RUSSIA. 



765 



names were signed, and this was taken to St. 

 Petersburg by 500 representatives of all classes 

 from every part of Finland. This address repre- 

 sented that the imperial manifesto had aroused 

 alarm and sorrow throughout Finland, because 

 it had dislodged the foundation stone of the so- 

 cial structure and taken away the right of the 

 Finnish people to partake in their legislation, 

 which Alexander I had promised forever and 

 Alexander II and Alexander III had confirmed 

 and extended; and pointing out that, although it 

 had calumniators in Russia, the Finnish people 

 had been faithful, law-abiding, averse to revolu- 

 tionary doctrines, unfailing in the preservation 

 of public order, the petitioners, unwilling to be- 

 lieve that the imperial intention was to menace 

 the internal tranquillity, prayed the Emperor, 

 who had placed right above might, to ordain that 

 the new statutes be brought into harmony with 

 the fundamental law of Finland, recognizing that 

 the right of a small people is as sacred as that 

 of the greatest nation and its patriotic feeling 

 a virtue from which it may never recede. The 

 deputation arrived in St. Petersburg in the mid- 

 dle of March without having first obtained the 

 permission of the Governor General, in default 

 of which Gen. Procope, the Minister for Finland, 

 could neither receive them himself nor ask for 

 them an audience with the Emperor. The Czar 

 sent word that he was not offended, but they 

 must go back to their homes and transmit any 

 appeal they might have to make through the 

 Governor General. The Emperor also wished the 

 Minister Secretary of State to explain to the 

 deputies that the manifesto does not interfere 

 with the internal legislation of the country, but 

 only applies to laws of imperial interest. 



The committees of the Diet which examined the 

 law for the reorganization of the army went ex- 

 haustively into the constitutional question, and 

 reported that the proposed treatment of the Fin- 

 nish army was inadmissible both in substance and 

 in form. The military commission suggested that 

 the Diet should accept as far as possible the 

 new military burden, involving the addition of 

 7,200 men to the army and the raising of 10,000,- 

 000 rubles a year for their support, by raising the 

 strength of the army on the peace footing from 

 5,000 to 12,000 men, retaining the present three 

 years' service. The Russian proposal was for the 

 ultimate increase of the army to 30,000 men, with 

 a service of five years, and it was part of the 

 plan to draft the men into the Russian army 

 for service in remote parts of the empire under 

 Russian officers, whereas the Constitution of Fin- 

 land declares that none but Finnish citizens shall 

 be eligible as officers, and prescribes that the 

 troops shall be kept at home for the defense of 

 Finland except when in time of war their serv- 

 ices may not be needed at home and may be 

 required elsewhere to aid in the general defense 

 of the empire. The purpose of garrisoning Fin- 

 land with Russian troops was another feature 

 of the plan. The provisions of the army law 

 were not only a grievous charge to be borne 

 in a country which had hitherto escaped the 

 crushing burden of modern military service, but 

 to deport the young Finns to Russia and quarter 

 Russian troops in Finland was obnoxious to the 

 traditional sentiments of the people, an invasion 

 of their guaranteed liberties if accomplished with- 

 out the consent of the Diet, and apparently de- 

 signed to extirpate their liberties and their na- 

 tionality by the process that was being applied 

 to the Poles, the Baltic Germans, the Armenians 

 of the Caucasus, and alien elements in the em- 

 pire everywhere. 



The political excitement caused in Finland was 

 a new manifestation in that quiet country. News- 

 papers that contained bitter comments on the 

 Czar's manifesto and its tendency were confis- 

 cated or warned. Among the peasants there were 

 many who welcomed the advent of Russian law 

 and administration. Other Finns, to escape uni- 

 versal military service, emigrated to the United 

 States or Canada. Notwithstanding the receipt 

 of a communication stating that by the decision 

 of the Emperor the military law belongs to the 

 category of laws concerning the whole empire, 

 the Diet adopted the conclusion of the commit- 

 tee that a law relating to military service can 

 not be legally enacted in Finland without par- 

 liamentary consent. It resolved further that the 

 militia should not be employed outside of Fin- 

 land save for the defense of St. Petersburg. After 

 the Diet had refused its consent to the Russian 

 proposals, its session was closed on May 27 by 

 an imperial edict. The Finnish Government had 

 proposed to spend 10,000,000 marks of the sur- 

 plus funds on railroads, including an extension 

 from Uleaborg to Tornea, on the Swedish frontier. 

 The Russian authorities insisted that the Finns 

 should build a bridge across the Neva and con- 

 nect their railroads with the Russian system 

 rather than the Swedish. Of the amount set aside 

 for railroad construction, it was ordered from 

 St. Petersburg that only 6,000,000 marks should 

 go for this purpose, while 2,000,000 marks should 

 be expended on the army and 2,000,000 marks 

 should form a fund with which land might be 

 gradually acquired for the torpars, or agricultural 

 laborers, of whom it was found that a third had 

 no land of their own. The Finnish Senate was 

 instructed to form a committee for carrying out 

 this scheme, which made the Russians still more 

 popular with the poorer peasantry. A society 

 was organized for the propagation of the Rus- 

 sian language in Finland by classes and lectures. 

 The educated Finns, however, who were attached 

 to their constitutional liberties, sank their for- 

 mer differences with their Swedish-speaking com- 

 patriots of the noble and burgher classes in order 

 to defend the parliamentary system as well as 

 they could against the encroachments of autoc- 

 racy and their national institutions from Russi- 

 fication. In addition to their political troubles, 

 the people were face to face with distress amount- 

 ing almost to famine, due to a very late spring 

 and floods, which accelerated the emigration 

 movement from the barren northern and eastern 

 districts. 



The infringement of the Czar's Government on 

 the chartered rights and privileges of the Finns 

 aroused the sympathy of lovers of constitutional 

 liberty in all countries. A deputation of for- 

 eigners went to St. Petersburg to intercede with 

 the Czar and present to him addresses signed by 

 800 eminent citizens of 12 parliamentary coun- 

 tries of Europe praying him to give heed to the 

 petition of half a million Finnish men and women, 

 and not continue in a course that might retard 

 the cause of amity among the nations which he 

 had sought to promote in summoning the Peace 

 Conference at The Hague. These six gentlemen 

 were politely informed by the Minister of the 

 Interior that the Czar could not receive them 

 and that their addresses could not be accepted. 

 They went then to Helsingsfors, and, after receiv- 

 ing an ovation from the Finns, they deposited 

 the addresses in the Finnish archives with the 

 rejected monster petition of the Finnish people. 

 In September Gen. Procope, who had defended the 

 rights of his fellow-countrymen at St. Petersburg 

 as well as he could, was replaced by W. K. von 



