BOOKS.

H,c3ITHAITSEN'S RIISSIAN EMPIRE.*

THE "specialite" of the Baron Von Haxthausen is, the "differ- ent relations of the peasant elan to the cultivation of the land, their landowners, their communes, and the state." A good many years ago, the Baron.received a commission from the Prussian Go- vernment to investigate the subject ; and for this purpose he tra- velled " from 1830 to 1838 throughout Prussia, as well as a large part of the neighbouring countries." Some apparently. Slavonic peculiarities in Western Germany puzzled him, and induced him to visit Russia in order to throw light upon them. Supported by Royal and Imperial patronage, he made an extensive journey in what may be called Russia Proper ; extending from the old Lithu- anian frontiers on the West to Kazan on the East, and from the pine forests on the North to Odessa, Sebastopol, and other places on the Black Sea or Sea of Azof, with whose names the late war has made men familiar. The districts bordering the Volga, the Steppes, and the corn-growing countries of the South, received a particular share of his attention, The primary matter of the volumes consists of the writer's tra- vellmg observations on the peasantry, and the information fur- nished to him on the same subject. In addition, the work cone tains the common descriptions of a book of travels, some history and historical disquisition, with various suggestions as to local improvements or general policy. It is the first-and last portions —the character, condition, institutions, and mode of living among the peasantry, and the hints as to improvement—that are the most valuable. Since Haxthausen visited Russia in 1843, many other travellers have more or less gone over the same ground and published the results of their observations, in a more lively style and from -a more English point of view. The attention drawn by the war to the history and geography of Russia has produced several good works that treat more fully the historical points touched upon by Haxthausen. The war, too, has made considerable changes especially in all that relates to Kertch, Se- bastopol, and the Crimea generally. Mr. Fairie, the translator, has reduced the original from three volumes to two, by abridg- ments and the omission of repetitions : it might have been ad- vantageously reduced still further, by confining the translation to that matter which now gives the work its peculiar character— the description of the people and their institutions, and the sug- gestions in favour of education, material development,- and peace- ful which Haxthausen a dozen years ago saw was the true policy of Russia.

In the Baron's own opinion, the information he has collected is of great value however incomplete, and such perhaps as no other man could furnish. According to him, the improvements of Peter the Great have had the effect of dividing. Russia into two great classes, —the people, who still remain much as he found them, with strong national feelings, and semi-Asiatic manners and ideas ; the nobility, who have been imbued by a foreign education with the civilization of Western Europe, not indeed complete, yet enough to draw a line between them and the mass of the people, with whom they have nothing in common, and about whom they care not to learn anything. It was not therefore difficult for a man who had made peasantry hispeouliar study, who travelled throagh a very large portion of the country, and was assisted by Imperial patronage and local authority, to acquire a better knowledge of the real condition-and institutions of the people than the Russians themselves.

This laudatory conclusion must be taken with some qualifica- tion, for various reasons. The author's reports of what he actu- ally saw are no doubt true, and informing so far as they go ; but the information is singular or limited, confined to particular vil- lages or estates. His more general views appear to have been de- rived from the Russian provincial authorities ; and if he formed them in the order in which they stand in his book, he must 'have adopted them without much test or inquiry. He left St. Peters- burg, for instance, on the 27th April, and reached Moscow on the 2d May, by a very circuitous route rapidly passed over ; •on -the 12th he quitted the ancient capital for his great journey. Yet in these fifteen days, only four of which appear to have been spent in observations on the peasantry, and that en route, he masters the Russian communal system ; he estimates the character and capa- bilities of the Russian races—Great, Little, and White ; in- stitutes a comparison between Russian and foreign artisans ; and furnishes some account of the state of the peasantry in a govern- ment he travelled along. But then, at Tver—and the admission is significant—he says, " I made the acquaintance of the chief of the department of the Crown Domains and also of the head of the Imperial Appanages, from whom I received some informa- tion," 82...c. • the Baron elso notes the universal corruption of the Tchinovnik, as well as their unconquerable determination always to present the bright side of things. The generalized description of the rural institutions, acquired in this way, we believe"to be theory ; indeed, with serfdom, they seem scarcely compatible with practice. What is the use of institutions, officers, offices, and ljudgments, when the proprietor can walk in and sell the whole ot; or how can a community of slaves have communal land ? If the communal (parochial or district) system, as described in theory, ever had a practical operation, the fact would tend to con- • The Russian Empire, its People, Institutions, and Resources. By Baron Von Tfarthausen, Author of " Transcaucasia," " The Tribes of the Caucasus," ,fe. Translated by Robert Fairie, Esq. In two volumes, Published by Chapinam and

firm Raxthausen's argument that serfdom is a comparatively late institution in-Russia.

Statements of the Baron on this subject are also somewhat contradictory as they stand, though perhaps admitting of expla- nation. The Russian, like the Asiatic idea of society and authority, is patriarchal. A head of every society, from the village Starosta to the Czar, whose will is to be obeyed as the will of a father, is the Russian notion of society or rule : below this head all is in common. In fact, the Baron says the true Russian idea is that of communism rendered innocuous by regulation and an unlimited supply of west:, land. Under this system, the bugbear of Conti- nental statesmen and economists, the proletaire, is unknown

"There is no lower class in Moscow, such as is found in German towns, for instance in Berlin, living in garrets and cellars. Cellars I have never seen in Moscow; and there are few if any hired garrets. Formerly there-was no rabble in Moscow, and even now this forms but a very small proportion of the population. There were in former times only two lower classes : either they belonged to the peasantry and to some commune, and had always a right to the possession of a portion of land, or they were bond- men, and belonged to some proprietor, who was obliged to provide food, lodging, and clothing for them. People without a home, land, or a proprie- tor to provide for them—people in general via a vie du rien—were unknown."

This golden age, however, seems to have passed away. The Baron visited the convent of Troitza ; and he remarks, As in Western convents, here also the crowd of beggars is great ; seve- ral hundred are fed every day." Again, near Ribinski, he notes-

" In the villages at which we stopped we were much annoyed by beggars. On the private estates begging is not openly practised, being forbidden by the proprietors, who consider it disgraceful for their serfs to beg ; but inthe Crown communes it is, like all other trades in Russia, freely permitted. There are entire villages, and even wealthy ones, the inhabitants of which live by begging : each has his beggar costume ; and in spring they set oat on their travels, one or more from every family, divide the country into dis- tricts, meet at appointed places to make arrangements, and return home in the. autumn, to spend the.money during the winter with-their families."

On the occasion of a visit to the convent of Arzamas, Haxthau- sen. observes " begging nuns being found, to the public scandal, upon all theroa.ds.'

Whether the communal system be effete, partial, or a theory never fully reduced to practice, this is the Baron's account of it.

" At the head of each village has always stood, and still stands, the Ste- rosta, chosen by the peasants.from among themselves ; under him, and as his assistants, are the Tenth-men (decenivirs), each chosen by ten heads of families ; these remain usually one year on duty, although by law they ought to be elected every month. In very small villages there is often only a Tenth-man (dessiatzki) at the head : these have no salary, but the -f3ta- restos receive SUM varying up to 175 roubles, (81.,) according to the number of inhabitants. Here and there, even in former times, several villages con- stituted an Associated. Commune (selskoye obshtchestvo) ; this is now the universal organization. Formerly the head of the Associated Commune, the Starshina, was the oldest Starosta of the villages ; he is now eleeled by the collective heads of houses of all the villages ; every ten houses electing two heads of families, and these appointing the 4tarshina. The latter receives a salary of 300 to 400 roubles (141. to 181.) As many villages as contain to- gether about 500 or 600 heads of families are united into one, and form an Associated Commune ; which appoints the recruits for the army, ^who were formerly taken by general levies, so many from every-thousand inhabitants. " The union of several Associated Communes constitutes a District (Volost), at the head of which stands the chief, or Golova ; he too is elected, and for three years. The Chief of the Circle must give in writing his Opinion upon the choice, and the Governor confirms it. He may be re- elected, if no complaints are made against him."

The popular organization reaches thus far. The divisions above it are state institutions.

" Several districts form a Circle; which is presided over by an officer of i state, the Chief of the Circle, who is named by the Minister. He belongs to the seventh or eighth class of civil servants, and has an assistant, who is of the ninth class. The Chiefs of Circles are under the head of the depart- ment of Domains in each Government.

" Each village has a tribunal, composed of the Starosta and two assistants, who are likewise elected. It has the right to inflict twenty-five blows with a stick, and to fine to the amount of five roubles ' • it also decides cases of meum and tuum, but not of heritable property. It exercises no criminal jurisdiction, but only presents informations and instructions, issues writs of arrest &c.

" The Golova of the District, and two assistants, who are likewise elected, form the District Tribunal, (T'olostnoi Uprava.) This constitutes an ap- peal court from the communal tribunal ; but it can only diminish, not aug- ment, the punishments inflicted by the latter. If it considers the punish- ment too slight it may make a representation to the Chief of the Circle ; who, if he is of the same opinion, informs the head of the department of Domains, and he then decides it."

If this village organization generally obtains, the forms of self- government exist in Russia, as the forms of constitutional go- vernment may be found to a large degree in the provincial insti- tutions indicated above, and pretty fully described by Mr. "Pen- ables. The first difficulty in their working lies in the Asiatic notion of patriarchal, that is absolute power, already-hinted at ; and which seems so deeply rooted in the Eastern mind as to leave Oriental peoples no choice between despotism and anarchy. An- other obstacle not only'to freedom but to good government, or even material prosperity, is the Tchinovnik. The necessity of the individual officer induces corruption. Haxthausen speaks of a man whose position compelled him to wear a rich uniform and keep a carriage on a salary of fifty pounds a year. The interests of the -body induce them to multiply forms and interpose obstacles to-the prompt despatch of business, as a means of furnishing em- ployment and excuses for extortion. So grievous are the Russian customhouse-regulations and extortions, that, as Lady Shell notes in her work on Persia, they have driven the whole commerce of the interior through Trebizond and Erzeroom instead of Georgia, notwithstanding bad roads, bad weather intense cold, and hordes of robbers; Anything is better than Russian officials. Accord- ing to the newspapers, the obstructive quarantine system is at work as bad as ever at the ports of the Black Sea. It is said that the late Emperor Nicholas struggled hard to reform the'Tehins r some documents under the hand of Alexander might be quoted indicative of a like intention. How far the wish is real, ere can- not tell. The forms of quarantine may possibly be multiplied and made obstructive by-a department, but surely the time of de- tention can easily be fixed beyond the possibility of abuse. Un- less some reform in the men and the general system of Russian obstructive administration be -effected, the peaceful intentions of the Emperor may be doubted, as well as his power of paying in- terest on the foreign money advanced for internal improvements, as it is only by free traffic that they can possibly pay. We have only touched upon the communal system. That topic might be considerably extended, especially in relation to a sort of communistic labour which seems to succeed better in ma-, nufactures than agriculture.

" Thus all the inhabitants of the village of Yurkinsk, in the Volost of Artimvsk, manufacture only boots and shoes : these they send to Moscow, where some peasants from the village live, keeping large stores, and selling their goods partly wholesale to the merchants, and partly retail.

There are also many other topics of interest,—such as the re- spective profits of agriculture and manufactures ; the attempts at introducing Western cultivation ; the best modes of advancing the prosperity of the empire ; and some curious accounts of the great revolution in manners and modes of living, as well as of in- dustry effected -by the French invasion of 1812. Time has ren- dered some parts obsolete or nonexistent; travellers and com- pilers, drawing from the Baron's book, may have forestalled other parts ; the work on the whole perhaps may hardly equal its Conti- nental reputation ; but The Russian Empire of Baron 'Von Rait- hausen is occupied with deeper and more important subjects, ex- tending over a wider field than almost any other modern work on. Russia.