ation and
legislation whenever the interests of the empire were concerned. This
claim meant practically the restoration of the old Bobrikoff regime and
was based on the same ideas as those underlying the February manifesto
of 1899. M. Stolypin attempts to justify his attitude by arguing that
the constitutional relations between Russia and Finland are determined
only by Clause 4 of the Treaty of Peace between Russia and Sweden,
dated September 17,1809. This clause runs as follows:

"His Majesty the King of Sweden renounces irrevocably and forever, on
behalf of himself as well as on behalf of his successors to the Swedish
throne and realm, and in favor of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia and
his successors to the Russian throne and empire, all his rights and
titles of the governments enumerated hereafter which have been
conquered by the arms of his Imperial Majesty from the Swedish Army, to
wit: the Provinces of Kymmenegard, etc.

"These provinces, with all their inhabitants, towns, ports, forts,
villages, and islands, with their appurtenances, privileges, and
revenues, shall hereafter under full ownership and sovereignty belong
to the Russian Empire and be incorporated with the same."

After quoting this clause, M. Stolypin exclaimed, "This is the act, the
title, by which Russia possesses Finland, the one and only act which
determines the mutual relations between Russia and Finland."

Now this clause contains no reference whatever to the autonomy of the
Grand Duchy, and if it were the only act by which the mutual relations
of Russia and Finland were determined, then Finland would have no
constitution. The political autonomy of Finland, which has been
recognized for exactly one hundred years, would have been without legal
foundation. Even M. Stolypin admits that Finland enjoys autonomy.
"There must be no room for the suspicion," he said, "that Russia would
violate the rights of autonomy conferred on Finland by the monarch." On
what, then, does the claim to Finnish autonomy rest and how was it
conferred? Clause 6 of the Treaty of Peace contains the following
passage:

"His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, having already given the
most manifest proofs of the clemency and justice with which he has
resolved to govern the inhabitants of the provinces which he has
acquired, by generosity and by his own spontaneous act assuring to them
the free exercise of their religion, rights, property, and privileges,
his Swedi