Ominous signs of a reversal of policy had appeared before, but the first official expression to it was given in the speech of M. Stolypin already referred to.  In this speech he claimed for Russia as the sovereign power the right of control over Finnish administration and legislation whenever the interests of the empire were concerned.  This claim meant practically the restoration of the old Bobrikoff regime and was based on the same ideas as those underlying the February manifesto of 1899.  M. Stolypin attempts to justify his attitude by arguing that the constitutional relations between Russia and Finland are determined only by Clause 4 of the Treaty of Peace between Russia and Sweden, dated September 17,1809.  This clause runs as follows: 

“His Majesty the King of Sweden renounces irrevocably and forever, on behalf of himself as well as on behalf of his successors to the Swedish throne and realm, and in favor of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia and his successors to the Russian throne and empire, all his rights and titles of the governments enumerated hereafter which have been conquered by the arms of his Imperial Majesty from the Swedish Army, to wit:  the Provinces of Kymmenegard, etc.

“These provinces, with all their inhabitants, towns, ports, forts, villages, and islands, with their appurtenances, privileges, and revenues, shall hereafter under full ownership and sovereignty belong to the Russian Empire and be incorporated with the same.”

After quoting this clause, M. Stolypin exclaimed, “This is the act, the title, by which Russia possesses Finland, the one and only act which determines the mutual relations between Russia and Finland.”

Now this clause contains no reference whatever to the autonomy of the Grand Duchy, and if it were the only act by which the mutual relations of Russia and Finland were determined, then Finland would have no constitution.  The political autonomy of Finland, which has been recognized for exactly one hundred years, would have been without legal foundation.  Even M. Stolypin admits that Finland enjoys autonomy.  “There must be no room for the suspicion,” he said, “that Russia would violate the rights of autonomy conferred on Finland by the monarch.”  On what, then, does the claim to Finnish autonomy rest and how was it conferred?  Clause 6 of the Treaty of Peace contains the following passage: 

“His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, having already given the most manifest proofs of the clemency and justice with which he has resolved to govern the inhabitants of the provinces which he has acquired, by generosity and by his own spontaneous act assuring to them the free exercise of their religion, rights, property, and privileges, his Swedish Majesty considers himself thereby released from performing the otherwise sacred duty of making reservations in the above respects in favor of his former subjects.”