CHAPTER X. 

 LABOURING POPULATION. 



IT may have been observed that in the mention made of 

 concessions given to the enterprising men by whom the 

 mining and metallurgical operations of the district were 

 developed, there are included, besides forests and water 

 power, lands and serfs. This was in accordance with 

 what before the emancipation of the serfs was customary 

 in Russia. Workmen were as necessary to the accom- 

 plishment of the enterprise as were ores and metals, 

 and firewood and motive power. And the serfs being 

 bound to the estates, workmen were provided by con- 

 cessions of estates with a number of serfs upon them. 

 In such circumstances the serfs might be of more value to 

 the enterprising engineer than was the land. But they 

 could not be purchased as might be slaves elsewhere. 



An Englishman resident in Russia, whom I knew well, 

 had a manufactory of white lead, which was deadly in its 

 effects upon the workmen, and he frequently required to 

 replace those whom he employed in the works. It was 

 said of him that to do this he arranged with some landed 

 proprietor to purchase a small strip of his property if 

 possible one comparatively densely peopled. Having 

 done so, the serfs were his to employ them as he chose. 

 Having drafted them off to his works, he had no further 

 use for the land, and he made the original holder welcome 

 to resume the use, if not also formal possession, of this. 

 Let it not be forgotten that he was an Englishman ! 



There are sometimes seen gleams of light in the 

 darkest sky, and gleams of humour in the saddest scenes. 

 I was told, if I recollect aright, by his son, that on one 



