library-that of the academy of St Petersburg-Bjeliagef, could, in 1800, find only 2,964 printed national works, among which were 105 novels. But in 1819, there are said to have been 8000 native works. Translations, novels, belles lettres, and dramatic literature, form the staple of Russian literature. Newspapers are established not only in the capitals but also in some provincial towns. There is a literary gazette published at Moscow in the Russian, and another at Wilna in the Polish language. In 1805, the whole empire had only nineteen periodicals, and three newspapers. The number of Russian authors of any note is about 400, of whom about 340 are living authors. The eighth part of those are clergymen, the greater part noblemen.35 Moscow is the chief seat of

Russian literature. In no part of the Russian empire is the native language spoken so purely as in this city and at Novogorod. Petersburg is the emporium of the plastic arts, which flourish there under the immediate protection of the most magnificent court in Europe and the academy of arts. The Russian academy of sciences has numbered Euler, Pallas, Frank, Gmelin, Georgi, Storch, Strutter, Fuss, Kraft, Lovitz, and many other highly respected names, among its members.

Printing-Offices.] In 1674, the two first printing-offices were established in Kief and Moscow. One century afterwards, there were 16 presses throughout the empire, exclusive of Livonia; and in 1803, 49 of which 14 were established at Petersburg. Some of the higher tribunals and universities have also their own printing-offices. Yet the whole vast empire has not as many presses as the single town of Leipsic; even in some large governments, such as Perm and Finland, there is not a single bookseller's shop. The importation of foreign books is only allowed under great restriction; and the censorship of the press, though not quite so severe as formerly, continues an oppressive fetter on the advancement of Russian literature.

Establishments for Education.] Till very recently, popular education in Russia was wholly in the hands of the ignorant clergy. The only existing universities, viz. those of Kief and Moscow, were not sufficient to supply the wants of the age, and were in truth rather ecclesiastical seminaries, than places of secular instruction. The youths destined for other professions than that of the ministry were necessitated to seek their learning at foreign universities, and the children of the nobles were educated by foreign tutors, while no attention whatever was paid to the education of the lower classes. The commission for schools, established by Catherine, was intended to remedy these evils, which had then become very glaring; but the political circumstances of the times opposed the execution of her plans, and they were not carried into effect till Alexander mounted the throne. A new era in the history of Russian civilization commenced with the accession of that monarch. Since 1802, the instruction of the people has always formed an important branch of the administration. An effective ministry has been established for popular instruction. Under its direction, new universities and schools have been erected throughout the empire, all of which have been liberally endowed. Certainly no State in the world has ever appropriated such a proportion of its revenues for public instruction. In 1804, the crown paid for the

The number of living authors is very considerable when we consider the small encouragement which is held out to literary labours in Russia. Dr Lyall informs us that the sale of 200 or 300 copies of a book in Russia is a thing almost without example. Karamsin's History is by far the most popular work ever printed in Russia; and yet ti e total number of purchasers for the first edition was 406!

support of 994 organized establishments for instruction, not less than 2,753,351 rubles.

The Russian educationary establishments may be divided into three classes, viz. General, Particular, and Theological.

General Establishments.] The general establishments, with the exception of the parochial schools, are all supported at the expense of the State; and are placed under the inspection of six directories, of which the superior management is committed to the curator of each university, and to one imperial commissioner. In 1804, there were 494 universities, gymnasia and district-schools, with 1,425 teachers, and 33,484 pupils. Since that period this number has not greatly increased. In 1813, there were 503 establishments for instruction, with 1,505 teachers. There are seven universities in Russia, viz. :

1st, That of Moscow, with five faculties. In 1804, there were 25 professors in this university, but only 63 students, a fact sufficiently indicative of the little attention given by the people to the means of instruction. This district, at that period, embraced 110 schools. 2d, The university of Petersburg has been only fully organized since 1819. To this district belong 71 schools. 3d, Wilna, embraces 132 schools. 4th, Dorpat, 82 schools; 5th, Charkof, 47; 6th, Kasan, 52; 7th, Abo, founded in 1812, superintends all the schools of Finland. For the support of each of these universities, 130,000 rubles is set apart.

There are fifty-one gymnasia in Russia, the capital of each government possessing one of these seminaries, at which the young people are prepared for the university.

The district schools are placed under the special inspection of a director, and limit their instruction to that knowledge which is absolutely necessary for every well educated citizen.

It is intended that every parish, or at least two of them together, shall possess and support a parochial school. In the villages of the crown, the minister for education, and on the estates of the nobles, the proprietor, but always under the control of the directors of the district, has the management of those schools, in which the children are taught the necessary branches of education, and prepared for the district schools.

Particular Establishments.] The inspection of the particular establishments is, with a few exceptions, intrusted to the director of the university. Under this head is the Demidof school of higher sciences at Jaroslav, and the Lyceum at Zarskoje-selo. 2d, The pedagogical institute for the education of popular teachers, of which there is one at Petersburg, one at Kisljar, and several in the universities. 3d, The medical institutions, embracing the Medico-chirurgical Academy at Moscow, the institution of midwifery, and the veterinary schools at Petersburg, Moscow, and Lubny. 4th, The Midwifery and Clinical Institutes at Bialystok. 5th, Technical schools, embracing the schools of mining at Petersburg and Ikaterinburg; the schools of forests at Zarskoje-selo and in the forest of Kaluga, and the school of agriculture at Uxoronofo. 6th, Institutions for the education of the nobility at Grodno, Revel, Ostrog, Twer, Moscow; and for the imperial pages in Petersburg. 7th, Military schools, marine schools, commercial schools, and schools of industry, at Petersburg. 8th, Establishments for female education belonging to the benevolent establishments of the empress-mother, and standing under her particular inspection, of which there are two at Petersburg and two at Moscow. 9th, The Gymnasium for higher

sciences, at Neskin. 10th, The Ilenski Institution for the deaf and dumb at Romanova. 11th, The Theatrical School at St Petersburg. 12th, The boarding schools in Petersburg and Moscow are chiefly under the management of foreigners.

Theological Institutions.] The Grecian clergy receive their first education in the Theological Academies at Kief, Moscow, Kasan, and Petersburg, and at 36 eparchical seminaries, and 115 inferior schools, which cost government annually nearly 400,000 rubles. The Armenian clergy study in the convent of Nachitschevan. The Protestants receive their first instruction in the general schools, and finish it at the university of Dorpat. The Catholics study in the colleges of Minsk, Polosk, and other places, which are no longer under the management of the Jesuits, and in the General Seminary at Wilna and the ancient university of Olyka. The Mahommedans are instructed in particular schools by their own metschetes. The principal Tartar schools are at Kasan and Tobolsk. The Jews have, besides their ordinary schools, a celebrated national institution at Brzesc. For the Mongols and Calmucks, there are Lamaitic schools; and at Kasan there is a school for foreign tribes. However, it may easily be conjectured that within the limits of this empire many tribes are wholly destitute of the means of instruction.

Literary Societies.] The principal literary societies of this empire are:-The Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg; the Imperial Academy, and another society for the improvement of the Russian language; the Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow; the Medico-Physical Society, and the Society for Agriculture and Mechanics, in the same place; the Economical Society of Petersburg ; the Petersburg Society of Literature and Taste; the Literary and Economical Society of Riga; the Medico-chirurgical Society at Petersburg; a Society for Russian language and literature at Shitomir; the Agricultural Society at Abo; the Imperial Mineralogical Society at Petersburg; and the Academy of Arts in that city.

CHAP. VI.-CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT.

6

The Autocrat.] RUSSIA is an absolute hereditary monarchy, governed by an emperor, whose title is, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias.' No form of government in Europe approaches nearer to Asiatic despotism than that of Russia; whose chief ruler is limited by a few arbitrary customs, revered only for their antiquity; whose person is sacred; and who divides the chief legislative and executive power with no other person or body in the empire. He alone is the chief of the legal and ecclesiastical establishments; he is accountable to none; he possesses the right of declaring war or making peace, levying taxes, raising recruits, granting privileges, titles, and dignities, constituting or abolishing monopolies, directing the regalia, and managing the whole estates of the crown. succession descends from father to son in the male and female line, according to primogeniture. Birth alone raises the monarch to the throne of Russia; he requires not to come under any promise or take any oath, although the coronation and anointing at Moscow are regarded as sacred customs. The oath of allegiance by the provinces, though not looked upon as necessary, is always exacted. A fundamental law of the empire

The

declares that the ruler of Russia must be of the Greek church, and even his wife is bound to embrace the same religion at least at her marriage. Hitherto, the children of a bondswoman might have succeeded to the throne; but Alexander's law of the 20th March, 1820, declares that none but the children of a princess shall be eligible to the succession. The imperial residence is at Petersburg, and occasionally at Moscow. The arms of the empire is a double black eagle with two heads and three

The Nobility.] By a regulation of Catherine II., in 1785, the nobles are divided into six classes, which, however, form but one single corps: these are, the real nobles, who can trace their nobility back a century; the military nobility; the eight-class nobility, or those belonging to the first eight degrees of rank; foreigners, or those descended from noble foreign families; families honoured with titles, such as prince, count, baron; and the ancient noble races, whose nobility is undoubted, though its origin is covered with obscurity. The nobility of the empire is very numerous and daily increasing by descent, service, foreign diplomas, &c.

The nobles of the empire, whatever may be their rank or class, possess the sole right of purchasing land, except in some places beyond the frontiers of Russia Proper. Peter I. confirmed, and even the enlightened Catherine II. augmented privileges which were already by far too great. She commanded the colonels of regiments, in their promotions, to give a decided preference to those of noble rank. She ordained that the children of nobles should, in preference to all others, be admitted into the academies appointed for military education; and that, to this class, should belong the exclusive privilege of erections for the distillation and sale of brandies from grain. All nobles, from the prince to the baron, are upon an equal footing, and enjoy equal privileges. Their lands are exempt from taxation, and their persons from military ballots and corporal punishments. Their slaves-which are, probably, the most valuable portion of their possessions-are, however, liable to the capitation tax, and to military service. Russian titles are not less numerous than among the nobles of other countries; but, as has been already mentioned, these titles confer on such as possess them no influence independent of military rank. The nobles, however, evidently possess many advantages with regard to the attainment of that rank. Every individual, indeed, must proceed through every gradation, beginning with the station of a private; but the partiality on all occasions evinced towards the nobles, hurries them on to the highest offices before they be qualified for service; and noble corporals and sergeants may be frequently seen in the arms of their nurses!

Freemen.] The order of merchants and other freemen, has been but lately known in Russia. Before the time of Peter I. the Russians might, with propriety, be divided into nobles, clergy, and peasants, or, more properly, slaves. Peter's sagacity soon perceived how much the happiness and stability of a State depend upon that middle class, consisting of merchants and tradesmen, who enjoy a rational freedom, and rely for advancement only on their own exertions and ingenuity. It would have been a dangerous step all at once to emancipate the slaves which were found in every part of his dominions: he therefore made such regulations as tended gradually to create a class of freemen. Peter, however, stopt short in this measure; the privileges of freedom were confined to certain cities; but Catherine II. gave a latitude to the regulations for the creation

of freemen which rapidly augmented their number. The freemen in the Russian empire are divided into merchants, burgesses, and other freemen. The merchants are subdivided into such as have a capital of about 60,000 livres; such as have a capital of about 50,000 livres; and such as have a capital amounting to any sum between 50,000 and 3000 livres. Burgesses are the inhabitants of free towns, who possess a capital not amounting to 3000 livres. The other freemen are slaves who have been freed by their masters; such as have obtained liberty from the army or navy; members of the Academy of Arts, and other similar institutions; the children of freemen; and the orphans of the Foundling Hospital.

Peasants.] The fourth order of men in Russia consists of the peasants, who are literally the slaves of their proprietors, being bought and sold with the soil which they cultivate, and on no account permitted to leave the spot on which they were born unless it be to recruit the army or navy. The enlightened policy of some late sovereigns has already altered their condition much for the better. Their admission into the rank of freemen has been facilitated; and consequently they give daily accessions of strength to that order, which, sooner or later, will become the preponderating class in society. All the peasants on the crown-lands had their freedom bestowed on them by Alexander I.; an example which has been already followed by several of the nobility. Peasants may become free by the grant of their masters, or by purchase; but some proprietors are careful to keep them in such a state of poverty, that the latter mode of obtaining freedom can seldom be exercised. The most common mode by which a peasant obtains his freedom, is by entering into the army or navy; for the moment in which he is enrolled, he is released from his proprietor, and after his discharge he retains his freedom.

Administration.] The administration of this vast empire is uniform and entire, all the wheels working together as parts of one vast machine. The superior direction of the whole is concentrated in the person of the Emperor himself, who consults at his pleasure his Privy Council and Ministers. The Senate forms a medium between the ruler and the ruled in the administration of justice, and the Synod in matters spiritual. By these organs the Emperor intimates his will to the provinces. What the monarch is to the State, each governor is to his province; and the tribunals of the latter supply the place of the Senate and Synod to the former. The whole of Russia is divided, with the exception of the lands under its protection, and the colonies, into 51 governments and 3 provinces, of which 37 have an uniform constitution. Each of these provinces has a military and civil governor; sometimes both offices are united in one person, and sometimes two or more provinces are united under one military governor. The governments are subdivided into circles or districts. To the civil government of each province belongs, besides the governor, a council of government, a tribunal of criminal justice, a civil tribunal, a court of equity, a chamber of finance, and a chamber of general internal economy. The Cossacks, the Calmucks, Bachkirs, Mongols, and some others, retain a shade of their ancient constitution. With the internal government of the Kirghissians and Circassian tribes, the government only interferes so far as to confirm the nomination of the Khans, and to receive an annual tribute. The high tribunal of the empire is the Council of State, of which the Emperor is chief president. It consists of 35 members, including the ministers; and is divided into the four departments of legislation, military affairs, civil and church affairs, and