CHAP. diminished. But, in despite of all the pretended regulations made in favour of the peasant, the IX. peasant he chooses. The prisons of Moscow and Kostroma were chiefly filled with such runaway slaves, who were, for the most part, in irons. On the frontier, they often escape; but in the interior it is almost impossible: yet, during the summer, desertions are very common; and they sometimes lurk about for many months, living miserably in the woods. This particularly happens when there is a new levy of soldiers. The soldiers are levied, one from every certain number of peasants, at the same time all over the empire. But if a man be displeased with his slave, he may send him for a soldier at any time he pleases, and take a receipt from Government; so that he send one man less the next levy. He also selects the recruits be sends to Government; with this restriction, that they are young men, free from disease, have sound teeth, and are five feet two inches high. “The Starosta, of whom mention has been so frequently made, is an officer resembling the antient bailiff of an English village. He is chosen, we are told, (at least generally,) by the peasants; sometimes annually, and sometimes for life, He is answerable for the abročks to the lord; decides small disputes among the peasants; gives billets for quarters to soldiers, or to Government officers, on a journey, &c. Sometimes the proprietor claims the right of appointing the Starosta. A slave can on no pretence be sold out of Russia, nor in Russia, to any but a person born noble, or, if not noble, having the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. This rank is not confined to the military; it may be obtained by them in civil situations. (Professor Pallas had the rank of Brigadier.) This law is, however, eluded: as roturiers (plebeians) frequently purchase slaves for hire, by making use of the name of some privileged person; and all nobles have the privilege of letting out their slaves. "Such is the political situation of the peasant. With regard to his comforts, or means of supporting existence, I do not think they are deficient. Their houses are in tolerable repair, moderately roomy, and well adapted to the habits of the people. They have the air of being sufficiently fed, and their clothing is warm and substantial. Fuel, food, and the materials for building, are very cheap; but clothing is dear. In summer they generally wear Nantkin caftans, one of which costs thirteen roubles. Their labkas (linden-bark sandals) cost nothing, except tax he is called upon to pay, or the labour he is compelled to bestow, depends only on the caprice or the wants of his tyrant. Labour is except in great towns. They wear a blue Nantkin shirt, trimmed with red, which costs two or three roubles; linen drawers; and liuen or hempen rags wrapped round their feet and legs, over which the richer sort draw their boots. The sheep-skin schaub costs eight roubles, but it lasts a long time; as does a lamb-skin cap, which costs three roubles. The common red cap costs about the same. For a common cloth caftan, such as the peasants sometimes wear, we were asked thirty roubles. To clothe a Russian peasant or a soldier is, I apprehend, three times as chargeable as in England. Their clothing, however, is strong, and, being made loose and wide, lasts longer. It is rare to see a Russian quite in rags. With regard to the idleness of the lower classes here, of which we had heard great complaints, it appears, that, where they have an interest in exertion, they by no means want industry, and have just the same wish for luxuries as other people. Great proprietors, who never raise their abrocks, such as Count Sheremetof, have very rich and prosperous peasants. The difference we noticed between peasants belonging to the Crown and those of the nobility has been already mentioned. The Crown peasants, indeed, it is reasonable to suppose, are more happy; living at their case, paying a moderate quit-rent, and ehoosing their own Starosta. They are, however, more exposed to vexation and oppression from the petty officers of the Crown. "This account of the condition of the peasants in Russia is an abrége of the different statements we procured in Moscow, and chiefly from Prince Theodore Nikolaiovitz Galitzin. The levies for the army are considered by the peasants as times of great terror. Baron Bode told me, they generally keep the levy as secret as possible, till they have fixed on and secured a proper number of men. They are generally chained till they are sworn in the fore part of the head is then shaved, and they are thus easily distinguished from other peasants. After this, desertion is very rare, and very difficult. The distress of one of their popular Dramas, which we saw acted at Yareslof, in the private theatre of the Governor Prince Galitzin, consisted in a young man being pressed for a soldier. In the short reign of PETER II. who, it is well known, transferred the seat of Government again to Moscow, no man was pressed for a soldier; the army was recruited by volunteers; and slaves were permitted to enter." Heber's MS. Journal. IX. CHAP. not exacted from males only: women, and children from the age of ten years and upwards, are obliged to perform their equal share. Tithes are, moreover, demanded of whatever may remain in their hands; of linen, poultry, eggs, butter, pigs, sheep, lambs, and every product of the land, or of domestic manual labour. Should a peasant, by any misfortune, be deprived of the tribute expected by his lord, he must beg, borrow, or steal, to make up the deficiency. Some of the nobles choose to converse with foreigners upon the condition of their slaves; and, when this is the case, not the smallest reliance can be placed upon the statement they may make. The observations of one of their Princes, at his own table, concerning the superiority of Russian to English liberty, will be found in a former Chapter. The same person deemed it to be decorous, upon another occasion, and before an immense assembly, to contrast the situation of English peasants with what he termed the happiness of the Russian slaves. "There is," said he, addressing himself to us with an air of triumph, "more of the reality of slavery in England than in Russia." When we requested his Excellency to explain what he implied by the "reality of slavery," he expatiated upon the miseries of press-gangs; and pictured the flourishing condition of his own peasants, whom he IX. described as having relief in sickness, refuge in CHAP. calamity, and in their old age a comfortable asylum. We asked the Prince, if there existed one, amongst the happiest of his slaves, who would not rejoice to exchange his Russian liberty for what he was pleased to term English slavery. --We had seen the peasants of this very man, according to his own pathetic discourse, sickness, in calamity, and in old age;" and it was well known to every person present, that their "relief and refuge" was in death, and their " asylum" the grave. "in Another nobleman assured us, that the greatest punishment he inflicted upon his slaves (for he professed to have banished all corporeal chastisement) was to give them their liberty, and then turn them from his door. Upon further inquiry, we discovered that his slaves fled from their fetters, even if there were a certainty of death before their eyes, rather than remain beneath his tyranny. Great indeed must be the degree of oppression which a Russian will not endure, who from his cradle crouches to his oppressor, and has been accustomed to receive the rod without daring to murmur. Other nations speak of Russian indolence; which is remarkable, as no people are naturally more lively, or more disposed to employment. We CHAP. IX. may perhaps assign a cause for their inactivity, A peasant in the village of Celo Molody, near Moscow, who had been fortunate enough to scrape together a little wealth, wished to marry his daughter to a tradesman of the city, and offered fifteen thousand roubles for her freedom -a most unusual price, and a much greater sum than persons of his class, situate as he was, will be generally found to possess. The (1) “A few thousands of their fellows eat wheaten bread, because thirty millions of slaves browse on herbs and gnaw birch bark, on which they feed, like the beavers, who surpass them in understanding." Secret Mem. of Court of Petersburg, p. 263. (2) This anecdote of a peasant's wealth, and the example mentioned in p. 109, seem to prove an incorrectness in the description given of the hardships sustained by the lower order of people in Russia; unless the |