but to participate in them.  When the returns were published it was found that the Social Democrats and the Socialist-Revolutionists had each elected over sixty deputies, the total being nearly a third of the membership—­455.  In addition there were some ninety members in the peasants’ Labor Group, which were semi-Socialist.  There were 117 Constitutional Democrats.  The government supporters, including the Octobrists, numbered less than one hundred.

From the first the attitude of the government toward the new Duma was one of contemptuous arrogance.  “The Czar’s Hangman,” Stolypin, lectured the members as though they were naughty children, forbidding them to invite experts to aid them in framing measures, or to communicate with any of the zemstvos or municipal councils upon any questions whatsoever.  “The Duma was not granted the right to express disapproval, reproach, or mistrust of the government,” he thundered.  To the Duma there was left about as much real power as is enjoyed by the “governments” of our “juvenile republics.”

As a natural consequence of these things, the Second Duma paid less attention to legislation than the First Duma had done, and gave its time largely to interpellations and protests.  Partly because of the absence of some of the most able leaders they had had in the First Duma, and partly to the aggressive radicalism of the Socialists, which they could only half-heartedly approve at best, the Constitutional Democrats were less influential than in the former parliament.  They occupied a middle ground—­always a difficult position.  The real fight was between the Socialists and the reactionaries, supporters of the government.  Among the latter were perhaps a score of members belonging to the Black Hundreds, constituting the extreme right wing of the reactionary group.  Between these and the Socialists of the extreme left the assembly was kept at fever pitch.  The Black Hundreds, for the most part, indulged in violent tirades of abuse, often in the most disgusting profanity.  The Socialists replied with proletarian passion and vigor, and riotous scenes were common.  The Second Duma was hardly a deliberative assembly!

On June 1st Stolypin threw a bombshell into the Duma by accusing the Social Democrats of having conspired to form a military plot for the overthrow of the government of Nicholas II.  Evidence to this effect had been furnished to the Police Department by the spy and provocative agent, Azev.  Of course there was no secret about the fact that the Social Democrats were always trying to bring about revolt in the army and the navy.  They had openly proclaimed this, time and again.  In the appeal issued at the time of the dissolution of the First Duma they had called upon the army and navy to rise in armed revolt.  But the betrayal of their plans was a matter of some consequence.  Azev himself had been loudest and most persistent in urging the work on.  Stolypin demanded that all the Social Democrats be excluded