THE GOVERNMENT MACHINE.
Up till October 30, 1905 (O.S., October 7), Russia was an unlimited
autocracy. The Emperor bore the title of Unlimited Autocrat of all the
Russias. But Russia possessed, nevertheless, certain administrative and
legislative institutions. There was a consultative assembly called the
Council of Empire, founded by Alexander I., whose business it was to
make laws; and a Senate, founded by Peter the Great, an administrative
institution, whose business it was to see that the laws and the
Emperor’s ukases were carried out. The Emperor could always issue
special ukases, and he could suggest any laws to the Ministers whom he
appointed.
The initiative of legislation was in the hands of the Emperor’s
Ministers. They presented laws to the Council of Empire, which discussed
and amended them, and presented them, together with the findings of the
majority and the minority, and sometimes the finding of an individual
member, which were the outcome of their deliberations, to the Emperor
for his sanction. In this manner the fundamental laws of the empire were
drawn up.
On October 30, 1905, this state of things was profoundly modified by the
publication of an imperial manifesto which laid down certain new
principles of government.
If these principles were carried out in practice, Russia would no longer
be an unlimited autocracy. What it would exactly be is a little
difficult to define. In the old days the Government of Russia was
defined as being an autocracy tempered by assassination. It would be
difficult to define it exactly as it is at the present moment. It is a
limited autocracy; an autocracy limited indirectly by the existence of
legislative institutions.
At the same time, it was technically a mistake to call the manifesto a
constitution, because the Sovereign did not categorically divest himself
of his autocratic rights; he took no oath to any constitution; all he
did was to grant his subjects certain privileges, which, if carried out,
would limit the purely autocratic character of his power. He himself
remained an autocrat. He could, if he saw fit to do so in the future,
take back the privileges he had granted. The manifesto was a charter
rather than a constitution. It promised to the people the foundations of
civic liberty based on the liberty of the person, liberty of conscience,
liberty of speech, and the right of forming unions, societies, and
associations. It announced that a National Assembly (the Duma) would be
convoked, elected by the people, who would henceforward be called upon
to co-operate in the government of the country. It laid down the
principle that in future no law should come into force without
previously receiving the sanction of the Parliament.
A National Assembly elected by the people was not a new phenomenon for
Russia. Ever since 1550 National Assemblies appear from time to time in
the course of Russian history. They failed to become a permanent feature
and factor in Russian life owing to the strife of classes. The
population split up into classes, and this was due to the birth of
economic problems and the manner in which they were solved; the peasants
became slaves in the hands of the landowners, and the National Assembly
ceased to be national, and became representative of an upper class which
was divided against itself, owing to the conflicting personal interests
it fostered.
The Emperor Nicholas II. in convoking a National Council was not
creating a new precedent, but resuscitating an old one. The word Duma
means Council, and the Tsars of Moscow in olden times had governed with
the aid of an assembly of nobles called the Council of Boyars.
When the manifesto was issued in 1905, it was clear that the fundamental
laws of the empire made no provision for a Duma, and that if a Duma were
to assemble on the basis of the manifesto, its situation in the State
and its relation to the Sovereign would be undefined. For this reason a
revised version of the fundamental laws of the empire was confirmed and
published on April 23, 1906.
This revised edition of the fundamental laws defined the position of the
Sovereign with regard to the Duma. According to its provisions, the
supreme autocratic power was vested in the person of the Emperor; but
according to another section it was laid down that the Sovereign
exercises legislative power in conjunction with the Council of Empire
and the Duma.
The principle of the manifesto that no law should come into force
without previously receiving the sanction of the legislative institution
was confirmed.
The Emperor retained the title of Autocrat, and concentrated in his
person the legislative, executive, and judicial powers; but the
substantive “Autocrat” was no longer preceded by the adjective
“Unlimited.”
The executive powers of the Sovereign entitled him to convene, adjourn,
and prorogue the Council of Empire and the Duma; to dissolve the Duma;
and to dismiss the elected members of the Council of Empire before the
term of their mandates, but not without fixing the date of fresh
selections and of the session of a new Duma.
The Emperor retained the right of appointing the president, the
vice-president, and half the members of the Council of Empire; the right
of veto, and the sanction of laws; the sole initiative of any changes in
the fundamental laws; and, as has already been said, he shared the
initiative in all branches of legislation with both the Houses.
The Emperor also retained the right of issuing special ukases,
sanctioning unforeseen expenditure not provided for in the Estimates,
for emergencies in case of war, and loans for expenditure in war.
The fundamental laws also contained an emergency clause of another kind,
according to which the Emperor, by special ukase, can promulgate laws in
cases of emergency when the Houses are not in session, subject to their
being subsequently submitted to them for approval. But no change may be
made in the fundamental laws in virtue of this clause, nor may it modify
the legislative institutions and the electoral laws for the two Houses.
Moreover, any regulation made in this way ceases to be in force if, in
two months after the beginning of the session of the Duma, no Bill is
introduced by the Duma confirming it, or if a Bill is introduced and
rejected.[5]
The executive powers of the Emperor consist in the appointment and
dismissal of the Prime Minister and the Ministers, the direction of
foreign affairs, the proclamation of martial law and any modified kind
of martial law, and the command of the military and naval forces.
The Emperor has also certain judicial powers, such as the confirmation
of the verdicts of criminal courts.
At this moment, then, the legislative institutions of Russia consist of
the Council of Empire and the Duma. The Council of Empire is the Upper
House; half of its members are elected, and they receive their mandates
in certain proportions from the synod, the nobility, the universities,
the corporation of merchants, and from Poland. They are elected for a
term of nine years. The remaining members (including the president and
the vice-president) are appointed by the Emperor.
The Upper House shares with the Lower House the right of initiative in
legislation, as well as that of voting supplies and of making
interpellations.
The Lower House, as has just been said, has also the right of initiative
legislation; but certain subjects, according to the fundamental laws,
are outside its competence—namely, the institutions of the imperial
court; the imperial family; war and naval departments; the jurisdiction
of military and naval courts.
On the other hand, the imperial budget and the budgets of individual
Ministries, and the authorization of loans, are within its competency.
It has also the right of making interpellations. There is not, as in the
English House of Commons, a certain time put aside every day for
questions. Notice is given of interpellation, and the question of
whether it shall be regarded as pressing or not is put to the vote. If
expedition is voted for, the interpellation must be answered by the
Ministers within a month; if extreme expedition is voted for, within
three days; if expedition is not voted for, the answer is given within
an indefinite period.
The right of interpellation, and the larger fact that an assembly exists
where discussion of public affairs is public, are, as is the case with
most Parliaments, the chief assets in the influence of the Duma. As far
as actual legislation is concerned, the Upper House can throw out any of
the Bills which the Lower House passes.
The electoral law is exceedingly complicated. The degree of suffrage it
confers is very far from being universal. In the first place, elections
are indirect; in every government voters elect a certain number of
electors, who in their turn elect members to represent the government in
the Duma. Only males who have reached the age of twenty-five have the
right to vote; and all those who are in any branch of military service
are excluded.
The voters are (_a_) those who vote by property qualification—that is to
say, persons residing in the various districts who can satisfy a
property qualification, the amount and classification of which depends
upon their occupation. For instance, landowners are classified according
to the amount of land they possess, and merchants or all persons engaged
in commercial pursuits, according to their trade licence. This class of
voter must either own immovable property, hold a trade licence, be in
the receipt of a pension and salary arising from his employment in the
Government, municipal, or railway service, or be the occupant of a
lodging hired in his name.
For such voters one year’s residence in the polling district is
required.
As the qualification is high, the number of voters is necessarily
limited.
(_b_) A second class of voter consists of peasants whose names are on
the rolls of the rural communities—that is to say, heads of households.
One year’s residence in the polling district is necessary for them also.
(_c_) A third class, consisting of town voters, artisans, and employees
in factories, works, and railway shops. Six months’ residence in polling
district is required.
An election is carried on thus:—
All the voters are divided into five groups: Landowners; peasants; town
voters (two groups according to their property qualification); artisans,
etc.
Each of these groups elects separately, by a system of two degrees, a
certain number of electors who shall represent them at a general meeting
of the government or province. This large Provincial Assembly,
consisting of landowners, peasants, and town dwellers, meets together,
and elects a certain number of members to represent the government or
province in the Duma. In this assembly the landed class interest and the
richer merchants and town dwellers have the advantage in numbers, and
are consequently in the majority. In order therefore to safeguard to a
certain extent the interests of the other classes, the Government
Assembly must first of all elect one member to represent each of the
following classes:—
(_a_) The peasants;
(_b_) Landowners;
(_c_) The town electors (only in certain governments);
(_d_) The artisans (only in six governments).
And as each government is entitled to return a certain number of members
fixed by the law,[6] the requisite number is completed by electing
members from the remaining total of electors.
There are two exceptions to the general procedure: the largest cities,
and Siberia, Poland, and the Caucasus (where the procedure is somewhat
different). The larger cities—St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, and
Riga—vote according to property qualification, and elect members
directly to the Duma.
The result of this complicated system of suffrage is that the landed
interest and the wealthier classes are predominant in the Duma, and
consequently the Conservative element is the strongest.
The Radical, Social Democratic, and Labour element which exists in the
Duma is furnished by the big towns, with their direct elective system,
and the election of members representing the peasant class, which is
always guaranteed—and the artisan class, which is to some extent
guaranteed—by the elective assemblies of every government.
All that I have written so far concerns the instruments of legislation.
The administration of the country, the actual business of government, is
carried out by the Senate, the Council of Ministers, the governors of
the provinces, the Zemstvos (county councils), and, as far as religious
affairs are concerned, by the Holy Synod. The highest administrative
institution of the State is the Senate. The Ruling Senate was founded by
Peter the Great in 1711, with the object of representing him and acting
on his behalf during his frequent absences. Its functions, which are
essentially the same to-day as they were then, only on a larger scale,
consist in supervising all branches of administration and in seeing that
the laws are carried out throughout the country. The Ruling Senate, at
the same time, is the high court of justice for the empire, the highest
court of appeal in administrative matters, and exercises supreme
control; it promulgates all laws, and supervises the courts of law.
The Senate has several sub-departments, which have various functions,
the most important of which is that of checking the executive power,
and seeing that it is exercised in accordance with the law. The
department to which this function belongs is also charged with the
promulgation of a law, and may refuse to promulgate it if the law is
contrary to the fundamental laws. A procurator, representing the
Crown, is attached to every department of the Senate, who is
subordinate to the Minister of Justice. The latter, in this
connection, is called the Procurator-General.
The Senate also examines complaints brought against Ministers,
governors, or provincial and district officials. The senators are
appointed by the Emperor.
The Council of Ministers consists of the Ministers and heads of
administration.
There are twelve Ministries: Foreign Affairs, War, Admiralty, Finance,
Education, Ways and Communications, Agriculture, Justice, Commerce and
Industry, the Imperial Court, the Interior, and the Department of
Government Control.
Each individual Minister is bound to bring before the Council all Bills
that are destined to come before the Duma and the Council of Empire; all
proposals concerning changes in the staff in the chief offices of higher
and local administration; and all reports which have been drawn up for
presentation to the Sovereign.[7]
Russia is divided for purposes of administration into provinces called
governments. Peter the Great was the first Russian ruler to make such a
division. He divided the country into eight governments. Catherine II.
increased the number to 40. At the present day there are 78
governments—49 in European Russia, 10 in Poland, 8 in Finland, 7 in the
Caucasus, 4 in Siberia.
There are besides these governments, twenty-three provinces which are
called territories (_oblasti_), which are either incompletely organized
or retain special institutions. They are for the greater part situated
at the extremes of the empire. The average size of a government is
greater than Belgium, Holland, or Switzerland. The divisions were made
artificially and arbitrarily, and the governments in this respect
resemble the French departments.
The governments are divided into districts, which correspond to the
French _arrondissements_. Each province has from eight to fifteen
districts, and is parcelled out for administrative and judicial
purposes, according to its size, between a certain number of officials
called _zemskie nachalniki_, called by some English writers land
captains. These _zemskie nachalniki_ were created in 1889[8] to replace
the local justices of peace, who were abolished in that year. They were
a kind of official squire. The office could in principle only be held by
a member of the hereditary nobility. They exercise executive and
judicial authority over the villages in their area of jurisdiction. I
will discuss their judicial authority later in the chapter on justice.
They have the character of police officers in that they make bye-laws,
and that of magistrates in that they decide on their infringement. They
are nominated by the governor, and appointed by the Minister of the
Interior. They have the control of the peasants’ communal institutions.
All resolutions of the village assemblies and findings of the canton
courts are submitted to them. All the officials of the peasants’
administration are subordinate to them. They have now become, more or
less, officials of the Ministry, and are no longer men of weight or
position among the nobility. The total number of these _zemskie
nachalniki_ in every district form a Board which sits in the district
town once or more every month, as necessity arises. This board is
presided over by the marshal of the nobility of the district, and with
the co-operation of a police official called the _Ispravnik_, who has
charge of the police duties of every district, and of other officials,
constitutes an administrative unit which corresponds to a French
_sous-préfet_.
At the head of every province is a governor, who is proposed by the
Minister of the Interior, and appointed by the emperor. He is
responsible for the administration of the government. His office is not
unlike that of the intendant of the old _régime_ in France, and the
préfet of modern France. Formerly the governor concentrated all the
administrative powers in himself, and every province was a miniature
autocracy. The governor is assisted by a board of Administration, over
which he presides, and which consists of a vice-governor, councillors,
the government medical officer, the government engineer, the architect,
the land surveyor, and their deputies.
The governor can issue special regulations for safeguarding public
order; he exercises control over all the administrative offices and
institutions, all officials and public servants, and the institutions of
local government. All regulations passed by the county or district
councils, or the town corporations, must be confirmed by him; and
likewise the election of all officials elected and appointed by the
local self-governing bodies.
The principal check on the apparently unlimited powers of the central
administration, personified in the various governors, lies in the rights
exercised by the Assembly of Nobles.
The nobility in every district meet once every three years and elect a
president for their district, who is called the marshal of the nobility
of the district.
After this is done, all the nobility of all the districts in the
province unite to elect a president for the province. He is called the
marshal of the nobility of the province. The election of the marshal of
the district must be confirmed by the governor; that of the marshal of
the province is confirmed by the Emperor in person, and by the Emperor
alone.
In order to belong to the Assembly of Nobles, it is necessary, besides
being a noble by birth, to own land in the district or the province; to
possess either a military or civil _tchin_; or in default of this sign
of rank, certificates testifying that you have passed certain
examinations.
The right to assemble and elect marshals for the districts and the
province (and a board of trustees for the orphans of nobles) is all that
remains now of the larger privileges conferred on the nobility by
Catherine II. Those privileges consisted in the right of appointing the
local judges and the chief local officials—that is to say, the county
police. This prerogative lasted until the epoch of the great reforms in
the ’sixties.
But in spite of the loss of their former privileges, the nobility, as
represented in the marshals of the districts, still discharges manifold
duties of an intricate character, and by so doing forms the corner-stone
of local administration, and consequently constitutes a certain check on
the otherwise uncontrolled action of the governor of the province.
As far as administration is concerned, the marshal of the province is
less important than the marshal of the district. He is an _ex officio_
member of the governor’s board of administration, and as such, both by
tradition and by right, he exercises considerable influence, since an
independent influential personality is certain to be elected to the
post.
On the other hand, the duties and powers of the marshal of the district
are more numerous, and stand in closer touch with the machinery of
provincial administration. He is the president of all the executive
committees in the district: all committees that deal with the settlement
of questions relating to the peasants’ land, military conscription, and
the supervision of local schools. He is the president of the district
tribunal (the court of petty sessions), and as such the chief justice of
peace of the district. He is, moreover, the _ex officio_ president of
the Zemstvo Assembly.
The marshal of the district has duties and capacities of a dual nature.
On the one hand he performs representative duties resembling those of a
lord-lieutenant of an English county; and on the other hand, in
conjunction with the board of _zemskie nachalniki_ I mentioned just now,
he fills the place of a French _sous-préfet_. But the important fact
about his position is that he is outside and not inside the central
official administration. His position is inviolable because once he is
elected he is irremovable, save by imperial ukase, except in the case of
his falling under sentence for breaking the law.
The strength of his position lies less in his executive power than in
the fact that he is an independent unit, acting in the machinery of
administration, but outside bureaucratic control, and consequently a
check on the local central administration. He receives no salary, and is
necessarily a man of social position.
Lately, owing to the reactionary tendency towards centralization which
followed the revolutionary movement in Russia, and which has not yet
abated, the influence of the district marshal has been, to a certain
extent, impaired, owing to the greater influence exercised by the
police, who make capital, and lead the central administration to make
capital, out of the fear of revolution.
Besides the Assembly of Nobles there is a further check on the action of
the provincial governor in the office of the procurator. This office is
attached to the divisional courts of justice. And the procurator,
besides acting as public prosecutor and exercising general control over
law courts, has to see that the law is executed. If a governor acts
illegally, the procurator has the right to appeal to the Senate, which
we have already seen fulfils the special duty of examining such
complaints.
Side by side with the Assemblies of the Nobles there exist assemblies of
representatives of different classes.
For the purpose of local self-government European Russia is divided into
village communes, and into groups of communes which form an
administrative unit, called the Canton (_Volost_). The Canton varies in
size, and can include as many as thirty villages. Both the Commune and
the Canton are self-governing. The village is governed by the
Commune—that is to say, the village assembly—which manages the property
of the village and divides it among its members, exercises disciplinary
rights, and has the control of leases of land made to outsiders. But
both as regards the affairs of the Commune and the Canton, the peasants
are, as a class, isolated. The Commune and the Canton can only levy
taxes on their own members.
The Canton has an assembly also. Each Commune sends one man from every
ten households to the Assembly of the Canton, which elects a president
called the Elder, and five judges chosen from the peasants to serve on
the court of the Canton.
The provincial administration is, to some extent, entrusted to elective
District and Provincial Assemblies called Zemstvos.
The Zemstvo was created in 1864. The word _Zemstvo_ means territorial
assembly; the institution corresponds to our county council. There are
two kinds of Zemstvo, the smaller being elected to deal with the affairs
of a single district; the larger is selected by the Zemstvos of all the
districts, and forms a county council for the whole province to deal
with the affairs common to all the districts in that province.
Both the assemblies must be summoned at least once a year. (They sit for
about a fortnight.)
The District Zemstvo Assembly is elected indirectly, and consists on an
average of about forty members. The elections of the District Zemstvo
are organized according to class division, or rather civic status. Each
class elects so many representatives—the peasants so many, the nobility
so many, the town dwellers so many. The number of the representatives of
each class is fixed by law in such way as to give the representatives of
the nobility the preponderance. Thus about half (or more than half) the
members consists of members of the nobility; the remainder are peasants,
and include three or four merchants from the towns. All members are
elected for a term of three years.[9]
The Provincial Zemstvo consists chiefly of members of the nobility,
elected from the District Assemblies.[10]
Both the assemblies elect from amongst themselves a standing committee
(_zemskaya uprava_) of four or five paid officials, which is appointed
for three or four years. These standing committees do practically all
the current work of the district.
The governor of the province has the right to confirm or to refuse to
confirm the election of the presidents and members of the Zemstvo
Assemblies; to institute legal proceedings against them; to exercise a
veto on all resolutions of both bodies. The assemblies have the right of
appeal to the Senate.
The nature of self-government in the towns, and the control exercised
over it is practically the same as that of the Zemstvo institutions.
(The property qualification for the elector is high.)
The importance of the Zemstvo institutions lies in the fact that they
minister to the practical needs of the community. Within their scope are
the ways and communications, the roads, and the Zemstvo post, all
medical and charitable institutions, mutual insurance, prevention of
cattle disease, fire brigades, primary education, and the development of
agriculture and trade.
The practical weakness of the Zemstvo as an institution is that it
possesses no lower elective unit corresponding to a vestry or a parish;
no boards below those of the district, which execute its decisions.
The resources of the Zemstvo consist in taxes, which are levied by the
District and Provincial Zemstvo on land, whether owned by the peasants,
the nobility, or the Crown.
The main characteristic of the Provincial Zemstvo (since it was
remodelled in 1890, before which date it was more democratic) is that it
is extremely reactionary. But the Zemstvo consists, as I have already
said, chiefly of the nobility—that is to say, of members of the more
cultivated classes—and the result of this is, that in spite of its
members being reactionary in views and sentiment, the work done by
assemblies of these reactionary members is, except in times of violent
reaction, such as the period immediately following after the
revolutionary movement, of a progressive nature.
In looking back on the work that the Zemstvo has accomplished during the
last fifty years, one sees clearly that the action of the Zemstvo has
been purely progressive, and the work done has outstripped in liberalism
the views and the opinions of the nobility taken as a class, which
constitute its most important ingredient. This explains the mistrust
which the central administration entertains towards the Zemstvo—even
towards its reactionary members. The representatives of the central
administration, by exercising their right of confirming or cancelling
elections and resolutions, are for ever trying to hinder and hamper the
work of the Zemstvo, and to acquire greater control over it.
In a matter such as the Zemstvo it must by no means be assumed that the
various Ministries in St. Petersburg are necessarily at one. On the
contrary, they may be, and they often are, at sixes and sevens. For
instance, the Ministry of Agriculture is really (and ever since it has
existed always has been) progressive; and since it wishes to get things
done, works with the Zemstvo; and so does the Ministry of Finance, as
far as it is concerned with the Zemstvo. This guarantees a certain
counter influence to that of the Ministry of the Interior, which carries
on the traditional policy of its department, of regarding the Zemstvo as
an enemy.
If we look now at the work which is being accomplished by the Zemstvo in
the various branches which come under its scope, we see a considerable
improvement in medical institutions and in all that regards public
health; a vast improvement in primary education, the progress being
lately so great that there has been a demand for supplementary funds for
education; and quite lately agriculture has taken a sharp bound forward,
and in so doing has received considerable assistance from the State.
Taking the Zemstvo and its work as a whole, as a factor in Russian life
and administration, it is clear that it is the one real and vital
political force in Russia, in spite of the reactionary tendencies of the
majority of its members, and in spite of an important organic weakness
in its constitution, which I have already mentioned—namely, the absence
of a link between the Zemstvo and the people it represents.
It is near to practical life, and it is nearer to the population than
any other institution or body, and since it possesses, in its limited
way, wider facilities for the public discussion of vital interests than
any other institutions, it has during the last fifty years proved the
real organ of public opinion, and the real lever in the matter of
progress, for it was the Zemstvo which voiced the universal desire for
reform in 1905, and contributed in no small way to the changes which
were then made.
All that is here set down, when you read it through, sounds, as far as
the Zemstvo is concerned, as if all were for the best in the best of all
possible worlds; but in practice the work of the Zemstvo is hampered by
the power of the officials appointed by the Central Government, and the
power of these officials is not only used arbitrarily, but sometimes in
a manner definitely contrary to the law. For the governor of the
province, if he cannot absolutely put a stop to the work of the Zemstvo,
can hamper it in every possible way, and put effectual spokes in its
wheels. It is not only that the possibility of his so doing exists, but
the fact is being actually and not seldom experienced at the present
time, owing to the low administrative standard of the governors who are
appointed.
It is worth mentioning also that in the important outlying districts of
Russia—in Poland, the Baltic provinces and the Caucasus—there is no
Zemstvo, and all the duties of the Zemstvo are carried out by a
committee of officials, and the majority of these do their work
extremely badly. Also, in these regions the nobility have no rights.
If you review the Government machine which administrates Russia as a
whole, the same criticism applies. On paper the fundamental laws of the
empire, the rights of the two Houses and of the Senate, and of the
instruments of local self-government, together with the numerous checks
and safeguards against official lawlessness, seem to provide a very fine
working constitution. In practice the rights are often overruled, and
the checks disregarded.
The Duma, by its very existence, of course, is an element of progress,
however indirect; but here again the Government, owing to the nature of
the electoral law, can exert pressure on the elections, and have so far
succeeded in always obtaining a reactionary majority, so that the actual
composition of the Duma is not what it would be if the Government
exerted no pressure at all.
Again, since any form or shade of constitutional government is a new
feature in Russia, in many cases that arise there is no established
precedent which can be referred to, and the course to be taken is
doubtful, but in such cases the benefit of this doubt accrues to the
Government.
In spite of this there is not the slightest doubt that in Russia at
present the existence and the action of the Duma are felt, indirectly,
very widely indeed. And as a rule people who are in the thick of Russian
affairs, the Russians themselves, will not realize this so well as an
outsider.
The existence of the Duma has proved a factor in national progress. And
the outsider, who has had any experience of Russian life in the past,
will at once see that the progress in the general state of affairs from
what existed ten years ago to what exists now has been immense. There is
a great gulf between the period before 1905 and the era which began in
1905. The trouble is that the government and the administration have not
kept step and time with the national progress. And when people say in
exculpation of the faults of any given government, that every country
has the government which it deserves, it may safely be said that the
actual government of Russia is less good than what Russia deserves,
since it is impossible to deny that, in some respects, Russia is
comparatively, relatively, and taking the general state of affairs and
of national progress into consideration, less well governed at
present—as is the case probably with England and most other European
countries—than it was not only in the immediate past, but even in the
days of Alexander II. Hence there exists an increasing political
discontent, into the specific causes of which we will inquire in the
next chapter.