PLANS OF REFORM 133disorder. And yet the defects arising out of this situation are not as
noticeable there as they are in Russia, for in England and Prussia they
are balanced by good administration, good monarchical government. 1
By mentioning England and Prussia in the same breath, Speransky
clearly shows that he means by constitution only a clear and orderly
pattern of administration based on the rule of law. In such a definition,
as we have seen, Alexander I and the members of the Unofficial
Committee could fully concur.
From these various considerations, Speransky concludes that the
Russian state should devote its attention first to reforms which will
bring immediate results, namely in the fields of police and economy.
If an improvement is achieved there, the judiciary will be improved
automatically, and eventually the fundamental laws of the realm
themselves will follow suit. In other words, without changing the
existing system basically, without seeking to establish an ideal monarchy
right away, much can be done to eliminate the prevailing administrative
confusion and bad conditions. A well regulated and orderly monarchical
regime ("constitution" in Speransky's terminology at the time) obtains
when the various organs of the state are responsible for their actions.
Speransky distinguishes two forms of responsibility: as to form
(external) and as to contents. The former may exist even in arbitrary,
tyrannical governments, as long as certain formalities of procedure are
observed. The latter, however, implies that the government and its
organs harmonize their actions with the true spirit of the existing
laws, whatever these laws may be. Naturally, Speransky wishes to
establish the second type of responsibility, alone characteristic of a
"true monarchy." Careful not to neglect any means, however inadequate,
for bringing Russia closer to good government, Speransky hastens to add
that even the first type of purely external, formal responsibility might
prove useful. 2 The establishment of uniform executive and admin-
istrative procedures, subject to control as to their form, can be the first
step towards an order based on the rule of law. "By establishing it
[procedural responsibility] the autocratic ruler abandons administration
without.accountability and in the persons of his ministers, he subjects
his own power to the law." 3 In answer to possible objections from
those who might remind him that even after the creation of ministries
the ministers had exercised their power without accounting for it and
sometimes in disregard of the law, Speransky explains that procedural
1 ibid., pp. 191-193, 195-198.
2 ibid., p. 168.
3 ibid., p. 169.