jgj4.] Population of Russia. 167 



in Russia than elsewhere. On the contrary, they were made with 

 grea"accuracy, as far as the inhabitants are concerned who pay 

 drect imposts; and this class is much more extensive in Kussm 

 ?han in those countries where the class of free citizens is more 

 numeous, or where the imposts are chiefly indirect, or the military 

 ^"ice voluntary. If there were a point ot union, a Board of 

 StaUsticsT for example, for the revision of these enumerations, we 

 S obt.^ very exact results, especially now that the nattor has 

 Eaccu tomed'to them for almost a century. The most detec ive 

 part of these statements is the list of thos. who do not pay direct 

 [raposts, do not belong to any corporation, and are not m service. 

 Sclass is pretty considerable, since it includes more than a 

 nii lion of inhabitants. The list of the women ,s also defective; 

 S a"for as I have been able to learn, they are always marked m 

 t^' small a number. Those people also who live by hunting, and 

 t^e Nomade", are imperfectly registered, because their wandering 

 mode oT life presents almost insurmountable obstacles to exactness 



'ItTsTom'uics; elements, certainly very different in their nature, 

 that the total of the population of Russia has been made out 

 Luck ly by far he grlatest part of the whole has a very great 

 5;gree^;f probability^ It is 'easy to see that the tota , resu Itmg 

 from the general enumerations made as above described, must be 



always below the truth. . , 



The most remarkable partial enumerations are he first three 

 revisions, and the sum total of peasants, annually laid by ta 

 governors before the Minister of the interior. , ^ ^ . ,, 



The difficulty of levying the capitation tax, and of fixmg he 

 military enrolments, in consequence of the perpetual change of the 

 ^pulaLn, induced Peter the Great to mark dehmtely the number 

 S individuals subject to that impost, and to military duty, by 

 making one single registration once in twenty years ot all the males 

 liable to these impositions. The total number ot individuals 

 registered continues invariably the same till a new register is 

 drawn up, and this new register is called a revision ; it being con- 

 ceived that the births make up for the deaths, it is obvious from 

 this that the population cannot be exactly known Irom the numbers 

 given in ihe revisions, though these numbers always furnish the 

 most probable base. By this method, whicii is unique m its kind, 

 the genius of Peter the Great set government at its ease with 

 respect to the quantity of impost and of military levies, and lett to 

 the different corporations subjected to direct imposts the care of 

 fulfilling their obligations to the state in the way that they think 

 the most convenient; and this trust is discharged in a most exem- 

 plary manner, especially in the class of peasants i he governme.;! 

 IS sure for twenty years of its revenue, and of the number of indi- 

 Tiduals on whom it can depend for military tervicc. 

 The first three revisions, which were partial enumerations, were 



