In a measure that epitomized the spirit of the Enlightenment, Catherine convened the Legislative Commission, whose mission was to draw up a new code of laws. Except for 28 appointed members, the 564 delegates were elected from among the ranks of nobility, townsmen, state peasants, Cossacks, and national minorities. The empress’s instructions, or Nakaz, to the delegates were so filled with liberal ideas, such as liberty and equality, that they were forbidden publication in France. While the commission provided much-needed information on the state of the empire, it failed to produce a code of laws, its original purpose, since its work was cut short by the war with Turkey in 1768.