21S 
MOSCOW. 
CHAP. 
IX. 
upon the average, ten roubles annually, in specie 
If the peasant have been required by his lord 
(l) Mr. Heber’s Journal contains so much interesting information 
concerning the state of the Peasants in / lussia , that a copious extract 
will here be subjoined. While it accompanies the Author s 1 ext, it may 
make atonement, by greater accuracy and more favourable statement, 
for any error in his representation, whether statistical or moral. He 
is bound, consistently with the promise he made, in the beginning of 
this Work, to give his Narrative as nearly as possible in the state in 
which it was written upon the spot. 
“ We observed a striking difference between the peasants of the Crown 
and those of individuals. The former are almost all in comparatively 
easy circumstances. Their Abrock , or rent, is fixed at five roubles a 
year, all charges included: and as they ore sure that it will never be 
raised, they are more industrious. The peasants belonging to the 
nobles have their abrock regulated by their means of getting money 5 
at an average, throughout the empire, of eight or ten roubles. It then 
becomes not a rent for land, but a downright tax on their industry. 
Each male peasant is obliged, by law, to labour three days in each 
week for his proprietor. This law takes effect on his arriving at the 
age of fifteen. If the proprietor chooses to employ him the other 
days, he may; as, for example, in a manufactory; but he then finds 
him in food and clothing. Mutual advantage, however, generally re- 
laxes this law ; and, excepting such as are selected for domestic ser- 
vants, or, as above, are employed in manufactories, the slave pays a 
certain abrock, or rent, to be allowed to work all the week on his 
own account. The master is bound to furnish him with a house and 
a certain portion of land. The allotment of land is generally settled 
by the Starosta (Elder of the village) and a meeting of the peasants 
themselves. In the same manner, when a master wants an increase of 
rent, he sends to the Starosta, who convenes the peasants ; and by this 
assembly it is decided what proportion each individual must pay. If 
a slave exercise any trade which brings him in more money tiian agri- 
cultural labour, he pays a higher abrock. If by journeys to Petersburg , 
or other cities, he can still earn more, his master permits his absence, 
but his abrock is raised : the smallest earnings are subject to his op- 
pression. The peasants employed as drivers, at the post-houses, pay 
an abrock out of the drmk-money they receive, for being permitted to 
drive ; 
