicholas
sets the seal of his approval on the work, but
1t is understood the councillors thus far have
recommended no sweeping changes in the project
as it came from the hands of the Council OF
Minister'S
The reactonary party at yesterdays session
OF the council at Peterhof made strong effort
TO obtain the rejection or alteration of two i'm
portant provisions but the wishes of the EN-
peror and of the grand dukes prevented any
backward step. AS at the previous sessions the
Emperors advisers discussed the needs of the
country with remarkable frankness
The article over which the main conflict arose
comprised paragraph ~ of the project provid-
ing that the assembly's rejection of any propo-
stion submitted to 1t by two-thirds majority
is final. n. Stichnsky. a we'll known reaction
airy Senator, assailed the paragraph and pointed
out the limitations which II put TO the imperial
power General Trepoff, Assistant Minister of
the Interior, in a strongly worded address said
that such limitations were imperatively needed
by the country and the people. The paragra ph
was then passed unanimously.
There another debate over the provision
for the admission of representatives of the
press at sessions of the assembly and the pub
lications of proceedings but this was also
adopted after General Trepoff and Grand Duke
vladimir had spoken - favor of the fullest pub
lcity.
The discussions at Peterhof give color to a
current report that Emperor Nicholas and the
grand dukes to be the most liberal minded
and the most truly anxious for reform among
the members of the conference
rescrpt, addressed to the Minister of the
Interior. directing him to prepare plans for the
assembling of representatives of the people was
issued on March g. and the work has been stead
lily going on in the intervening FIVE months.
While the emancipation code of 1861 the Magma
Charta of the Russian peasants and the zemstyo
Local administration. they gave the Rus
sian subject no share in the imperial govern
ment; but the convocaton of an assembly will
give him his taste of first political rights
Completed the project will fall far short of the
expectations of the more extreme Liberals who
VIII be satisfied with nothing short of a consti-
tuition.
The assembly scheme will be equally unpleas-
ant to the school of Pobiedonostseff and To the
reactonary League of Russian Patriots but the
great mass OF the people show disposition to
accept the concessions of the autocracv I'm good
fath, IN hopes that the faults OF the system will
remedy themselves in practice. Such men as
Prince Troubetskoy, president of the Moscou,
Zemstvo; NJ Nikttin. president of the ST Peters
burg douma; M. Shipoff former president of tho
Moscow Zemstvo. and other leaders IN ~
zemstvo movement, though anxious for n hodT-
with further powers, advising their foIIovrar
not TO suk because of the limitations ~ tha
project, but TO endeavor to make the first con-
gress success and thereby pave the way for n
real parliamentary government
The absence OF provision for general diract
secret suffrage undoubtedly will cause COM,
plaint but the decision of the rescript commis
sion and the Council of Ministers I'm favor oF
indirect representation seems to be based not
a desire to make the assembly unrepresenta
tive, but on the belief that some intermediate 20
step is necessary to enable the masses 10 choose
their representatives wisely. This view Is shared
by a strong party of Zemstvo leaders who are
opposed 10 the system of direct voting