As soon as the Duma had "come to order" it
elected Professor Mouromtseff President He immediately called on M. Ivan Petrunkevitch, an old combatant for freedom and for years an exile, to mount the rostrum. His first words were to declare that they owed a debt of honour to those who had sacrificed their freedom to their country. "All the prisons are filled ; freedom must have no more victims!" The second meeting of the Duma is to be held to-day. The Times correspondent tells us that the President intends in his first report to the Czar to convey the sentiment of the House on three points,— amnesty, Constitutional Monarchy, and the Duma's right of initiative in legislation. Such aggressive action was not originally intended. It is the result of the deep resentment caused by the new organic law and stimulated by the Speech from the Throne. All true friends of Russia—and they include the vast vajority of the British people—ardently desire a happy solution of the present crisis. But the Czar must not turn back. To do that will be fatal. If he cannot endure the Duma, he will find himself confronted with Assemblies infinitely more dangerous, and may even—which God forbid ! —have to face the judgment of a frenzied people,—the most ruthless and unjust of all tribunals. He must throw respon- sibility on the Duma. That is his only safe course.
