Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/55

 Court and Imperial Family, the yearly interest on the State Loans and so on. In the Budget of 1908, these protected items amounted to 1,164,000,000 roubles, i.e. they made up 47 per cent, of the whole of the Budget expenses. If you consider that out of the remaining 53 per cent.—the "non-protected" expenses—a large part cannot be exactly determined in advance, as they belong to different branches of the State economy and can only be approximately estimated at the beginning of the year, you will see how small the financial power of the Duma really is. But that is not all. Even if its members should try to use their rights in order to reject some non-protected item of expense—such an item as had already figured in the previous year's Budget—in that case, the only result would be that the figure of the previous year's Budget would be substituted. It is only entirely new and unprecedented expenses which can be struck out of the Budget with practical results. But the most important thing is that the permission of the Duma can be evaded altogether for all expenses necessary for war, and also for preparations for war, and even in all cases of urgent necessity. You can easily guess what happens when circumstances like the present occur. In such cases the regular Budget presented to the Duma does not at all reflect the real state of things. Also in such important matters as signing commercial treaties, giving concessions for the construction of railways, determining the details of a foreign loan and the tariffs, and so on, the Duma is not asked to give its help and consent.

We find the same thing when we come to the third chapter of the Duma's rights, the control of the