The Address was enthusiastically received by the majority of the
Members, and on Wednesday the debate on it began. As there is no real Opposition, the discussion bad little interest, and was chiefly remarkable for the more or less doctrinaire reforms proposed as amendments by various Members. Even on the land question the numerous landlords in the House are not prepared to oppose the Address, since they have come to the conclusion that the agrarian difficulty can only be met by some such heroic remedy as expropriation. On the question of the amnesty the Duma is practically unanimous. The leaders of the Constitutional Democrats wish this to be granted as a consequence of the Address, and therefore they are anxious that the debate should not be too prolonged in case the .Czar should grant it as an act of grace on May 19th on the occasion of his birthday. The Council of the Empire have shown themselves hostile to a complete amnesty ; but it is generally believed that the same considerations will induce them to modify their views. For the rest, the new Duma does not differ- greatly from older representative bodies. There is a
good deal of loquacity, chiefly on the part of the peasants and the workmen, who either do not know how to speak or have learned in the bad school of the streets, and in the Address debate a five-minutes rule has bad to be passed. But on the whole the temper of the Assembly is conspicuously moderate, and the Address itself is a sober and creditable production.
