“With an ardent belief in a prosperous future for Russia, I welcome in you the best men, to whose election I commanded my beloved subjects to proceed.
“Difficult and complicated labours await you, but I believe that the ardent wishes of the dear native land will inspire you and will unite you.
“I with unwavering firmness will uphold the institutions which I have established, in the firm conviction that you will devote all your powers to the self-sacrificing service of the Fatherland, to a clear presentation of the needs of the peasants, which lie so close to my heart, to the enlightenment of the people, and to the development of its well-being. You must realize that for the great welfare of the State, not only is Liberty necessary, but also order on the basis of law.
“May my ardent wishes be fulfilled! may I see my people happy, and be able to bequeath to my son as his inheritance a firmly-established, well-ordered, and enlightened State!
“May God bless me, in conjunction with the Council of Empire and the Duma, in the work before us, and may this day prove the rejuvenation of Russia’s moral outlook and the reincarnation of her best powers.
“Go to the work to which I have summoned you, and justify worthily the trust of your Tsar and your country! God help me and you!”
[8] The following were the chief points suggested by the Committee for the answer to the Tsar’s speech. They defined the programme of the majority:—The responsibility of Ministers to the majority in the Duma; universal suffrage (women’s suffrage was afterwards added); the abolition of the State Council; the necessity of land reform and universal education; the equality of rights for all classes before the law; freedom of conscience, person, domicile, speech, press, and meeting; control of the budget and redistribution of taxation; local self-government for separate nationalities; amnesty and the abolition of capital punishment.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.
2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.