MISCELLANIES. 



54 



a 



to liis fields, because upon tliem 

 he has lavished his labours and the 

 fruit of his savings. 'iTiese tields 

 are the only sources of riches, and 

 consequently the possessors of 

 them become by degrees the ab- 

 solute masters of those that have 

 none. Manufactures and com- 

 noerce open a new source of riches 

 independent of the territorial pro- 

 perty. A third class of citizens 

 interposes itself between the la- 

 bourer of the fields and the pro- 

 prietors of estates. They are 

 justly called the third estate. They 

 belong to the whole world. Know- 

 ledge and the arts friendly to li- 

 bertjs comfort, and tranquillity 

 sprea<l with the greatest facility in 

 this class. The want of the third 

 estate stops the progress of know- 

 ledge among a people of slaves ; 

 and the German nations, notwith- 

 standing their feudal system, were 

 only more fortunate in possessing 

 this third estate some a<>es before 

 other nations. The nobility and 

 the clergy form a political body 

 between the sovereign and the 

 nation. Their number, their pro- 

 perty, their privileges, require the 

 greatest attention in order to be 

 able to judge of the moral force of 

 raonarcliies. The great armies 

 kept up by all nations have esta- 

 blished a military system in the 

 midst of peace. This system, 

 brought to perfection since the 

 time of Louis XIV. and Frederick 

 II., has destroyed the finances, and 

 overturned several states. 



Formerly there were various 

 states in Europe in which the so- 

 vereign was limited by the privi- 

 leges of the people. Those pro- 

 vinces which had preserved par- 

 ticblar rights sometimes rendered 



the operations of government more 

 slow and more difficult. 



The origin of nations, then, re- 

 ligion, the different orders of so- 

 ciety, and the particular rights of 

 certain provinces, are the prin- 

 cipal points of view under which 

 we are about to contemplate the 

 total population of Russia. 



Ethnography makes researches 

 into the origin of people, and the 

 smallest tribe is classed apart, pro- 

 vided it exhibits national diffe- 

 rences. 



The writer on political statistics 

 attends to these differences only 

 when they have a marked effect 

 upon the happiness of the state. . 



Under the first point of view 

 Russia contains nearly a hundred 

 different nations; under the se- 

 cond, European Russia includes 

 only three nations, the Sclavoni- 

 ans, Finns, and Tartars. We 

 might indeed include the inhabi- 

 tants of Caucasus; but they are 

 not numerous. Siberia, besides 

 the Finns and Tartars, includes 

 likewise the Samojedes, and the 

 people of the Mongole and Ame- 

 rican race. But this population is 

 only in its infancy. 



I. The centre of European Rus- 

 sia is inhabited by the Russians. 

 On the west and south-west are 

 found the Poles. We shall not 

 uselessly multiply the subdivisions 

 of the Sclavonian race by stating 

 particularly the inhabitants of 

 Great and Little Russia, the Cos- 

 sacks, Serbes, Wlachians, Alba- 

 uois, Arnautes, Bulgarians, &c. 

 which occur as foreigners or colo- 

 nists in the governments of the 

 south. How many subdivisions of 

 this kind might be made in France 

 and England. 



