9th February.
We published yesterday the Crar's letter to the Senate, containing his "Scheme for the Improvement.of the Administration of the State." It, will. be remembered that the telegrams received at the time told us that.the scheme bad been received by. the Russian Press with uowixed approval but that gradually, as the papers came to examine it, they aod the unwilling conclusion, that the blessings it promised were entirely illusory, that the scheme was the work of an irresolute man, always "letting I dare not wait upon would," anxious to benefit, his people but afraid to take the only practical measures to that end. Ifthe burenuerncy and the Ho y Synod were to be persuad: d to allow the alleviations which the Czar recognised as necessary to the maintenance of tranquil. lity and to " the uninterrupted satisfaction ut the daily needs.of the people," there would still remain the one obstacle, iz the autocratic principle which to the Czar is sacrosanct, without whose removal there cannot be true freedom in Russia.
The first criticism of the decree which the " Economist" makes in its issue of the 31st of December last, is that it "leaves everything to the will of its suther, If that author were strong and resolute, the decree mizht have renl and grent eff. ct on the constitutional future of Russia." The already decree shows that the Czar at the moment of i's issue was full of good intentions, He cannot vary or dispense with the fundamental laws of the empire, he says, but he is quite ready to show untiring care for the needs of the country. tHe will permit essential innovations in l: gislation, but he must be quite sure that the interests in which they are proposed are real interests and not mere passing tendencies.. Every suggested concession to popular demands, is qualified in this mauver; everything that is given has a string to it by which it may be drawn back.
The, "Economist" goes on to discuss the decree, which, it says,, " hag the promise of very large reforms. The chief vice of Russian adminis tration is the absence of any security for personal liberty. No man knows, for what he may be arrested, and, once arrested, what has become of him may remain for ever a secret. This, it the decree were carried out, would be possible no longer. Every Russ'an subject would be able to call the an horities o account itor arbitrary arrest.tines, form, enact eessitares the Th of all phe ence op: i tional abolition to the aupowCher' gi
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.