BROOKS'S RUSSIANS OF THE SOUTH. * WHAT object took Mr. Brooks
to Odessa is not stated, but it would seem to have been to gather information connected with the corn- trade. That term, however, must be taken in a large sense, including the nature of the Steppes, the condition of the peasantry, the state of the roads and consequently of locomotion, as well as prices and methods of cultivation. Under the condition of the peasantry the writer investigates the whole character of Russian serfdom. He also goes into the mode of administration, especially of the police and passport system, and furnishes glimpses of the state of society and the secrecy observed in Russia, where, literally, a man cannot call his soul his own. These subjects are all more or less illus- trated by particular sketches. There is moreover a grievous ac- count of the traveller's descent of the Danube from Vienna to Ga- latz, under the auspices of the Austrian Steam Company—now, however, a thing of the past.
As his visit appears to have taken place some time ago, Mr. Brooks furnishes little direct information bearing upon the present state of affairs. An idea of the deadly manner in which the Russian system of government presses upon society may be gathered from his pages; preventing union, stiffing even material prosperity, and destroying everything national in the countries it conquers—as Poland and Bessarabia—in order to establish ignorance, servility, and slavishness of mind as well as of action. Mr. Brooks seems favourably impressed with the intentions of the Emperor as a Russian, as well as of the character of the highest classes—more favourably, indeed, than facts warrant ; but their intentions are defeated by an organized bureaucracy, that overspreads the land. It seems a sort of Chinese system, without the qualifications which China in theory required, animated by the ingenuity and the ruth- less spirit of Eastern despotism, as well as by the larger and more cultivated intelligence of Europe. To trace the formation and growth of this system, is a task for the historian more curious than battles or treaties. It would now seem to be perfect in its effects ; though the character and accomplishments of the lower officials would admit of considerable improvement. The result of this sys- tem is a national hypocrisy, stifling all expression, and controlling thought itself.
"There is no country in the world where secrecy is so completely the order of the day as in Russia. Were it necessary, I could mention curious instances in proof of this; any resident in Russia, if he dared, could confirm it. Of those social outrages, for instance, which our own press hastens to report with a minuteness and a frankness utterly incomprehensible to fo- reigners, (who have incessantly on their lips and m their practice the cele- brated dictum that one's linge sale' should be washed 4 at home,') the Rus- sian affects to know nothing, although they have occurred within a few miles of his doors. With us such outrages are placed either in the category of phenomena, or as signs of something wrong in a system: but not only is nothing ever wrong in Russia, but there are no phenomena. Everything is orderly, regular, and loyal. If an agrarian crime in which many persons are accomplices is committed, a battalion is marched to the spot, everybody is hurried away to Siberia ; but there is no scandal. A Russian will deny to you that such a thing is possible - and how will you prove it ? But the Russian, uttering his very denial, knows that the thing is not only possible but that it has occurred."
Of what may be called private serfdom Mr. Brooks gives as dark a picture as any writer; for the Imperial laws are a dead letter; and it would appear that the most intelligent lords consider that the Government aim at sowing disunion between them and their serfs, and check anything that savours of an attempt to raise the charac- ter of the bondmen, on the principle of divide and conquer. Con- .trary to the usual opinion, Mr. Brooks considers the Crown serfs as worse off than those in private hands. If the Emperor's wishes and orders were carried into effect, the Crown serfs would be in as good condition as they are described to be; but in fact they are under the rule of clerks, whose sole object is to exact all they can. The private serf has his chance of a good or an easy lord ; the Crown serf is always under the rule of a needy, corrupt, and insatiate bureaucracy. The army is only mentioned indirectly, in an account of the or- ders of (official) nobility, and in the sketches of serfdom. This is the picture of the slave-soldier after he has been drawn for the army.
"The warrior himself is conducted to the depot ; and there, doubtless, his education is commenced upon the most improved principles. His comforts may suffer at first ; for, having been accustomed to the shaggy sheepskin, the warmest-looking article in the world, and to a thick cap, he is rendered nearly bald; he has a helmet given him, and his sheepskin is taken away in favour of the apparently thinnest uniform extant. There cannot be a greater contrast than the sturdy peasant, in the comforting dress I have described, • The Russians of the South. By Shirley Brooks. Published by Longman and Co. [The Traveller's Library.]
and his shivering compatriot on duty as a sentinel when one of the Black Sea breezes runs a muck at the town. It is the peasant who looks the soldier then, as he grins goodhumouredly in the teeth of the wind. I think I agree with the Reverend Mr. Gleig, that the swaggering manner, if it does not run wild altogether,' should be rather encouraged in a soldier ; if he is to be formidable, he should believe himself so. But as far as I have seen, there is very little of this in the Russian soldier; he looks very meek, and remark- ably uncomfortable. In the capital, and around the great head of the army, no doubt things look differently, or travellers would not go away with such enraptured visions of glorious and gigantic guardsmen, and reviews which do everything but realize Milton's battle of the angels. I merely mention what I see. The soldier is not well fed, but the contrary ; and when he is engaged, as he often is, to assist in heavy work, as lifting weights and simi- lar matters, his want of power, compared with the civilian by his side, is not only evident to the eye, but registered in his wages, which are usually lower than those of his companion. I do not know that there is any reason why a soldier should be able to heave a sack easily—a man who cannot carry a load may be very useful in carrying a town ; but I know what one of our own brawny and willing Guardsmen would say if he saw the apparent calibre of these men. In sickness, I am glad to believe that there is an intention to amend the treatment of the soldier ; a necessary movement, considering the immense number of the Russian army at this moment in hospital, or unable to appear on parade. There has always been an enormous parade of care for him when sick, and the display of the military apothecary's gilded boxes and the like have always been most satisfactory upon inspection, until the boxes were opened."
There is a striking picture of the waving grain in the summer- time in the province of Podolia, (a part of old Poland,) with a fair account of the agriculture in Southern Russia. Neither hedges, drainage, nor manure are known. The system is a threefold cul- tivation.
"The Russian farmer divides his land into three parts, equal or unequal according to circumstances, but from necessity of no very great difference. In the same year he sows one of these divisions with wheat, a second with oats or barley, and the third remains fallow. In the next year the division previously sown with wheat is sown with oats, the oats division is left fallow, and the fallow division is sown with wheat. In the third year, which com- pletes the farming cycle, the wheat division of the first year is fallow, the oats division of the first year is sown with wheat, and the fallow division of the first year, being of course the wheat division of the second year, is sown with oats. Thus the rotation is formed, and thus it will appear that one-
third of the farmer's land is constantly out of cultivation. • * *
"It is not for me to express an agricultural opinion upon the system. In the judgment of many well-informed landowners even here this system is gradually found to impoverish the soil. It is difficult—in fact, it is impos- sible—in Russia to arrive with exactitude at any result solely depending on figures; for there are no persons who esteem themselves sufficiently inte- rested in a general view of a subject to take the pains without which such data cannot be procured ; while, unluckily, there are many persons who, from various causes, are mischievously active in impeding, if not in entirely choking up, various channels of information. But the general impression is abroad that the land of the corn district, originally so rich, is becoming im- poverished under the system to which it is subjected ; that the produce, al- though there may be no obvious difference in the returns of a port, nor any actual economizing in the outlay of a nobleman, is not what it used to be, and that, some time or other—the usual date at which it is proposed to com- mence alterations in Russia—a change of system will become necessary."
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