this larger measure of liberty and
of authority over the Ministry, that body had already initiated and put
in force new and more vigorous methods of suppression. Under M.
Durnovo, Minister of the Interior, a law had been promulgated known as
the Law of Reinforced Defense. Under the provisions of this law, high
officials, or subordinates designated by them, were clothed with
authority to arrest, imprison, and punish with exile or death, without
warrant, without accusation, or any judicial procedure whatever.

On July 16, 1906, M. Makaroff, Assistant Secretary of the Interior,
appeared personally before the _Duma_; and in answer to thirty-three
interpellations concerning as many specific cases of imprisonment
without resort to the courts, frankly replied: "Yes. We have held the
persons named in prison for the time mentioned without warrant or
accusation; and some of these, and many others, have been exiled to
Siberia. But it is a precaution demanded by the situation and the
circumstances; a precaution we are authorized to take by the Law of
Reinforced Defense."

In October of last year (1905) the world was made glad by a manifesto
issued by the Tsar containing these words: "In obedience to our
inflexible will, we hereby make it the duty of our Government to give
to our beloved people freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom
of public assembly, freedom of association, and _real inviolability of
personal rights_." The Tsar had also, with the same solemnity,
declared: "No law shall take effect without the sanction of the _Duma_,
which is also to have _participation in the control of the officials_."
Yet, Ministers and Governors General, or subordinates appointed by
them, may at their own discretion imprison, exile, or kill in defiance
of Imperial command, and find ample protection in the Law of Reinforced
Defense!

The free handling of these governmental methods in the _Duma_, and the
immediate world-wide publicity given to these revelations, if allowed
to continue, must inevitably destroy the cause of Russian Bureaucracy.
There were but two courses open to the Tsar. He must either surrender
the autocratic principle, and in good faith carry out his pledges and
share his authority with his people, or he must disperse a
representative body which flagrantly defied his Imperial will. He
chose the latter course.

Five days after the examination of M. Makaroff, on July 21, 1906, the
first Russian Parliament wa