The Provisional Executive Committee of the Duma, with the aid and support of the garrison of the capital and its inhabitants, has now triumphed over the baneful forces of the old régime in such a manner as to enable it to proceed to the more stable organization of the executive power. With this object, the Provisional Committee will name ministers of the first national cabinet men whose past public activity assures them the confidence of the country. The new cabinet will adopt the following principles as the basis of its policy: 1. An immediate amnesty for all political and religious offenses, including military revolts, acts of terrorism, and agrarian crimes. 2. Freedom of speech, of the press, of associations and labor organizations, and the freedom to strike; with an extension of these liberties to officials and troops, in so far as military and technical conditions permit. 3. The abolition of social, religious, and racial restrictions and privileges. 4. Immediate preparation for the summoning of a Constituent Assembly, which, with universal suffrage as a basis, shall establish the governmental régime and the constitution of the country. 5. The substitution for the police of a national militia, with elective heads and subject to the self-governing bodies. 6. Communal elections to be carried out on the basis of universal suffrage. 7. The troops that have taken part in the revolutionary movement shall not be disarmed, but they are not to leave Petrograd. 8. While strict military discipline must be maintained on active service, all restrictions upon soldiers in the enjoyment of social rights granted to other citizens are to be abolished. Meantime the Emperor, “the Little Father,” at first thoroughly incredulous of the gravity of the situation, had at last become alarmed. He appointed General Ivanov Commander-in-Chief of the army, and ordered him to proceed to Petrograd at the head of a division of loyal troops. General Ivanov set out, but his train was held up at Tsarskoe-Selo, and he returned to Pskov. The Czar himself then started for the city, but he, too, was held up at the little station of Bologoi, where workmen had pulled up the track, and he returned to Pskov. He sent for Ruzsky and declared that he was ready to yield to the Duma and grant a responsible ministry. Ruzsky advised him to get in touch with Rodzianko, and as a result of a telephone communication with Rodzianko and with several of his trusted generals, it became clear that there was no other course than abdication. Guchkov and Shulgin, messengers from the Duma, arrived on the evening of March 15th, and found the Emperor alone, except for his aide-de-camp, Count Fredericks. “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “You must abdicate,” Guchkov told him, “in favor of your son, with the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch as Regent.”