LIVONIAN TALES.

THE current number of Mr. Murray's Library contains three tales de- signed to illustrate life in the German provinces on the shores of the Baltic which Russia extorted from Sweden. One, of these stories, "The , Jewess," has already appeared in a small volume. It is clever, and exhibits manners, but the character of its heroine is too peculiar to illustrate much. "The Wolves" is a reprint from Fraser's Magazine. Though more general than " The Jewess," and containing graceful and natural indications of life, it is alight, with a lame and impotent conclu- sion. " The Disponent" is another affair. With the extent, variety, ,and character of a fiction, it has all the freshness that arises from a state of manners totally new to the reader, and the advantage, not small to the most skilful artist, of distance lending enchantment to the view. In a remote region and a mode of life with which we are practically unac- quainted, grossness can be softened, virtue heightened, heroism induced, and the bard realities of life adapted to the purposes of fiction in a manner that would not be so readily acquiesced in by the reader actually conver- sant with the every-day existence. "The Disponent," moreover, has points of still greater interest. It lifts the curtain of Russian despotism, and shows the working of a corrupt and oppressive system of government, that, rendering it impos- sible for men of honour and character to serve, fills the lower offices : with tools and oppressors, playing into each other's hands. Above all, in exhibiting the tyranny and misery to which the peasant is reduced by the neglect of his lord, the malice and cupidity of his lord's managers, and the contemptuous misrule of the Government and its creatures, "The . Disponent" indicates the volcanic state of society in the East of Europe. The Author of the Revelations of Russia declares that Napoleon uttered a profound truth when he said he could have overwhelmed Russia had he chosen to have set the serfs against their lords. It is not so clear that he could have done it, but the late events in Galicia seem to show that it could be done; and in "The Disponent" we get glimpses of the causes why. There is in this tale a larger and completer political view than can be gleaned from state papers or travels; and wo betide the rulers and lords of the East of Europe should a future generation of France or Italy pour forth a tide of honest propagandism, or a politician like Warren Hastings, unrestrained by conventions, wield the power of a civilized country in a deadly war.

There is nothing of political speculation in "The Disponent" : the pic- tures of life spontaneously suggest it to the mind. The tale itself is a mere story of peasant life and national manners, though planned and put together with considerable skill, so as to embrace the general incidents in the life of the Livonian peasantry, animated by a good deal of dramatic power in the scenes, and of sense in the reflections that are often em- bodied in the narrative. The "disponent" (Anglia, the "steward," Hi- bernia, the "agent") of an estate' whose owner is abroad, has fallen in love with a handsome young peasant-girl, but is rejected for Mart, a well- conducted and rather thriving cultivator. The disponent is drawn, as the steward in novels and dramas mostly is, a very bad character, and is of course bent on revenge ; but it is a proof of the skill of the writer that his machinations are kept in the background. The manners of the peasantry in their betrothals and weddings—their distress, owing in part to their want of prudence and forethought, in part to a bad season—their character, with its few homely virtues, and the many weaknesses which poverty and oppression induce—are the main circumstances that oc- cupy the reader. Even the endeavours of Ian, the Disponent, are sub- ordinate to these general views. His endeavour to get Mart, the hero, drawn for military service, has its own interest ; but it is finally over- whelmed in the greater interest of the working of the conscription upon the peasantry at large. In like manner, the exactions with which the Disponent endeavours to injure or ruin Mart, are not made conspicuous by them- selves ; they are evidently part of a system in continual operation from

caprice, indifference, or the usual determination with persons in petty authority " not to be imposed upon."

The characters of Mart and his wife Anno are exquisitely drawn,— a little rose-coloured, yet not more so than art requires ; and all their qualities are consistent with their circumstances. Mart's friend, the poor broken-spirited Juhann, whose feelings have been crushed by stripes, and Mart's grandmother Liso, are also characters prominent for justness of conception, nicety of execution, and contrast with the mass of common peasantry. It is possible that a Livonian might object to parts as not being sufficiently national, and as having gathered some- thing of Western refinement from the writer's mind; but to the English reader this is an advantage, for he has a work of art presented to him after his own fashion, and not in a foreign style,—a drawback that at- tached to the tales of Frederika Bremer. The return of the young Baron in the nick of time, and the final reward of Mart and Anno, are ratherfetitious justice as per precedent or accident than poetical justice, where consequence follows cause ; but it will be approved by the remler. There is no straining for effect, no melodrame, except perhaps in the incident of the wolves.

Notwithstanding the great merits of the writer—knowledge of her subject, artistical treatment, dramatic power, and a narrative close, well-sustained, and reflective without tediousness—a good deal of the effect produced by " The Disponent " must be attributed to the novelty of the materials. Scenes essentially similar may be found at our assize courts and our quarter-sessions; but they would not produce the same effect as the following sketch of Russian peasants assembled to be drawn for the military service. Eight peasants are collected together from the estate of which Ian, the Disponent, has the nianagement.

" Presently a coarse domineering voice was heard, and the Disponent appeared at the top of the steps and summoned them to enter. He was in the fall swagger of revengeful insolence, and had his eye fixed upon Mart. But Mart did not look at him; at that moment it mattered not who was the author of this bitter hour. The pity for his comrades had eased that dreadful sense of pity for himself. To all the summons sounded like a knell; and firm knees shook, and ruddy cheeks were blanched as they moved together up the steps, four of the soldiers bringing up the rear, as if escorting prisoners. Mart perceived that his friend could hardly drag his limbs along. "'Lean on me, Johann,' he said, and stooped to support him; when he saw that the child was still on the father's hand. ' He cant go with us,' said Mart; ' give him me; I'll leave him below'; and he tried to disengage the little hand which the Brantwerber held tight in his cold clammy grasp.

" ' Forward said the soldiers behind.

" Come on!' roared the Disponent, in front, 1,1 What's all this about?--a child! Kick it down the steps. " At this moment, one of the remaining soldiers, as immoveable a machine to all appearance as his comrades, came forward and said, Dai'—give. It wits not the word, but the look that spoke. Juhann let go his hold. Mart lifted up the little thing above those next him, and the soldier received it kindly in his arms. This little act refreshed the poor men's hearts for a moment. " They were now shown through a great bare hall into a side apartment, which, though spacious and lofty, was close and unventilated, for the dusky double win- dows had been left standing the year round. There, upon coarse chairs brought in for the purpose, for it was dirty and unfurnished, were seated the Hakenrichter (a kind of magistrate for the district) and an officer in uniform; behind them, at a long desk, several officials, all high busy examining registers, scrutinizing pass- ports, and scrawling over a great many long sheets of coarse paper, with the stamp of the Russian eagle at top. " The Hakenrichter was a hard-featured, red-haired, thin man, who looked as if be could be both familiar and unfeeling. He had served in the army, and re- tired from it with that stamp of character which Russian habits engender and Russian laws protect. He always punished the weaker party, and prided himself on his justice; he never believed a word from a peasant, and boasted he was never taken in; he lied with unblushing effrontery, and thought himself clever; he was fearfully passionate, and called himself frank; he had no regard for the feelings of others, and fancied himself witty. " The officer was else) very skinny and very ugly. He wore a great number of orders; and his uniform showed him to be an aide-de-camp to the Emperor. His face, therefore, testified that he could alternately look the tyrant or the slave, as circumstances might require; but otherwise, no variety of expression was dis- cernible.

" Behind the Hakenrichter stood the Disponent, who was high in his favour; looking, as usual, all honesty to those above Lim, and all insolence to those below.

" Now ensued a scene, the mere mention of which will be description sufficient. The men, with the exception of poor Juhann, were all apparently in health, and free from deformity of limb, though one was small and puny in size. But the Crown is not satisfied with appearances, lest, peradventure, a recruit should be thrust upon it who might require the hospital instead of the drill. Each man, therefore, in tarn was subjected to a personal scrutiny, only to be compared in nature and manner with that carried on at slave and cattle markets; prolonged according to the will and pleasure of the judges, and conducted with every aggra- vation most insulting to the feelings. It is true, the feelings of the generality of the peasants are not very keen or delicate; and it would be surprising if under all circumstances they were: nevertheless, on more than one cheek there burned the glow of shame, and in more than one eye there lowered the fire of resentment, which boded a day of heavy retribution, however distant, between the oppressed and the oppressor."

There is something Irish in this sketch of Livonian misery.

a The good old man was serious and low. The sight of his congregation told many a tale of wo. He had seen sullen men, and suffering women, and sharp- boned children among them; and felt that his interest in their spiritual welfare would have come home to their hearts with more effect if seconded with the re- lief of their bodily wants. Not that this occurred to his hearers: they were fallen to the worst symptom that can appear in a nation or in a community—their only thought was how little they could live upon, and how long they could hold out. Relief from others seemed as visionary as help from themselves, and they listened with meek hearts to the address which exhorted them to patience and trust. "Not but what the pastor had done, and still did, his utmost to relieve them. /le had drained his granary soon after harvest by supplying seed-corn to many a peasant too degraded and reduced to care for the consequences of leaving his ground unsown; a small quantity was also distributed every week among the families most in need. Still it was nothing when subdivided among the numbers requiring it; and, in truth, to have provided them with one week's sufficient main- tenance would have been utterly beyond the good man's power. "He gave Mart, however, a job for the next week, at so much per day. It is a pity such hands as yours should be idle, Mart; and you may be sure of your money, although so little of it.' "Mart thanked him with a happy face once more; and, leaving the Pastorat, joined the congregation in the walk home to the village.

" It was seldom he came in for any of the news and gossip of the little com- munity; and it would have been better for his peace if he had not now; for there was but one prevailing theme. Not the scarcity and unhealthiness of the season, for that was looked upon as too much God's doing to be murmured at; but the many and increasing cruelties of the base-born tyrant over them. There were stories which made Mart's very heart sick,—of boys who had been overworked, of girls who had been defrauded of their little earnings, of both who had been dreadfully beaten and misused. Then there were men lying at home ill with the effects of corporal punishment; some for having neglected work or pilfered trifles, but most for having merely turned like the worm when they were trodden upon. " Mart was wretched. Every word seemed to pluck at those bitter bad feelings which he hated more even than the wickedness which roused them. He left the groups, and dropped back to the Brautwerber; who was walking behind, his eyes, as usual, on the ground, and his puny little boy toiling along by his side. But this was not the way to change the current of Mart's thoughts. He knew, and so did everybody else, that Jnhann's weakly looks and habitual depression were the result of one of those acts of intolerable tyranny of which so many had just been related. He had been beaten under semblance of the law, but in reality to gratify the malice of a master who always found law in Russia for all his cruelty; and he had never held up his head after it. The man's spirit was broken!

" Mart, as we have seen, could do more with him than anybody else, and gene- rally managed to brighten up the moody though gentle face of his friend. But this time his heart failed him. In his good-humoured way he took hold of the child's other hand, and walked ofiTor a minute or two in silence. Then suddenly he stopped, for Mart was towing away both father and child at an unconscionable rate; and it struck him all at once that the little feet lingered. Are you tired, my little fellow ? '

" Ja, vegga,'—yes, very—said the poor child. In a moment he was seated aloft on a firm arm., the little pale face close to Mart's still ruddy cheek.

"'How light he is,' said Mart, inadvertently, as he pressed the squalid tiny form to him. A pang shot over the father's face. " Yes,' said he, he is skin and bones, like all of us; chopped straw does not make man's flesh. The church-cart will have many a journey, but all light ones this year.' "Mart pretended to laugh off this spwh. But your little boy has been very ill; no wonder he is so thin. It is well he got through that fever at all.' "'Better still if he had not, perhaps; but Death does not take the offered child: but he'll go this winter, and the other too.' " 'It is wrong to say that,' said Mart; and they walked on in silence till they readied Johann 's dwelling. It was not often that Mart had time to see into one of his neighbour's interiors; and none could offer a stronger contrast to his own than this. The Brautwerber's farm was one of the most miserable in the mise- rable village. The little barn and cowshed were quite unroofed, to feed those whom it no longer protected from the cold; and the house itself was not in much better condition. The roof had sunk; the posts had given away; and the door- way, wider and lower even than usual, seemed an entrance far more fitted for animals than for men, and was in truth quite as much used as such by the one as the other.

"Mart bowed his lofty head, and went in. The first moving objects that be- came visible through the smoky atmosphere were three gaunt, high-backed pigs, one of which was busy with its snout grubbing in a low crib filled with filthy straw, which apparently constituted the only family bed. Farther on was a shapeless mass on the floor, which, but for two little skeleton legs which dangled from it, might have been taken for some unclean beast also. As the men en- tered, the legs agitated themselves rather violently. The mother, for she it was, now got up from the kind of lair, where, like an animal, she had brooding over her young, and let a little thing of two years old drop from her. It stood for a moment tottering, then tumbled and roared. The father advanced, took it up tenderly, and hushed it: it was evident the children loved him, and he them, in spite of what he had said. But oh! what a home this was for a man to come to I " No Livonian will let a friend enter his door without setting something before him to eat; and bread was but ripthe board. Such bread Mart had seldom

seen; chaff was the principal 'ent. corn the least. The loaf was as light in proportion as the poor children it failed to nourish. And as Mart looked at the thin limbs and large bodies of the innocent little beings, he saw at once the result a long continuation of such diet.

" Johann did not press his friend to do more than break the bread; a process too easily accomplished, for it failed in all the properties of adhesion: but be gave a piece to the children, who swallowed it as quickly as it passed their lips, as if mastication were thrown away upon such materials. " 'Is there nothing to drink?' inquired the Brautwerber of his wife. ' Where is the milk?'

" The cow is dry, and the calf is dead; but there is water,' said the woman.

" Yes,' said Juhann, ' water enough.' And, stealing a bitter smile at Mart, he added, ' Water in the oven': this being a Lettish phrase expressive of ex- treme dearth. " Wretched thoughts accompanied Mart in his lonely walk home, and some self-upbraidings too; for, compared with this household and too many he knew were like it, his was rioting in abundance."