290 PROJECTS FOR REFORMING THE PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION
of Ministers on the local level. The organization and operating proce-
dures of the Lieutenant's council were similar to those of the council
of a ministry. The Council's composition would be as follows: the
Governor General (or Lieutenant) as president, the regional commander
of the internal police, the regional chief of transportation, and a
Councillor from the Regional Administration. The civil governors, the
provincial marshals of the nobility, the vice governors, the presidents
of the courts, the provincial procurator, the director of the postal office,
and the director of schools might be invited to participate in the
deliberation of questions under their respective jurisdictions. The Coun-
cil was to have a purely advisory function. No decision taken by it had
any force unless confirmed by the Governor General. The functions
of this regional administration were to be purely supervisory, except
in emergencies. It had no authority to issue new rules, edicts, laws, or
to halt the execution o( existing legislation. It could only recommend
such courses of action to St. Petersburg as it deemed useful. 1 The
similarity to the Main Administrations in Western and Eastern Siberia
was unmistakable, except that in Siberia the Governor Generals received
greater executive authority, and quite understandably so, in view of
the region's remoteness from the capital.
Finally Speransky drafted a general statute on the administration
of provinces for the Committee of December 6th, 1826, which discussed
it at length in 1829 and 1830. His draft was adopted by the Committee- with only very minor modifications - but, like all the labors of that
body, it never received legislative sanction. Some of Speransky's basic
ideas, however, were incorporated in the Instruction (N akaz) to the
Governors of 1837 (which, as far as we know, Speransky did not help
to write). This Instruction, defining more carefully the rights and
obligations of the governors, remained the guiding directive throughout
the 19th century. This alone is reason enough for a brief summary and
analysis of Speransky's draft.
The major functions of local government, at whatever level, writes
Speransky, are three in number: general police, economy, and justice.
Like the Emperor at the center, the governor - personally representing
the monarch - supervises the accurate flow of business in all three
branches of the provincial administration. To exercise this function
effectively, the GovernQr has the assistance of a Provincial Administra-
tion (pravlenie), c~mposed of one president, two councillors for the
police and four for the treasury, assessors, and the chiefs of depart-
ments who may be called for consultation on matters affecting their
1 Ibid., pp. 94-95.