sters, except
that Prince Khilkof, who had learned practical railroading in the
United States, was appointed Minister of Public Works. Pobiedonostzeff
continued as Procurator of the Holy Synod.

Nicholas showed greater leniency toward Poland and Finland than his
father had done. He revoked several of his father's ukases and seemed
to be willing to treat them fairly. Finland's forests are a source of
great prosperity and the Russian officials have long been anxious to
secure a share. When the Secretary of State for Finland resigned,
General Kuropatkin became Minister of War, and he wished to introduce
Russia's military system. General Bobrikof, a brusque and haughty man,
was appointed Governor-general with instructions to proceed with the
conversion of the Finns into Slavs. He convoked an extraordinary
session of the Diet, January 24, 1899, and submitted Kuropatkin's
scheme, with a strong hint that it must pass. The Diet ignored the
hint and rejected the scheme, whereupon Bobrikof ignored the Diet and
published it as a law to go into effect in 1903. An imperial ukase of
February 15, 1899, reorganized the Diet according to a plan drawn up
by Pobiedonostzeff. Bobrikof increased the rigor of the press
censorship, but the Finns remained within the law. A petition was (p. 253)
circulated which in ten days secured 500,000 signatures, and a
delegation was sent to St. Petersburg to present it. The delegation
was not admitted.

In January, 1895, the czar received a deputation of all classes of his
subjects who hinted that the zemstvos might be used as the germ of a
constitutional government. He replied that he believed in autocracy
and that he intended to maintain it as his predecessors had done. On
the 26th of May, 1896, he was crowned at Moscow with more than usual
splendor, and in the same year he and the czarina made a tour through
Europe. After visiting the German Emperor and Queen Victoria, they
went to Paris where the czar, after reviewing 100,000 soldiers
declared that the Empire and the Republic were united in indissoluble
friendship. The visit was returned by the President of the French
Republic, M. Faure, in August, 1897. On this occasion the world
received notice that an alliance existed between the two powers, and
that, if one of them was attacked by more than one power, the other
would assist with the whole of its military and naval strength, and
peace could be concluded only in concert between the allies.

Two