RUSSIA. 



753 



lected to attend divine service. It soon be- 

 came, however, apparent that the converts were 

 not pleased with the change, and refused to 

 have their marriages celebrated and their chil- 

 dren baptized by the Russian priests. Moved 

 by their demoralized condition, the Emperor 

 Alexander permitted these people in 1865 to 

 bring up f heir children in the Protestant faith. 



In February the Governor of Poland received 

 the official instructions of the Russian Govern- 

 ment for the reorganization of that kingdom. 

 Under these instructions, the imperial com- 

 missions for special purposes and the exist- 

 ing provincial governments were suspended, 

 and the different branches of the public ad- 

 ministration were henceforth to be only de- 

 pendent on the respective ministeries at St. 

 Petersburg. The whole of Poland was to be 

 divided into twenty-seven departments, each 

 under the direction of a prefect. The post of 

 Governor of Poland was suppressed the func- 

 tions of this office having been fulfilled by the 

 chief of the civil administration and the com- 

 mander-in-chief of the troops stationed in the 

 Polish provinces. The national Russian party, 

 the chief organs of which are the "Moscow 

 Gazette " and the St. Petersburg " Invalide," 

 demanded a complete Russification of Poland. 

 They loudly expressed their dissatisfaction with 

 the Government on account of its not adopting 

 efficient measures to that end. Only the law 

 providing for the establishment of special schools 

 for each of the nationalities residing in the king- 

 dom was hailed by the " Moscow Gazette " as 

 fa step in the right direction. " When the Ger- 

 man, Lithuanian, and Russian inhabitants," re- 

 marked this paper, " are divided into sepa- 

 rate groups, there will remain only 3,000,000 

 Poles of unadulterated race, whom it will be 

 easy to reduce to impotence. It is more im- 

 portant still to make allies in the midst of the 

 Poles themselves, and, above all, to gain the 

 attachment of the peasants. The rural law 

 would thus appear as a conservative measure 

 with regard to Russia ; and, without dwelling 

 upon the principle of justice it contains, this 

 fact alone that of our own preservation 

 suffices to justify it." 



The most radical measures for the extirpa- 

 tion of the Polish nationality were taken in the 

 western governments of Russia, where nearly 

 the whole of the land has hitherto been in the 

 hands of a Polish aristocracy, while the bulk 

 of the population belonged to another Slavic 

 race. An imperial decree, issued in December, 

 forbade any land in these provinces to be sold 

 to either a Pole or a Roman Catholic. The 

 most stringent laws were adopted for the sup- 

 pression of the public use of the Polish lan- 

 guage. Thus, in December, a circular was 

 published from General Bezak, the Governor- 

 General of Kieff, to the commanders of dis- 

 tricts, in which it is stated that it has come to 

 his knowledge that in some districts in his gov- 

 ernment the books and accounts of chemists are 

 kept in the Polish language, and that physicians, 

 VOL. v. 48 A 



even those who are in the service of the State, 

 nse the Polish language in their prescriptions, 

 for the addresses of their patients, and the di- 

 rections for applying remedies. The circular 

 then instructs the local commanders to give 

 notice to all chemists and dispensers of medi- 

 cine that their accounts and books must be 

 kept in the Russian language, and that the tick- 

 ets placed upon their vials and boxes must ex- 

 clusively be made out in that language, under 

 a penalty of fifty rubles for the first violation 

 of the order, one hundred rubles for the second, 

 and complete suppression of the business for the 

 third. Physicians are to be warned that they 

 must not write their prescriptions in any other 

 language than Russian or Latin, under penalty 

 of a fine of ten rubles for each prescription in 

 Polish, and physicians in the service of the 

 State will in addition be deprived of their ap- 

 pointments. 



Among the new laws issued in 1865, was one 

 relating to the press. According to this law, 

 it remains optional for the editor of a news- 

 paper to submit his journal to the censorship 

 before publication. After three warnings, any 

 paper can be temporarily suspended by the 

 Minister of the Interior. A vote of the Senate 

 is required for the suppression of a newspaper. 



A special law was published for Finland. It 

 provides that no newspaper is allowed to appear 

 unless a large sum is deposited by the proprie- 

 tors as a guaranty, which sum is doubled for 

 newspapers published at Helsingfors and Abo. 

 All offences against this law are to be pun- 

 ished by heavy contributions,, amounting in 

 certain cases to 8,000 marks. A severe censor- 

 ship is established for all newspapers published 

 in Finland in a foreign language, and also for 

 all books coming from abroad- Travellers who 

 bring any printed matter with them are bound 

 to give it up to the custom house authorities, 

 and foreign political papers coming by post are 

 to be first seen by the censor, who is to decide 

 whether they are to be forwarded or confis- 

 cated. 



The "Kussian Correspondence" of St. Petersburg 

 publishes the following statistical accounts of the 

 Ministry of Public Instruction in Russia : " The 

 budget of that department for the present year 

 amounts to a sum of 6,467,452 rubles. The empire 

 contains about 67,670,000, inhabitants, consequently 

 every inhabitant contributes nine and a half copecks 

 to the budget ; but, as every ministry has its special 

 schools, it results that the real budget is much more 

 considerable. The schools of the orthodox churches 

 contain 320,000 pupils; those of the Ministry of the 

 Domains 198,000 ; and those of the irregular troops 

 42,500. The schools in the Caucasus, those of the 

 churches of the foreign confessions, and also private 

 establishments, receive nothing from the Ministry 

 of Public Instruction. The infant and provincial 

 schools are nearly all maintained by the fees paid by 

 the pupils, by charitable funds, and by the parishes. 

 The number 'of 1,124 parish schools receive from the 

 Ministry of Public Instruction an annual subvention 

 of only 31,000 rubles, or 27.50 rubles each, and a few 

 model schools 6,772 in all. The ministry distributes 

 besides to 474 schools of the district towns a sum 

 of 962,671 rubles, or 2,325 each. The ninety-six 

 gymnasiums of the empire receive 2,350,874 rubles. 



