120 PLANS OF REFORMpower entrusted to them against theii' peoples ... then, the peoples
found it necessary to add specific rules and to determine more
clearly what they wanted. These rules are called the fundamental
laws of the state, and their collection is a general statute or
constitution. 1
From this, however, let us not conclude too rashly, as many historians
have done, that Speransky advocated a constitution similar to the
American or French ones. Examining his language more closely, we
realize that the word constitution had for him the connotation of a
body of traditions, principles, rights, and privileges not necessarily set
down in a written document. Yet, he was quite vague and somewhat
inconsistent on this point. On the one hand he maintained that funda-
mental laws, the permanent rules which determine the relationships
between rulers and people, were not to be found in written documents
and parchments. On the other hand, he spoke of setting up a distribu-
tion of "forces" in such a way that no single force could become
prevalent. Referring specifically to Blackstone and Filangieri, Speransky
noted that had the government of England no other limitation than
the "visible," i.e. written, separation of powers, it still would be a
tyranny, in spite of the existence of parliament and parliamentary
debates - as had been so clearly shown by the reign of Henry VIII. 2
And if further proof were needed, despite the pompous privileges and
rights of some Russian groups or institutions, Russia was ruled without
clear, permanent, fundamental laws. With the fate of the decree on
the rights of the Senate in mind, Speransky added: "those are making
a great mistake who think that rights granted to various classes or
privileges given to various judicial and legislative institutions can render
the laws solid or establish a system of administration. It is only an
edifice built on sand:' 3 Laws that are not based solidly on the true
relationships prevailing in a nation and which do not reflect the
pattern of the people's life can, at the very best, serve only an educa-
tional function: "The only benefit that laws can derive from their
formal characteristics is to acquaint the people with the concepts of
rights. And if the laws remain inviolate over a span of many years,
and find support in the rulers' moral qualities, they can become so
engrained in the minds of the people that it will be more difficult and
also more dangerous to abolish them subsequently. But it is evident
1 V. I. Semevskii, "Pervyi politicheskii traktat Speranskogo", Russkoe Bogatstvo
(1907), No.1, pp. 62-63 - hereafter cited as "Pervyi politicheskii traktat."
2 "Pervyi politicheskii traktat," pp. 64-65.
3 ibid., pp. 66-67.