66 ADMINISTRATIVE A<ITIVITIES 1802-1812
situation and had made many attempts to deal with it by establishing
numerous commissions, committees, and conferences to codify the law of
the Empire.^1 But not one of the codification commissions - there had
been nine in the 18th century alone - had ever completed its assign-
ment or even materially contributed to the improvement of the situa-
tion.
Determined to reform and reorganize the administration of the realmalong clear, legal, bureaucratic lines, Alexander I felt that it was essen-
tial to order Russian law. In 1801 he decided on the establishment of a
new Commission on Laws (the 10th) and explained his motives in a
rescript to Count Zavadovskii, the President of the Commission, dated
June 5, 1801:"Basing the foundation and source of the people's happiness
in a single law; convinced that while other measures can bring
happiness to the state, only the law can secure it for centuries, I
felt the imperative need - from the very first days of my reign
and my first study of the administration - to become acquainted
with the true situation in this field. I have always known that
from the publication of the Ulozhenie [Code of 1649] to our
days, i.e. for about a century and a half, the laws which the
legislative power had issued in various and frequently contradictory
manner - and usually for specific cases and not on the basis of
general considerations - had no connection with each other, no
unity of purpose, no permanence in their effect.
From this there has resulted a general confusion of the rights
and obligations of everyone; a darkness which envelops judge and
accused alike; an impotence in the execution of the laws; and a
convenience in chanL"ing the laws at the first impulse of caprice
or arbitrariness." 2The Commission was established and given its organization by the de-
cree of August 25, 1801 (PSZ 19,989). In spite of the Emperor's active
and interested support, its work did not proceed any more satisfac-
torily than that of its numerous predecessors. The first impulse of the
Commission to collect and order all existing laws was abandoned as a1 A full bibliography on the history of Russian codification will be found in
Chapter XI.
2 Shil'der, Imperator A leksandr I, vol. II, p. 22. The "rescript" is also quoted in
extenso in P. M. Maikov, "Kommissiia sostavleniia zakonov pri imperatorakh Pavle
I i Aleksandre I," Zhurnal Ministerstva Iustitsii, VII, (Sept. 1905), pp. 272-276.
Compare Alexander's words to Turgot's a generation before: "Votre Majeste, tant
qu'elle ne s'ecartera pas de la justice, peut se regarder comme un legislateurabsolu ... Vous etes force de statuer sur tout, et Ie plus souvent par des volontes
particulieres, tandis que vous pourriez gouverner comme Dieu par des lois
generales ... " A. Turgot, "Memoires sur les municipalites," in G. Schelle (ed.),
Turgot: Oeuvres et documents le concernant, vol. 4 (Paris 1922), No. 188, p. 576.