264 



EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



labourers received nothing, while the rest obtained lots of from 113 to 270 acres. 

 The Chinchevild, or farmers, nearly all of them petty Polish nobles, did not become 

 owners of the lands leased by them, and many, unable to pay the increased 

 rents, were forced to abandon the farms held by their families for generations. 

 The Catholic element, already affected by the suppression of the Uniates, has also 

 diminished in importance. The passage of the Uniates to orthodoxy was facili- 

 tated by the strange custom which in Vilna endows the land with the religion 

 of its owner. On land held by Jews the Christians keep the Sabbath (Saturday), 

 arid on Christian lands the Jew observes the feasts of the calendar. But most of 

 the lands being "Russian," the feasts and observances of the cultivators nmst 

 also be Russian, whatever may have been their original religion. 



But with partial ruin general improvement is evident. The old serfs, having 

 become landowners, have changed in many respects, and need no longer repeat the 

 old proverb, " The lords are at once shepherds and wolves." Progress is even 



Fig. 124.— Vilna. 

 Scale 1 : 500,000. 



E cf P 



C ofG 



5 Miles. 



apparent in the unproductive government of Vitebsk. But besides agriculture 

 no industries have yet been developed. The towns are few and small, and their 

 trade and handicrafts are in the hands of others than the Lithuanians. 



Topography. 



Following the rio^ht or Grodno side of the Bug:, the first town we meet is 

 the old Russian colony of Brest-Liforcl-///, or simply Brent, at the junction of the 

 Mukhavetz, the second in importance of the fortresses forming the Polish 

 quadrilateral, but also a busy mart and a main centre of the Russian railway 

 system. The Jews, here very numerous, have an academy, or high school, 

 formerly noted throughout the East, and an Armenian bishop at one time resided 

 in the place. The Protestants printed the first Polish Bible here in 1596. 



Bdostok (Bialystok), the most Polish of all the Lithuanian towns, lies in 



