Ch.iii. in Russia. 315 



will enable it to pay the tax. It is evidently the 

 interest of the boor not to improve his lands much, 

 and appear to get considerably more than is ne- 

 cessary to support his family and pay the poll- 

 tax ; because the natural consequence will be, 

 that in the next division which takes place, the 

 farm which he before possessed will be considered 

 as capable of supporting two families, and he will 

 be deprived of the half of it. The indolent culti- 

 vation that such a state of things must produce is 

 easily conceivable. When a boor is deprived of 

 much of the land which he had before used, he 

 makes complaints of inability to pay his tax, and 

 demands permission for himself or his sons to go 

 and earn it in the towns. This permission is in 

 general eagerly sought after, and is granted with- 

 out much difficulty by the Seigneurs, in conside- 

 ration of a small increase of the poll-tax. The 

 consequence is, that the lands in the country are 

 left half cultivated, and the genuine spring of po- 

 pulation impaired in its source. 



A Russian nobleman at Petersburg, of whom I 

 asked some questions respecting the management 

 of his estate, told me, that he never troubled him- 

 self to inquire whether it was properly cultivated 

 or not, which he seemed to consider as a matter 

 in which he was not in the smallest degree con- 

 cerned. Ccla mest egal, says he, cela me fait ni 

 bicn ni mal. He gave his boors permission to earn 

 their tax how and where they liked, and as long 

 as he received it he was satisfied. But it is evi- 

 dent that by this kind of conduct he sacrificed 

 the future population of his estate, and the con- 



