of girls and to the administration of the institutions established by the late Empress Maria, mother of the Emperor Nicholas I. Besides, there is the Imperial Head-Quarters (Glavraia Kvartira), which is intrusted with the reception of one part of the petitions presented to the Tsar, formerly received by a Special Court of Requests, abolished in 1884.

The local administration of the empire differs in different provinces; Government having always allowed conquered or annexed countries to preserve their own laws and institutions, except in so far as they were hostile to the general constitution of the empire. The Grand-duchy of Finland has a special and partially independent form of government; Courland and Poland have peculiar institutions and privileges, which, however, have latterly been much modified.

The empire is divided into general governments, or vice-royalties, governments, and districts. There are at present in European Russia (including Poland and Finland) 68 governments, with 625 districts. Some of them are united into general governments, which are now those of Finland, Poland, Wilna, Kief, Odessa, and Moscow. The Asiatic part of the Empire comprises 5 general governments, Caucasus, Turkestan, Stepnoye (of the Steppes), Eastern Siberia, and of the Amour, with 33 governments and territory. At the head of each general government is a viceroy, or general-governor, the representative of the emperor, who as such commands the forces, and has the supreme control and direction of all affairs, whether civil or military. All the functionaries within their jurisdiction are subordinate to, and make their reports to the general governors. In Siberia they are assisted by a Council, which has a deliberative voice. A civil governor or a military governor in a few frontier provinces, assisted by a council of regency, to which all measures must be submitted, is established in each government or province. A vice-governor is appointed to fill the place of the civil-governor when the latter is absent or unwell. There is also, in each government, a council of control under the presidency of a special officer, depending directly on the Ministry of Control. Each government is divided into from 8 to 15 districts, having each several administrative institutions.

In European Russia the government of the parish, in so far as the lands of the peasantry are concerned, and part of the local administration, is intrusted to the people, to the extent of leaving them free in matters of social interest. For this purpose, the whole country is divided into communes, which elect an Elder (Starosta), or head of a commune, as also a tax-collector or superintendent of public stores. All these officers are elected at communal assemblies (‘Mir '—which means both the village' and 'the world') by the

The offices are more or

peasants, and from among themselves. less honorary, the emoluments connected with some of them being so small as to be scarcely more than nominal. The communal assemblies are constituted by all the householders in the village, who discuss and decide all communal affairs, such as the division of the fields, the arrangement of the tenancies, the proper distribution of the taxes, the audit of accounts, the supervision of the recruiting business, the admittance of new members into the commune, petitions and complaints to the Tsar and the ministry, and similar matters. These communal assemblies take place several times a year as business requires it. The communes are united into cantons, or 'Voloste,' embracing a population of about 2,000 males. Each of the cantons is presided over also by an Elder, Starshina,' elected at the district assemblies, which are composed of the delegates of the communal assemblies in proportion of one man to every ten houses. The canton assemblies decide similar affairs as the communal assemblies, but concerning the whole canton. The peasants have thus special institutions of their own, which are submitted also to special colleges for peasants' affairs,' instituted in each government. In Poland the Voloste' is substituted by the Gmina,' the assemblies of which are constituted of all landholders, nobility included, excepting the clergy and the police, who have each but one voice whatever the area of land possessed. The 'Gmina ' has, however, less autonomy than the 'Vo[oste,' being submitted directly to the Chief of the District.' In conjunction with the assemblies of the Voloste and Gmina are district tribunals, consisting of from four to twelve judges elected at district assemblies. Injuries and offences of every kind, as well as disputes relating to property between the peasants, not involving more than a hundred roubles, come under the jurisdiction of these popular tribunals. Affairs of more importance, up to 300 roubles, are judged by Judges of Peace, elected in Russia, and nominated in Poland; appeal against their judgments can be made to the 'Syezd,' or gathering of judges of the district, and further to the Senate.

6

The administration of the economical affairs of the district and province are, to some extent, in the hands of Zemstvos, or district and provincial assemblies, of representatives elected by the peasantry and other landed proprietors. They must limit themselves to the distribution of taxes, roads, hygiene, instruction, statistics, and some other economical affairs, and are limited also in their right of taxation, as also in all discussions, by the intervention of the governors. Their executive power is intrusted to provincial and district Upravas.' The Zemstvos, introduced in 1866, have not yet been extended to Poland, nor to some provinces of the periphery, Siberia, Turkestan, and Caucasus.

·

The grand-duchy of Finland, ceded to the Emperor of Russia by the treaty of Frederickshamm, September 17, 1809, has preserved, by special grant of Alexander I. in 1810 (renewed by the decrees of the Emperor Nicholas, of December 24, 1825, of Alexander II., of March 3, 1855, and of Alexander III., of March 14, 1881), some remains of its ancient constitution, dating from the year 1772, and reformed in 1789. This charter provides for a national parliament, consisting of four estates, the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants. The right of legislation and of general taxation is nominally in the hands of this assembly, though in reality it is exercised by a senate appointed by the Emperor Grand-duke.' This senate was created by an ordinance of Alexander I., of October 25, 1811, and consisted first of three members, called the 'Committee for the Affairs of Finland.' Another ukase, of February 12, 1812, created a Governor-General of Finland, in whom was vested the whole executive power, as representative of the sovereign. In 1816, a consultative body, called the 'Imperial Senate of Finland,' was placed at the side of the ministerial council, as the 'Committee for the Affairs of Finland,' and denominated, after a time, the Senate.' The 'Imperial Senate,' originally consisting of fourteen members, then of sixteen, and finally, up to the present time, of nineteen, is nominated by the sovereign for three years, and chosen the one-half from the nobility of Finland, and the other half from among the classes of citizens and peasants. The organ of their communication with the emperor is a secretary of state for the grand-duchy of Finland, residing at St. Petersburg.

Poland, which had a constitution of its own from 1815 to 1830, and a separate government till 1864, was deprived at the latter date of the last remnant of its administrative independence. Finally, by ukase of the Emperor, dated Feb. 23, 1868, the government of Poland was absolutely incorporated with that of Russia.

Church and Education.

The established religion of the empire is the Greco-Russian, officially called the Orthodox-Catholic Faith. The Russian Church separated from the See of Rome in 1054, and from the Byzantine patriarchate in 1589. It has its own independent synod, but maintains the relations of a sister Church with the four patriarchates of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The sacred synod, the board of government of the Church, was established with the concurrence of the Russian clergy and the four Eastern patriarchs. The Emperor is head of the Church, exercising the external functions in a still greater degree than the Roman pontiff; he appoints to every office in the Church, and is restricted only so far as

to leave to the bishops and prelates the privilege of proposing candidates; and he transfers and dismisses persons from their offices in certain cases. But he has never claimed the right of deciding theological and dogmatic questions. In official documents the Emperor is not called the Head, but the Protector, or Defender, of the Church.

The points in which the Greco-Russian Church differs from the Roman Catholic faith are, its denying the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, its prohibiting the celibacy of the clergy, and its authorising all individuals to read and study the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. There were in Russia in 1881 636 cathedrals and 41,807 churches attached to the established faith, with 93,751 clergy of all kinds. There were 441 monasteries, with 11,197 inmates, and 167 nunneries with 4,759 (545 above the legal number) nuns and 14,071 'sisters.' The Holy Synod has a capital of about 5 millions sterling at its disposal.

The Russian Church formerly possessed immense wealth, but it was confiscated partly by Peter I. and principally by Catherine II. With the exception of the restraints laid on the Jews, all religions may be freely professed in the empire. The Dissenters have been and are still, however, severely persecuted, though recently some liberty has been extended to those of the United Church.' It is estimated that there are more than 12,000,000 Dissenters in Great Russia alone. The affairs of the Roman Catholic Church are intrusted to a Collegium, and those of the Lutheran Church to a Consistory, both settled at St. Petersburg. Roman Catholics are most numerous in the formerly Polish provinces, Lutherans in those of the Baltic, and Mohammedans in Southern Russia, while the Jews are almost entirely settled in the towns and larger villages of the western and south-western frontier districts.

The number of members of the principal religious creeds in European Russia was returned as in the following table for

1879:

Under the Ministry of Public Instruction, Russia is divided into eleven educational provinces, each presided over by a curator. The

empire possesses eight Universities, with 637 professors and 10,700 students in 1882. Finland has a university of its own at Helsingfors. The students are mostly very poor, 89 per cent. either being supported by bursaries, or are dispensed from paying fees. There

are 4 free high schools for the higher education of women; the medical academy for women was closed in 1884. In 1879 there were in European Russia 326 high schools (lyceums, gymnasiums, &c.), with 78,062 pupils, besides 45 in Finland with 4,422 pupils. There are besides numerous agricultural, industrial, mining, and other special schools.

In 1880 there were in the villages 22,770 primary schools, with 1,140,915 pupils (904,918 boys, and 235,997 girls) and 24,389, teachers (19,511 males, and 4,878 females). The expenditures for these schools amounted in 1879 to 6,148,973 roubles, or 615,000l. In 1882 there were 61 normal schools, including Finland, with 3,969 pupils.

In the budget for the year 1884, a sum of 19,672,431 roubles, or 1,967,2427., was set down for public education in the schools under the Ministry of Public Instruction. In addition to this the sum of 1,375,000l. was assigned for military, naval, engineering, and other special schools and colleges. From all sources, imperial and local, about 5,000,000l. is annually devoted to education.

The mass of the population of Russia is as yet without education. In 1860 only two out of every hundred recruits levied for the army were able to read and write, but the proportion had largely increased in 1870, when eleven out of every hundred could read and write, and 19 per cent in 1882. In 1880 Finland had 1,493 elementary schools, with 151,892 pupils. In the Grand-duchy of Finland, which has a system of public instruction separate from that of the rest of the empire, education is all but universal, the whole of the inhabitants being able at least to read, if not to write.

The empire, Finland excepted, is divided, as above stated, into educational districts, each of which has a number of lyceums, at which the young men intended to fill civil offices are mostly instructed, besides gymnasiums, high schools, and elementary schools, varying according to area and population.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The public revenue of the empire is derived to the extent of twothirds from direct and indirect taxes, while nearly two-thirds of the total expenditure are for the army and navy, and interest on the public debt. There are annual budget estimates published by the government, and also, since 1866, accounts of the actual receipts and disbursements of the State, which, entering into minute details, cannot be issued till after the lapse of a number of

years.