800 



EUSSIA. 



RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, THE. 



The origin of the terrible deeds which have startled 

 the whole world by their atrocity must be sought, not 

 only in the evil mmds of the perpetrators, but deeper 

 in the absence of religious and moral principles in the 

 education of the children, in the culpable negligence 

 and apathy of many government and social officials, 

 and in the fraudulent proceedings of the officials who 

 are charged with the state and public funds. In re- 

 gard to the extirpation of the seditious spirit with 

 which the country is impregnated, it is only bv the 

 autocrat, strong in the loyalty and unbounded devo- 

 tion of his many million subjects and in the indis- 

 soluble alliance with them, that this heavy burden can 

 be removed and the enormous task be accomplished. 

 The Czar summons us all to aid in the work, and at 

 the same time indicates the path along which we are 

 to proceed. The principal energy of the Government 

 will be directed to the eradication of sedition. 



The secret correspondence between the Rus- 

 sian authorities and the Ameer Shere All, 

 which was found at Cabool by the British, re- 

 vealed a compact which was incompatible with 

 the agreement with England that there should 

 be no interference in Afghanistan.. In England 

 the party in power refused to discover any por- 

 tent of danger in the existence at that time of a 

 secret league between Afghanistan and Russia, 

 in which the latter promised to aid Afghanis- 

 tan, in a war against the British, with muni- 

 tions of war and 32,000 troops, and urged 

 the Afghans to stir up a rebellion in India. 

 The fact that these intrigues were carried 

 on for the purpose of compelling England's 

 acquiescence in the Russian designs against 

 Turkey, was regarded as a sufficient excuse by 

 the Liberals of Great Britain. "The enemy 

 of your famous religion wants to make peace 

 with you, through the Sultan of Turkey," read 

 one of the letters to the Ameer, and hence the 

 Ameer was advised to "make peace openly, 

 and in secret prepare for war," and to look to 

 the "brothers on the other side of the river, if 

 God should stir them up to fight " that is, to 

 foment a rebellion of the Mohammedans be- 

 yond the Indus, before openly waging war 

 against India. A treaty was concluded, in 

 which the Ameer engaged not to make war 

 without consulting Russia, and Russia to aid 

 the Afghans with arms and auxiliaries and 

 help them to recover "the ancient country of 

 Afghanistan." 



In the retrocession of the Kuldja province 

 to China (see CHIXA), in accordance with the 

 promise made when Russia took possession of 

 the district in the war with Yakoob Beg, the 

 only reservation made by Russia was, to se- 

 cure settlements for the restless and disaffected 

 Dungans and other portions of the population, 

 who dreaded the oppressions of the Chinese, 

 and elected the rule of the White Czar. In 

 the treaty, which was signed at St. Petersburg 

 on August 19th, by the Marquis Tseng and the 

 Russian minister De Giers, the Emperor of 

 China agreed to grant a full amnesty to all 

 who engaged in the rebellion, and to allow the 

 inhabitants to choose whether they would re- 

 main Chinese or become Russian subjects. 

 Russia retained a strip of country in the west- 

 ern part of the province, a sufficient foothold 



for future commercial and military operations. 

 The Russians are permitted to trade in Kuldja, 

 Tarbagatai, Kashgar, and the cities of the north 

 and south slopes of the Thian-Shan, free of duty 

 for the present. At Kin Yu Kwan, a gate of 

 the Great Wall, and at Turfan, as well as at 

 Kuidja, Kashgar, Ourgas, and at Kobdo, Khar- 

 mi, and other Chinese towns, Russian consuls 

 may be appointed. Russian caravans will not 

 be allowed to pass the frontier posts of Kurgan 

 and Kin Yu Kwan. China agreed to pay an 

 indemnity of nine million rubles for the costs 

 of occupation and losses to the inhabitants. 



RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, THE. The 

 question of liberalizing the methods of gov- 

 ernment in Russia is one of increasing interest 

 and importance, but of no little practical diffi- 

 culty. At present there is a peculiar combina- 

 tion of local self-government within restricted 

 limits, and of unrestrained autocracy of tho 

 Czar in imperial affairs. For three centuries 

 the peasantry was held in the position of serfs, 

 and attached to the soil through a sort of 

 necessity, arising out of their vagrant habits. 

 These habits were the result partly of the ad- 

 mixture of Tartar blood in their composition, 

 and partly of the insecurity into which the 

 country had been thrown by many years of 

 Tartar outrage and devastation. It was found 

 expedient to bind the laborer to the soil which 

 he tilled, paying him for the field he cultivated 

 for his master by the enjoyment of the field he 

 cultivated for himself. But this dependence of 

 the land-laborer on the land- owner was too 

 nearly akin to slavery, and too liable to abuses, 

 to be tolerated in a European state, and, by the 

 autocratic act of the late Emperor, the Russian 

 serfs 22,000,000 in number were not only 

 converted into frea peasants, but also into 

 peasant proprietors, owners of the land which 

 had been the wages of their bondage. The 

 freedom of the peasant, and his ownership of 

 the land, are still incomplete, for he is bound to 

 the village or commune of which his landed 

 property compels him to be a member. A vil- 

 lage in Russia, especially in " Great Russia " 

 (Northern and Eastern Russia), is an autono- 

 mous association, governing itself on the basis 

 of ultra-democratic equality and universal suf- 

 frage. The legislative power resides in an as- 

 sembly of all the heads of a family, whether 

 male or female, which rules everything by a 

 majority of votes, usually by acclamation, ap- 

 points its own executive, elects its elder and 

 other local functionaries, and apportions the 

 lands which the village owns in common. 

 Every head of a family has the permanent and 

 hereditary possession of his house or cottage, 

 and of the adjoining kitchen-garden; but of 

 the remainder of the landed property of the 

 village he only enjoys that share which is ad- 

 judged to him by the vote of his fellow-vil- 

 lagers, and which is proportionate to the able- 

 bodied and grown-up men or women that the 

 family can muster. Both for his freedom and 

 for his share of the common property it was 



