A HUGE ADVERTISEMENT. 149 



But the object aimed at — an object, too, which has 

 undoubtedly been achieved — did occur to me at last. 

 The whole concern from beginning to end is a huge 

 advertisement. From the time that you set foot on the 

 road at one end to the time that you leave it at the 

 other, the one word which is incessantly brought before 

 your mind is Russia. At every turn there are posts 

 decked out in the colours of Eussia. There are toll-bars 

 at which you are confronted with toll- collectors — from 

 Eussia. When you drive up to the rest-houses on the 

 road you pass between gate-posts painted with the 

 black-and-white bands which you instantly recognise as 

 identical with the same objects which you meet with on 

 the post-roads in Eussia, and it is even said that in the 

 first instance the flag that flew from every suitable 

 point, until the practice was discontinued owing to the 

 awakened susceptibilities of Persia, was the flag of 

 Eussia. 



And the Persian travelling along the road sees the 

 might of Eussia flaunted in the face of Persia, and, 

 seeing it, takes it for granted with Persian indiflerence. 

 Kismet — it is fate ; and if anything passes through his 

 mind at all, it is probably the thought that after 

 all he would not be any worse ofi" under any other 

 government, while he might possibly be better. 

 Is it worth the money? Well, that is for Eussia to 

 decide, and she appears to think that it is, and when 

 Eussia thinks anything worth spending money on, she 

 does not hesitate to spend it. There is no troublesome 

 House of Commons with its still more troublesome 

 Opposition to put spokes in the wheels of autocratic 

 ambition in Eussia. 



I got into my carriage with a fourgon in tow for the 

 luggage on April 14, and as I was driven at reckless 

 pace down the " Boulevard des Ambassadeurs," through 



