his speech was interpreted as a promise that the Diet would participate regularly in the development of national and social conditions.

The most important matters subsequently considered were constitutional questions concerning Diet reforms, and calling for sessions to be held at stated intervals. Soon after the Diet ended its session a committee was appointed by the Czar to prepare proposals on these matters, and so rapidly did the committee work that in 1865 the recommendations were already sent to the Czar. But the proposals were not acted upon, because in Russia itself the trend toward uniformity in government was gaining ground the period of optimism, when the Diet had actually been in session, already seemed to belong irretrievably to the past.

Three years later, however, the Estates were invited to assemble again. The most important matters which the Finns agreed upon were Diet reforms, on the basis of new laws prepared in cautious form and conservative fashion: the division into Estates was retained, but the Diet was to meet every fifth year. The further right to initiate legislation was not to come until 1886, while another weak point in the law was the lack of steps to broaden the franchise. In discussing the proposals, some had favored general elections and even the equal right to vote; however, it was realized that Finland's position would have been a stumbling block to carrying through such far-reaching reforms. Not until forty years later was the Diet to be replaced by a truly democratic parliament.

The halt in further governmental reforms in Finland was due to storm clouds rising in the eastern sky. The study of Hegelian philosophy in Russia had led to a national awakening there, as it had in Finland, and the Slavophile movement had been born: it stressed innate Russian superiority over anything and everything foreign. In particular, the importance of the Orthodox Church was increased. In glorifying everything native, everything foreign appeared hostile, and for the security of the empire anything western was considered dangerous. During the reign of Alexander II certain ideas had become prevalent in the west, and had slowly begun to win ground in Russian society, which Russia in general considered revolutionary. But alongside these, an extremist wing advocating the overthrow of the existing social structure also gained support. Michael Bakunin, who originally had been a Slavophile, had become the leader of this faction after he left the country; after the Russian government discovered the inflammatory role Bakunin was playing, it ordered all students studying

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