504 



RUSSIA. 



Aimv. 



.Russia, been compiled by a committee appointed for the pur- 

 ' pose at St. Petersburgh, for the special use of the 

 military colonies. 



These laws are administered, in the first instance, 

 by the committees of the squadrons : each squadron 

 having a committee composed of its officers, one of 

 whom is elected president. These committees take 

 cognizance of small offences committed in their respec- 

 tive squadrons : the term squadron including not only 

 the soldiers who form it but the colonists belonging to 

 it. 



From the decision* of this committee, there is an ap- 

 peal to the regimental committee of administration, 

 consisting of the colonel, who is president, the lieute- 

 nant-colonel, who is vice-president, two captains, and 

 six deputies chosen by the colonists, one from each of 

 the six squadrons composing the regiment. The de- 

 cisions of this regimental committee are referred to 

 Count de Witt for his approval, and from his decision 

 the soldiers and colonists have no appeal, even though 

 it should extend to sending them to Siberia, the ne 

 plus ultra of Russian punishment. Officers may appeal 

 from Count de Witt's decisions to the emperor. 



Great offences are usually tried by a Commission 

 appointed by Count de Witt, a sort of court-martial. 



A very inquisitorial police maintains the good order 

 of each colony. A subaltern officer goes every day 

 into each of the houses and makes his report of the 

 state of the inmates; and on parade days, the master, 

 colonist and his assistant appear at the door of their 

 cottage to show themselves to the inspecting field- 

 officer. 



At the head-quarters of each regiment is its chan- 

 cery, in which the code of laws is deposited, where 

 the committee of the regiment meet, and a number of 

 clerks are employed to keep the accounts, and register 

 the proceedings. 



In most of the military villages are churches where 

 the priests officiate who belonged to them, before they 

 were included in the colonies. 



Such an imperium in imperio can hardly subsist with 

 impunity to the parent-state, unless its energies are 

 directed against foreign powers ; and, if this idea is 

 correct, under a warlike sovereign it may operate the 

 subversion of all the established dynasties of Europe; 

 under a weak one, the partition of Russia may be 

 looked upon as likely to result from the explosion of 

 its latent powers. 



It must be observed, that the millions of troops so 

 colonized and trained exist hitherto only on paper ; 

 and from a variety of circumstances, general and local, 

 it seems utterly impossible that even one million of 

 troops should be so organized. The world is not likely 

 to sit idle while Russia organizes so vast a force ; and 

 besides, this gigantic system contains in its bosom the 

 seeds of its own destruction. 



Among other sources of opposition to the scheme, 

 its general unpopularity is likely, very soon, to give it 

 a death-blow. It is held in utter abhorrence by the 

 peasantry ; it is detested by the regular army to such 

 an extent, that the government is obliged to give the 

 officers a higher degree of rank, and additional pay, in 

 order to induce them to attach themselves to colonized 

 regiments ; and it is highly disapproved of by all 

 classes of the nobility. 



The nobles regard the plan, and apparently with 

 much justice, as highly dangerous to the empire. 

 J^or, suppose a popular leader, especially in the south 

 of Russia, should differ with the government, or with 



6 



his sovereign, after a few hundred thousand men were Russia, 

 first taught to obey him, and afterwards obeyed him '^'Y-" 1 " 

 through attachment, what might not he effectuate ? 



When the experiment of colonizing was first made 

 in the neighbourhood of Novgorod, it produced much 

 discontent and some disturbances. The peasants seem 

 to have resented the ingrafting a soldier on their 

 menage as an infringement of the liberties even of 

 slaves. They might exclaim with Melibaeus; 



Impius Jmc tarn cutta novalia miles halcUt ? 

 Barbaras has segetes ? 



and the resolution that the oldest peasant in the colo- 

 nies should so far conform to military rule as to cut 

 their hair and shave their beard, added fuel to the 

 flame. 



Nor has the system of military colonization been 

 carried into effect, without serious difficulties also in 

 the south of Russia. Its institution was followed by 

 discontent and murmurs, which sometimes went so far 

 as to cause disturbances, and to threaten revolts. The 

 poor peasants loudly and generally complain of being 

 restrained in their dwellings by the severe military 

 police ; and bitterly regret their fate in being forced 

 to become colonists. Their former state of civil slavery 

 seems perfect freedom in comparison of the new mili- 

 tary arrangement of affairs. 



Many affecting scenes are said to have taken place, 

 as the empress and the dowager-empress went to and 

 returned from Moscow, in the year 1818. Hundreds 

 of the peasants collected at the post-stations, and when 

 the imperial carriages stopped, they simultaneously 

 bowed themselves to the earth, or completely prostrated 

 themselves, and in the language of the deepest sorrow 

 and distress entreated their majesties to hear their 

 tales of woe, and to intercede with the emperor to 

 abandon the new system of colonization. 



Notwithstanding the extreme unpopularity of the 

 system of colonization, and the vehement and general 

 opposition which it has met with, it still goes on, and 

 government seems determined in its prosecution. We 

 have not the smallest doubt, however, that all its ends 

 will be defeated and terminate in an aerial castle. 



In conclusion of this department, we may remark, 

 that notwithstanding the immense alarm which has 

 been sounded throughout Europe by some authors of 

 respectability, as to the enormous and increasing power 

 of Russia, there seems no great cause for uneasiness. 

 The army of Russia is great to be sure, but it wants 

 moral energy, and it is scattered over an immense ex- 

 tent of territory. We must not fear the numerical 

 force of Russia upon paper, but look to the number of 

 effective troops she could lead beyond the Niemen or 

 the Vistula. So long as a combination of European 

 powers is able to hold Russia at defiance, and so long 

 as it shall be the interest of those powers to keep her 

 within due limits, we have no fear of her legions of 

 troops, her hordes of Kozaks, and her bands of Tartar 

 and Siberian wanderers. 



CIVIL ADMINISTRATION. 



In the Russian empire, all power is concentrated Civil Ad- 

 in the monarch. He is assisted by his cabinet-conn- ministra- 

 cil, his ministers, the directing senate, and the holy tion - 

 synod; but he can over-rule the decisions of them 

 all. 



Each of the governments of Russia has a military 

 and a civil governor, who are the representatives of the 

 Emperor, who direct the administration of their pro- 



