KUSSIA. 



799 



middle of St. Petersburg. During the sum- 

 mer no new acts of violence were committed 

 by the Nihilists, but in November an attempt 

 on the life of General Tcherevin, the director 

 of the measures for insuring the security of 

 the Emperor, gave evidence of the continued 

 vitality and hardihood of the confederation, 

 notwithstanding the more than three thousand 

 arrests since the beginning of the year. Mines 

 and electric wires intended for the destruction 

 of the Czar were reported to have been dis- 

 covered in the neighborhood of Gatchina. 



The first state business of importance which 

 the Czar was called upon to consider was Meli- 

 koff's project of a representative assembly, or 

 elective Redaction Commission, to be chosen 

 by the nobles, the cities, and the rural magis- 

 tracies, for the revision of the public laws. 

 This proposition had received the approval of 

 the deceased Emperor, yet his successor was 

 with difficulty induced by Loris Melikoff to 

 call a ministerial council for its discussion. 

 The majority of the ministers approved the 

 project at the meeting ; but very decided ob- 

 jections were raised by some to a reform which 

 savored so much of a constitution, and soon 

 divisions were sharply drawn, some favoring 

 Melikoff s scheme, some the plan of the Min- 

 ister of Finance, Abaza, to enlarge the Council 

 of the Empire, and have the additional mem- 

 bers elective ; and some, with the Grand Duke 

 Vladimir, objecting to any liberal reform, and 

 advising only the harshest repressive measures 

 for the present. 



The questions which the representative as- 

 sembly was to deliberate upon were the solu- 

 tion of the agrarian question by means of reduc- 

 tions of the purchase-money for the peasants' 

 lands and of the land-taxes ; the restoration 

 of certain powers to the municipal and rural 

 authorities and the enlargement of their sphere 

 of activity; the cessation of the repressive 

 policy in Poland and the other border lands ; 

 and the reform of all the local administrations 

 from the communal up to the provincial gov- 

 ernments. Coupled with this scheme of an 

 embryo Parliament was a plan for rendering 

 the ministers responsible in a greater degree, 

 and insuring their more harmonious action, 

 which was adopted without opposition. Ac- 

 cording to the new rules, every decision of the 

 Cabinet Council must be by a unanimous vote, 

 and, failing of this, the question is to be sub- 

 mitted to the Czar. After the Czar's decis- 

 ion, the ministers whose votes have been 

 overruled are expected to resign, as is also 

 every minister who has submitted three proj- 

 ects to the Council of Ministers which have 

 been rejected. A few days later the whole 

 complexion of affairs was changed by the 

 Czar's suddenly changing his mind and placing 

 himself in the hands of his reactionary ad- 

 visers. A manifesto was issued May llth, by 

 which the Czar, who was persuaded in viola- 

 tion of the spirit of the rules to insure har- 

 mony in the Cabinet, nullified the purpose of 



the convocation of au elective commission, in 

 so far as it was intended to satisfy the popular 

 craving for representative institutions. In this 

 manifesto, composed by the Procurator of the 

 Holy Synod, Pobedonocheff, the following sig- 

 nificant passage showed, to the great disap- 

 pointment of the intelligent classes of Russia, 

 that the new Czar would not agree to the most 

 incipient and rudimentary beginnings of popu- 

 lar self-government : 



In the midst of our great affliction the voice of God 

 commands us to discharge courageously the affairs ot 

 government, trusting in God's providence, with faith 

 in the strength and justice of the autocratic power, 

 which we have been called to support and preserve 

 for the people's good from all impairment ana injury. 

 Therefore let courage animate the troubled and terror- 

 stricken hearts of our faithful subjects ; of all lovers 

 of the fatherland, devoted from generation to genera- 

 tion to the hereditary imperial power. Under its 

 shield and in unbroken alliance with it our land has 

 more than once lived through great troubles and has 

 grown in strength and glory. Consecrating ourselves 

 to our high service, we call upon all our loyal subjects 

 to serve us and the state in truth and justice to tie 

 rooting out of the horrible sedition that dishonors the 

 land of Russia, the strengthening of faith and moral- 

 ity, the good education of the young, the extermina- 

 tion of injustice and plunder, and to the introduction 

 of order and justice in the operation of those institu- 

 tions presented to Russia by her benefactor, our be- 

 loved father. 



A change was made in the Ministry of Edu- 

 cation in April. Baron Nicolai, who had for- 

 merly been Golovnin's assistant in the various 

 reforms of a liberal tendency accomplished by 

 that minister, such as the University Statutes 

 of 1863 and the elementary school law of 18C4, 

 succeeded Saburoff, while the latter went to 

 Berlin to further the design of an international 

 agreement for the extradition of revolutionists. 

 After the issue of PobedonocheiTs manifesto 

 the majority of the ministry, to whose coun- 

 sels the Czar had expressed his agreement at 

 the late Cabinet meeting, but now repudiated, 

 all tendered their resignations. Waluieff, Mi- 

 lutin, Possiet, and Adlerberg, who had been 

 opponents of Loris Melikoff, resigned with 

 him as well as his friends, Abaza, Nikolai, and 

 Kochanoff. Count MelikofP s resignation was 

 accepted forthwith, and Ignatieff was nomi- 

 nated his successor in the Ministry of the In- 

 terior, May 16th. Others of the ministers 

 were requested to retain their portfolios for the 

 present. Milutin, Minister of War, was suc- 

 ceeded by Lieutenant - General Vanoffski. 

 Count Adlerberg II, Minister of the Imperial 

 Household, the favorite companion of the late 

 Czar, was succeeded by Count Vorontsoff- 

 Dashkoff, aide-de-camp of the present Czar 

 during the Turkish war. 



Ignatieff, who was known as a versatile 

 politician without settled opinions, made it 

 clear that the only reforms in prospect were 

 such as would meet the views of the Pansla- 

 vistic enthusiasts for the sacred and patriarchal 

 autocracy, in a circular published on his entry 

 into office, of which the following is a sum- 

 mary: 



