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Show WORK OF THE ZEMSTVOS. It is no doubt the fact that tho world at large Is hearing a great deal more about tho work of the Zemstvos now assembled In St. Petersburg than the Russian people are hearing about It. As stated In an explanatory article In yesterday's Tribune, the Zemstvos are not legislative, but administrative bodies, and their functions are communal commu-nal and provincial. The creation of these bodies wa3 by edict of Alexander II., It is true, but it was after all a reorganization that ho made rather than the creation of something some-thing new. They are a reviyal In permanent per-manent form, with an extension of district dis-trict Jurisdiction, of the old Zemskl Sober, So-ber, or general assembly, which as Mr. Brodhead says In his studies of Russia, the Czars In the sixteenth and seventeenth conturlen summoned at critical moments- Nevertheless, these conferences are not at all in the line of legislation. Alexander Al-exander II. and Alexander III. pn eev-eral eev-eral occasions summoned members of different Zemstvos to conference at St. Pctersbury; but they were summoned as "experts," and were lo report, and not to lay out public work or public functions. It Is of couro Impracticable to summon sum-mon the various Zemstvos en masae; the Czar always selects those members of these local or district bodies whom he wishes to confer with, and so It Is in this case, the Idea being always carefully care-fully suppressed that these "experts" have any power of Initiative, or that they really represent the people, or that the people arc entitled to be represented, rep-resented, In tho general government or administration of tho country; fo'rr In Russia tho Czar Is nil In all, and the people are his servants. Tho Zemstvos are Immensely popular popu-lar with all factions nnd classes In Rus- sla, and it Is practically certain that the beginning of popular representation ond popular legislative assemblies will spring from them. But at present, In so far as any Idea might be conveyed to the American mind that the present assemblage of members of the local Zemstvos who were chosen by the Czar to confer'wlth his Ministry, represents what we understand by even a crude form of legislative body, It would be a mistaken Idea. The Ccnr calls such mebers of the Zemstvos as he desires, ' and they come, not from the people, but at his will, and they are responsible to him alone. |