Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/111

Rh always be quoted in favour of the thesis that constitutionalism was prophylactic of revolution.

In Russia under Alexander, as everywhere else, the English example exercised notable influence. Alexander's friend Kočubei had been educated in London; Novosilcev, who played an important part in this connection immediately after Alexander became tsar, had lived in London for a considerable time; Sporanskii was a friend of Bentham's brother and had an English wife. Many other members of the official circle were admirers of England.

In the early days of his reign Alexander appointed an unofficial committee to draft plans for a thorough reform of the administration. The labours of the committee were continued for two years, and the tsar took personal part in its deliberations.

In 1804 Alexander commissioned Baron Rosenkampf to formulate a constitution for Russia, while in the following year he established a privy cabinet to supervise liberalising endeavours. In 1807 this cabinet was made a permanent institution, and it lasted until 1829.

Repeatedly and with indefatigable energy Speranskii brought forward constitutionalist plans during the years 1803, 1808, 1809, and 1813. From 1806 to 1812 this statesman was in close personal touch with the tsar. Alexander gave special approval to the mature Introduction to the Code of National Laws, written in the year 1809; but the admirer of Napoleon, infirm of will, could not make up his mind to carry out the scheme. The views of the historian Karamzin, brought forward in 1811; in the form then customary of a memorial (Old and New Russia in Political and Civil Relationships), gained the upper hand.

Speranskii was an able administrator and a philosophically trained publicist. His plans for constitutionalist reform show him to have been a practical politician, one whose aims were realisable in the given conditions. From the position of mathematical teacher at the seminary he rose to that of the most powerful of Alexander's councillors. His sympathies were with the eighteenth-century enlightenment, with Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Rousseau; with Blackstone and the English constitutionalists; and with the philosopher Locke. Through and through a man of the progressive eighteenth century, the Russian influences that moulded him were those of Radiščev and his school.