Not the least valuable of the gifts of the " tsar emancipator," Alexander II., to Russia was the judicial System system established by the statute (Sudebni Ustav) of the 10th of November 1864.
2
The ustav, or ordinance of 1722, heralded this unheard-of innovation.
3
Time-honoured custom had hitherto reckoned primogeniture in the male line as the best 'title to the Russian crown; in the ustav of 1722 Peter denounced primogeniture in general as a stupid, dangerous, and even unscriptural practice of dubious origin.
4
The ustav was but a preliminary step to a still more sensational novelty.