PARLIAMENTS IN RUSSIA AND SERVIA.
REPRESENTATIVE institutions are on their trial in a fashion som what different from that contemplated by Prince Albert : tneree" are signs of a disposition to try them in countries which are at present without any such machinery. The Emperor of Russia it is (reported, has convened a Parliament of nobles to discus; the emancipation of the serfs. We have no desire to exaggerate this announcement ; we do not attempt to disguise the fact that we have very little information about the intended Parliament, tie nature of its functions, or even the occasion for convening it. The proposed emancipation of the serfs is a mystery as yet unexplained . we may conjecture the motives ; we can scarcely conjecture the' meanm. g of those incendiary and tumultuary proceedings which might be supposed to imply, either that the serfs are too impatient to await the forms of emancipation, or else that they have seen reason to fear that the proffered boon may be withdrawn. We do not suppose that any bill will be laid before the assembly to which the Barons of Russia will be able to refuse assent.* Parliament will probably be nothing more than the word philo- logically means—a meeting summoned for a talk. Practically it will consist in a mustering of the ruling powers of Russia, local as well as Imperial, the de facto influencers and controllers of the millions of population, in order to come to a common understand- ing, and to settle measures, which will thus be, if not embodied in statutes, the joint act of that Parliament. But what is this, save the identical embryo in which our own Parliament began, when John met the nobles of the country and arranged with them to convert the conflicting powers of Crown and aristocracy into a joint concurrent power, with some consideration for the humbler classes ? We judge unfairly of Russia when we sneer at the absence of any middle class ; complain that the merchants who are rising into existence do not yet enjoy consideration; speak of the peasants as slaves, and point to the first Russian peerage, and the barbarous incidents that mark the achievements of the men enrolled in that Libro d' Oro. Under the reign of Victoria, we are contemporary with a Russia of the reign of John, or at least of the Tudor,; and all young families have a good deal of rough conduct to account for.
But this commencement of a Russian Parliament is interesting, not only as a sign that the country is about to enter upon a new stage of its organized development, but as a memento to ourselves with regard to the essentials of Parliament. Their true business is just what we have said,—the convening of those who exercise an influence beyond their individual sphere, in order to have a talk, to the end that conflicting powers may be converted into a concurrent power ; and the Government of that country is strong- est which thus procures from the heart of the nation the greatest amount of such auxiliary support.
Rather a strange light, indeed, is thrown upon the Russian in- novation by the demand of the Servians for a General Assembly. The claim is made by those who are endeavouring to counteract, if not to oppose, Prince Alexander Georgevicz, and who are under- stood to be acting in the interests of Russia. Be it so ; it is still difficult to offer a sound argument against the claim. Moldavia and Wallachia are to have their Assemblies ; why not Servia, or Roumelia, or any other province of Turkey, if it can present a class of men coming under the description that we have given above,—men who exercise an influence beyond their individual range, and can present themselves as constituting nationally a class ? As soon as any such class exists in a country, with a power of forming a collective opinion, and acting corporately, it must either be included in the representation to make up the sum of concurrent power in the country, or, as a power existing but excluded, it must constitute a source of danger to the ruling Go- vernment. In Russia it would be preposterous to speak of any class as meeting this description except the nobles. The serfs probably would. -hardly know what to do if they were brought to- gether for any but some perfectly simple object ; and the merchant or trading class constitute at present, in our sense of the word, an exceptional body. Heretofore the Emperor of Russia has excluded
. the nobles from representation as one of the concurrent authori- ties ; and the latent power of the class, therefore, has found vent and satisfaction in conspiracies. Such abnormal conspiracies would be superseded by the formation of a Parliament, which is a chronic conspiracy,—only relieved of its dangerous attributes.
The rule which we have stated, and which we believe. to be deduced from the simple history of nations, not only explains and justifies the step taken by the Emperor Alexander, to have a talk with his nobles, but also presents the rationale of successive.parr, liamentary statutes in our own country, our "Reform B. illf from Magna Charts downwards. As a country advances in in- telligence, as the people acquire new information and become conscious of their own power, each class in turn acquires a public opinion of its own, with a capacity for acting in a cor- porate form ; and as soon as that class presents itself with these qualifications, it can only be refused admission into the national representation at the peril of those who exclude it. The lesson. which we see the Czar conning in the accidence of parhamentarY philosophy is, we say, no bad, memorandum for ourselves. oi the primary and essential condition which necessitates while it jruila- fies a gradual expansion of the parliamentary system. • We use the word Barons in our own English sense, to mean the cting.nobilitf of the country. The mere title of" Baron "-is not of high account in e
Previous page
