der a foreign yoke, and the voluntary eman-! ple. The gentry have supported for the cipation of the peasants, which the nobles last twenty-seven years a training or normal began even before serfdom was extinguished school for teachers, and it would not be easy in Germany did much to blend the various to find a lad of fourteen who is not acstrata of the population into one people. quainted with the rudiments of arithmetic Everything that does not belong to the peas- and geography, besides reading, writing, ant class is German in its character. The and a thorough knowledge of his Lutheran peasants, indeed, still retain their language, catechism. The misfortune of the country but the Baltic provinces present a striking is the want of an independent middle class ; example of the truth that language is only there are but two cities of some importance, one of the constituent elements of national- Mitau, the seat of the governor, and Libau. ity. In everything but language the Letts In the small market-towns the Jews preand Esths are Germans; they are as thorough dominate, but the whole political power and Lutherans as their former masters; they influence is in the hands of the gentry: their know none but German ideas of law; they delegates alone form the diet, and elect the regard the introduction of the German forms judges and country magistrates. A state of culture and improvement as the only of things utterly unknown in other parts of track which leads to a higher position on the Russia, and not common in Germany, where social scale. The well-to-do Lettish farmer bureaucratic administration by the petty still speaks the provincial language of his servants of the State has for the most part ancestors, but he sends his son to the Ger- swept away the very springs of self-governman university of Dorpat; the former serf's ment. daughter passes as a German into the ser- When the Dûna is passed, which forms vice of a noble lady; the clever lad who the boundary between Curland and Livland, has been taught by his clergyman, and makes the scene changes; endless dark pine forests 1 his way in business as apprentice or clerk, remind the traveller that he is going northis essentially German. The social gulf ward; the farms are more thinly scattered which formerly separated masters and ser- and look less prosperous; the thatched roof vants is thus filled up day by day, and the is becoming general; wheat, which was precommon interest of resisting the encroach- dominant in Curland, yields the place to rye ments of the Greek Orthodox Church and and barley, and north of Riga begin the the Russification of the country effectually flax-fields, which form the peculiar wealth unites both races. Undoubtedly the Lettish of the country. A general survey shows at and Esthish population are still numerically once that the soil is less productive, and in the majority, but that majority is fast that the inhabitants have suffered more than dwindling away, and it is impossible to state their southern neighbours by frequent change what is the exact proportion of the pure of rule, and by wars and confiscations. The German population and of the aboriginals. nobility are much poorer, and the younger Of these provinces, Curland, the south-sons nearly all go into the military or civil ernmost, is also the most fertile and wealthy, for it has suffered less from wars and civil disturbances than the adjacent districts. The traveller proceeds from the Prussian frontier to the southern slopes of the Dûna, through carefully cultivated plains; cornfields alternate with rich meadows stocked with cattle and sheep, well-kept roads connect the manorial seats and little markettowns; the churches, parsonages, and schools look comfortable; the inns are clean, the people courteous and contented, and everything seems to breathe prosperity. There are no villages; the land is held in large separate farms which are often miles distant from each other. The nobility is a real aristocracy, generally rich, proud of their ancient descent; but not so narrowminded and pretentious as many of their German cousins. The Curland nobleman is an enthusiastic sportsman, yet he highly prizes intellectual culture, and has always bestowed particular care on the education of the peo

service of the Government. On the other hand, we find here a powerful middle class, which from the middle ages until now has ever played a conspicuous part in the principal and more independent cities. Riga, the ancient, and the proud, with its 103,000 inhabitants, is the centre of Baltic commerce and the seat of the governor-general, who still inhabits the old castle founded by the grandmasters of the Order. This city retains completely the character of an old German town, with those narrow angular streets of gabled houses, granaries, and brick churches which we meet with in Lubeck, Wismar, or Dantzic; whilst in the more modern suburbs, the dwelling houses of the wealthier merchants have sprung up, who carry on a lively commerce in the timber, flax, hemp, tallow, linseed and corn, which come in never-ending masses down the Dûna on huge rafts from the interior. Riga is the only town in the Baltic provinces which contains a considerable Russian pop

ulation, mostly belonging to the poorest classes, and all being sectaries of the old faith, who, persecuted in the Empire by the Orthodox Church, took shelter under the protection of the Protestant authorities. The constitution of the city, moulded upon that of Hamburg, is to this day strictly aristocratic, all power being in the hands of the three estates. The town possesses an elegant theatre, a splendid exchange, guildhalls, mansion-house, a polytechnic school, a navigation school, and a particularly fine barbour, which by a huge mole is protected against the quicksands that threatened to choke up the Duna. In recent times Riga has become the centre of the struggle against the measures taken by the Russian Government for the Russification of the provinces, the "Rigaer Zeitung" and the "Baltische Monatsschrift" being the principal organs of the provincial press, which defend the German civilisation of the inhabitants.

Passing from Dorpat over the frontier of Livland to Esthland, the character of the landscape becomes more and more northern. Swedish names betray the Scandinavian rule, to which the province was for a long time subjected. The unfavourable conditions of the climate, the poverty of the soil, and the rivalry of St. Petersburg have checked the progress of the principal towns-Reval possessing a fine port on the rocky southern shore of the Gulf of Finland and the last outpost of Baltic German civilization, the ancient but decaying city of Narva, looking down on the Russian fort Ivangorod, which points the way to the capital of the Czars.

We have said that with the accession of Alexander I. a more happy period began for the Baltic provinces; the country enjoyed the long-desired peace, the Emperor respected the privileges of the provinces, and did what he could to promote their Travelling northward, we reach the welfare. A decided change for the worse University of Dorpat, the intellectual and took place in the reign of Nicolas. Comscientific centre of the three Baltic prov-plete seclusion from western civilization, inces. Founded by Gustavus Adolphus, the prohibitive system, stagnation of intelbut soon afterwards destroyed, its re-estab- lectual life, a brutal censorship, which laid lishment was stipulated in the capitulation its ban upon almost all the notable producof 1710; but the country had been so im- tions of foreign literature, and the arbitrary poverished by constant wars that it was rules of a stupid bureaucracy gave to that unable to collect the resources which such period of Russian history a sullen despondan institution required. During the whole ent character, which was nowhere more of the eighteenth century those who sought sorely felt than in the Baltic provinan academical education were obliged to go ces. to Germany. The greater number of the The system became the more intolerable, physicians, clergy, and lawyers in the prov-as with advancing age the arrogance and inces were immigrants, and it may be be- self-will of the autocrat rose to an insufferalieved that those individuals did not always ble height. Praised by a servile Court and belong to the elite of their respective pro- foreign admirers as the shield of legitimacy fessions. The want of a native seat of and the great bulwark against revolution, learning was therefore sorely felt, and when elated by his military and political success in 1802, the liberality of Alexander I. at in the inglorious contests he was doomed to length filled up the gap, the young estab-wage against the cause of liberty and prolishment speedily rose to prosperity; hence- gress, the Emperor considered himself as forth it became necessary to everybody the nucleus of conservative interests. Nowho aimed at a position in political or judi-body dared to oppose his most extravagant cial life, in the clerical or in the scientific opinions, nobody ventured anything which world, to have studied at Dorpat. Scat-looked like a criticism of the Government. tered throughout the Russian Empire there Dr. Eckardt relates that the censor of the are physicians, chemists, and clergymen "Northern Bee" received a reprimand bewho have received their scientific training cause a paragraph had been suffered to apin the Baltic university: a Dorpat diploma pear in that journal complaining of the is the best recommendation for a physician cast-iron garden-seats in the park of Tzarskowho settles in a Russian town, be it on the Selo; they had been cast after a design apVolga or on the Amoor. Most of the stu- proved by the Emperor. dents, indeed, remain at home. The uni- The Crimean war freed Europe and versity has become a national bond for Russia from the incubus of this system. uniting all classes of the community; the The terrible power which blighted every sons of noble houses mingle freely there progress was discovered to be hollow; the with those of the Riga citizens and semi-godlike authority which seemed to tower German peasants, and contract friendships over all human frailties suffered a sudden which often last through life. downfall, and the sovereign who but one

year before was considered all-powerful, | been proscribed; the Baltic gentry knew died defeated and broken-hearted."

that if they tried to put their administration on a better footing, or to give political rights to their peasants, the Emperor would have at once made a clean sweep of their powers of self-government. So they clung to the old ordinances and privileges, the loss of which they considered as tantamount to the calamities of revolution.

After peace had been restored, an altered tone made itself apparent in the public life of Russia. The Government indeed hesitated before entering upon larger reforms, but the abolition of a number of absurd restrictions which Nicolas had issued sufficed to rouse the long-slumbering energies of the people. It began to hope for a better It was, however, a decided political misfuture, and with the greater liberty of the take that the leading men of the country press all the desires which had been sup- did not avail themselves of the appropriate pressed for generations broke forth. When moment for the salutary remodelling of the Government, encouraged by the enthu- their ancient institutions. If during the siastic gratitude of its subjects, began to first years of Alexander's reign the diets of put its hand in earnest to the work of re- the duchies had asked the Government to form, more especially when the Emperor sanction a reform of their constitution and declared his intent of abolishing serfdom, of the provincial administration, in conthe excitement became universal, and noth-formity with the principles of the age, the ing appeared impossible. Emperor would not have been able to refuse A witty Russian remarked at the time, this demand, and numerous abuses which says Dr. Eckardt, that if Nicolas had for- unquestionably existed might have been rebidden his subjects to appear in the streets, dressed. But the country had lost the and if Alexander had only revoked this habit of political action, and it failed to prohibition, he would have been immedi-seize upon this favourable conjuncture, ately regarded as one of the most free- which rapidly passed away. Ere long the minded monarchs of his day. But the first measures of the Government were regarded as the precursors of greater changes. The opening the universities, the abolition of high fees on passports, the pardon of the surviving conspirators of 1826, and, above all, the concessions made to the press, transported the nation to a pitch of ecstasy which carried all before it and has changed the aspect of Russian society. For Russia passed, as it were, at one bound from a servile obedience to despotic power to all the license of democratic agitation. Indeed the moment the pressure of the hand of Nicolas was removed, the essentially democratic land tenures of the Russian village system hurried along public opinion to extremes which it has not yet reached in any part of Western Europe.

Some of the boundary provinces also received their share of the blessings of the new era. The Emperor restored the old Swedish constitution to Finland, and Poland obtained a provincial government under a national Minister, the Marquis Wielopolski. The Baltic provinces alone seemed to remain untouched by this universal reform movement. If their constitution had been previously abolished and now re-established, the event would have roused them from their torpor; but according to the letter it had remained in force, although Nicolas had violated it whenever it suited him. Those old institutions had alone seemed to afford any shelter against the chilling blast of autocracy. The word "reform" had

Russian democratic press began to attack the aristocratic organization of the Baltic communities, the ponderous corporations of the cities, and the knightly assemblies disintegrated into the several estates. Herzen, who at that time ruled supreme over public opinion in Russia, called upon the Government to clear out all this medieval rubbish, and to restore to the original proprietors, the peasants, the soil, which the Germans had taken from tnem. Intimidated by these attacks and frightened by the difficulties of reform, the Conservatives remained passive; and it was not until the year 1862 that, at the Livonian diet, formal propositions were introduced for remodelling the constitution, for placing the administration of justice on a better footing, for abolishing antiquated privileges, and for establishing a closer union between the three provinces. But the propitious moment for effecting a reform, at once liberal and yet maintaining the autonomy of the provinces, had been allowed to slip away. The internal difficulties which had to be overcome were great; the boundaries between mere class privileges and national privileges were exceedingly awkward to determine. Was it not to be feared that if the gentry gave up the right to elect the judges, the State would press in and send Russian judges unacquainted with the local circumstances? The Lettish peasants, the special favourites of the Russian democracy, had made great progress; serfdom had been abolished among them more than a generation before

the measure was thought of in Russia; but were the lower classes sufficiently advanced to be entrusted indiscriminately with the sudrage? Upon what footing was the reform of the borough corporations to be established? were all the Russian heterodox handicraftsmen to be admitted to a share of municipal power in the provinces? Was it not necessary to insist upon the repeal of the Russian laws which were introduced against the provincial charter, and entitled the Orthodox Church alone to convert to its creed those who did not belong to it? But The national party was not satisfied with would not such a demand be ill received at re-establishing the status quo antè, they St. Petersburg? These instances may wanted to prevent the possibility of the resuffice to give an idea of the internal and currence of such events as a Polish insurrecexternal difficulties with which the Baltic tion. They raised the cry "Russia for the reformers had to struggle. But before they Russians;" they declared that the hostile bad come to a conclusion, an event took or lukewarm boundary provinces must be place which changed the whole aspect of Russianised; that their aristocratic organithings in the Empire. The Polish revolt, zation ought to be destroyed and replaced which broke out in January 1863, not only by the influx of Russian democracy. The frustrated the only serious attempt towards nation, they said, was disgusted with the reconciling Poland with the Russian rule varnish of Western civilization which had which had been made since 1832, but com- been forced upon it by German rulers. The pletely annihilated the sympathies of the country could only be regenerated by reRassian opposition for Poland. In the first turning to those genuine national instituyears of the new era the cause of the op- tions which distinguish Russia from the depressed sister-country was in decided favour caying states of the West. Germany, among young Russia. Both had languished France, and England, had each in its time under the old system, they both had com- played a prominent part, but they were old bated a common adversary. But when the and had outlived their fame; the times of insurrection broke out and rapidly spread the nobility and the bourgeoisie were past; into Lithuania; when the dangers of an in- the future belonged to Russia and to democtervention from the Western powers and a racy. But the foundation-stone of this fuforeign war became threatening, Russian ture was the consolidation of the present patriotism awoke, and with the instinct of Empire; to crush the foes who endangered self-preservation, claimed before all things the national existence was therefore the to save the unity of the Empire. Hitherto first duty. The sympathetic analogy which the question had been, whether more or appears to govern the destinies of the less liberal concessions ought not to be people of Russia and the people of the made to the Poles; the point now became, United States was never more manifest than whether Russia would have to recede be- on this occasion. The Poland of the one hind the Vistula and to give up not only the was the Southern States of the other. In important frontier-land which she had con- both rebellion was to be extinguished with quered seventy years ago, but also the an unsparing hand because it threatened the neighbouring Lithuanian provinces? Whilst pride of national existence, and representHerzen, Bakunin, Ogareff, and other Lon-ed the decaying influence of an aristocratic don exiles passionately took up the cause party. of Polish independence, the national party,

a place among the great powers of Europe; the maintenance of this State is the basis and the hope of all liberal Russian plans for the future. It is foolish to speak of the future world-wide sway of a Panslavonic empire, and at the same time to break into ruins that State which is the sole personification of Slavonic ideas. The name of citizen will henceforth only belong to him who acknowledges this reality, who devotes all his strength to it, and who renounces all personal predilections and party schemes, until the boundaries of this Empire are secured."

Expressed with the energy of patriotic led by Michael Katkoff, the editor of the conviction, seconded by the orthodox Moscow Gazette," declared that the time clergy, these views soon obtained considerwas past when Russia could play at liberal-able weight, and Katkoff quickly acquired ism and cosmopolitanism. In the presence a more powerful sway over public opinion of a danger which menaced to reduce Rus- than even Herzen had exercised from his sia to a Grandduchy of Moscow, every abode in Bayswater. The Government, patriot had but one duty-namely, to save seriously embarrassed by the wide-spread the State; freedom without a country was rebellion and the menacing language of but an empty phantom. the Western powers, saw immediately what an advantage it might reap from an alliance with this movement, by enlisting into its service the keenest passions of the people.

"The Russian Empire,” wrote Katkoff, "is a reality which has been built up laboriously during a century and a half, and has obtained

It adopted the new programme of the Russia, to crush the aristocratic elements "Moscow Gazette," and invited all in Lithuania and Poland as well as in the patriots to take part in the national work rest of the western provinces. In the name of defending the menaced independence of of this principle war was declared against the Empire. The combined forces of the the Swedes in Finland and against the Government and of Katkoff's party then Germans in the Baltic provinces. The addressed themselves to the pacification of Finnish peasants were to be the lords of Lithuania and White Russia. These prov- Finland; Letts and Esths the undivided inces, which now form the Russian govern- masters of Livland, Esthland, and Curland. ments of Kowno, Grodno, and Vilna, had The original inhabitants of both countries lived under Russian rule till the middle of were represented as cruelly oppressed by the sixteenth century, and bad once be- the landlord class, and desiring to be saved longed to the Greek Church. They were by the Russian democracy. The peasants then conquered by Poland, and the upper were promised a general division of land. classes became thoroughly Polish and Cath- After the example of Lithuania, all the olic; while the peasantry, reduced to strict occupiers were to be transformed into serfdom, remained faithful to their national proprietors, and the estates of the nobles and orthodox traditions. In the uprising were to be divided among the tenants and of 1862, the Lithuanian nobility made com- day-labourers. But this was not all. Inmon cause with the Poles; the streets of dividual property in the soil itself was to Vilna and Grodno witnessed the same rev- disappear, the equal right of all to an equal olutionary demonstrations as those of War- share of the land, the communistic system gaw. From that moment the Russian of tenure which prevails in Russia, is war-cry became "Recovery of the original proclaimed to be the world-redeeming mesRussian character of the Lithuanian lands; sage, destined to solve the social question re-establishment of the Russian peasants before which the outworn societies of Westin their rights as legitimate possessors of ern Europe stand helpless and despairing. the soil, and disfranchisement of their We are indebted to Dr. Eckardt, in his oppressors, the Polish nobles who had re-work entitled “ Modern Russia," for the kindled the fire of rebellion."

We cannot follow here the consequences to which this policy led; we cannot trace the history of that terrible system by which Muravieff undertook to restore the Russian character of the Western provinces, and how the same system was introduced by degrees into Poland. It may suffice to say that up to this day the success of the experiment of trampling down by brute force a nation of more than five millions, remains undecided. The Polish revolt is noticed in this place, as an essential element in the question before us, simply because the national excitement which it provoked was soon directed against the institutions of the Baltic provinces.

most accurate and authentic account we possess of the land tenures of Russia, which we strongly recommend to the consideration of our readers. Suffice it here to say that by ancient custom, which has been more extensively applied since the abolition of serfdom, all the common village lands are periodically distributed every ten or twelve years between the families constituting the village community, in which alone the property is vested. The tenant or occupier has no more than a limited temporary right in the land he tills; the noble or landlord has no rights over these common lands at all. The consequence is that the tenant has no interest in improving the land he occupies in this manner; and as the This may seem strange at the first glance, village is collectively responsible for its as these provinces had not shown the slight-dues, the industrious and wealthy pay for est sympathy for the Polish rebellion, nor could they be expected to do so, having themselves had ample experience of the evils of Polish rule in former times, and the German element in these provinces being even more uncongenial than that of Russia to the Polish character. But it must be remembered that the turn which Russian public opinion took under Katkoff's guidance was directed to the annihilation of all non-Russian institutions in the Empire, and to the establishment of one compact Russian But neither the Finnish nor the Baltic peasant State. The Moscow school regards peasants showed any desire to participate it as the task assigned by Providence to in a system which seemed to them fatal to

the idle and the indigent. By this Russian rural system the essential conditions of property in land are destroyed. Neither landlord nor tenant is interested in the improvement of the soil, and the consequence is that, since the abolition of all forced labour, there has been a frightful deterioration of the husbandry of the Empire the peasants living on tracts of ground without either the rights or duties of property.