U V s 
the cultivation of the fifteen deciatins of land, or follows 
such other occupation as may suit him, tailor, shoe-maker, 
and so on. 
The master-colonist, agriculturalist soldier, and reserve, 
may chuse their wives where they like, and are encouraged 
to marry; but the women, once within the pale of the mili¬ 
tary colonies, cannot marry out of them. 
The sons of the master-colonist, agriculturalist-soldier, and 
reserve, who are from thirteen to seventeen years old, are 
called Kantonists, are exercised as soldiers, and continued at 
the village which is the residence of the Colonel, and the 
head-quarters of the regiment: they also occasionally attend 
school to complete their education. 
The boys from eight to thirteen years old go to school in 
the village in which their parents reside, and learn their 
military duties alternate days; they, as well as the Kantonists, 
are dressed in uniform, and considered as soldiers ; the chil¬ 
dren under eight years old remain with their parents. 
The education of the children forms a very important fea¬ 
ture in the system. All the male children in the colony are 
sent to schools of mutual instruction, where they are taught 
reading, writing, and arithmetic. They learn a sort of cate¬ 
chism containing the duty of a soldier, much the same as 
that which Buonaparte taught his soldiers. They are instructed 
in the use of the sword; learn to ride in the Manege, and after 
the age of thirteen, they are assembled at the head-quarters 
of the regiment, and formed into a corps, in which those 
who distinguish themselves most by their quickness and 
attention are made officers. At Vosnesensk (the head-quarters 
of the first regiment of the Boog) Dr. Lyall saw a body of 
200 Kantonists who marched, fired, and performed all the 
evolutions of experienced soldiers, with a steadiness and pre¬ 
cision which was astonishing. There was an esprit de corps 
about them, which cannot Tail to make them good soldiers. 
The education of the women has hitherto been much neg¬ 
lected, but they have now begun to establish schools on the 
Lancasterian plan for them, which, no doubt, will soon be¬ 
come general. 
A military colony, therefore, consists of 
1. The Master-Colonist, so called because he is master of 
the family and of the farm. 
2. The Assistant, so called because he aids the master- 
colonist in cultivating the ground. 
3. The Agriculturist-Soldier, who adds to the usual mili¬ 
tary duties the occasional one of assisting in the fields. 
4. The Reserve, who, like the agriculturist-soldier, com¬ 
bines the two capacities of soldier and agriculturist; and, as 
the name implies, forms one of a corps dc reserve, to supply 
the soldier’s place in case of necessity. 
5. The Kantonist, under which head are comprised all the 
boys in the colony from thirteen to seventeen years old. 
6. The Boys from eight to thirteen years. 
7. The Male Children under eight years old. 
8. The Females. 
9. The Invalids. 
The colonies in the south of Russia occupy 380 villages, 
in the governments of Kherson, Kharkoff, and Yekaterinoslaf. 
The . villages, according to their size, contain from two 
squadrons to half a squadron. In each village is stationed 
half a battalion, a battalion, or even two battalions of in¬ 
fantry, in the government of Novgorod; and the number of 
troops there amounted, in 1822, to 24,000 men. 
In the above 380 villages, were colonized, in the summer 
of 1822, twelve regiments of lancers, and twelve of cuiras¬ 
siers, forming a total of 24,000 men. The total number of 
colonized forces, therefore, amounted to 48,000 in 1822. 
At present they may be estimated at 80,000 soldiers. 
The three governments above mentioned constitute a mi¬ 
litary district, which is placed under the command of General 
Count de Witt, from whose jurisdiction there is no appeal 
but to the emperor, and that only in particular cases. Count 
de Witt is entitled commander-in-chief of the military colo¬ 
nies in the governments of Kherson, Kharkoff, and Yeka¬ 
terinoslaf. 
A code of laws, consisting of fourteen volumes, has been 
S I A. 483 
compiled by a committee appointed for the purpose at St. 
Petersburgh, for the special use of the military colonies. 
These laws are administered, in the first instance, by the 
committees of the squadrons: each squadron having a com¬ 
mittee composed of its officers, one of whom is elected pre¬ 
sident. These committees take cognizance of small offences 
committed in their respective squadrons : the term squadron 
including not only the soldiers who form it, but the colonists 
belonging to it. 
From the decision of this committee, there is an appeal to 
the regimental committee of administration, consisting of 
the colonel, who is president, the lieutenant-colonel, who is 
vice-president, two captains, and six deputies chosen by the 
colonists, one from each of the six squadrons composing the 
regiment. The decisions of this regimental committee are 
referred to Count de Witt for his approval, and from his de¬ 
cision the soldiers and colonists have no appeal, even though 
it should extend to sending them to Siberia, the ne plus 
ultra of Russian punishment. Officers may appeal from 
Count de Witt’s decisions to the emperor. 
Great offences are usually tried by a Commission appointed 
by Count de Witt; a sort of court-martial. 
A very inquisitorial police maintains the good order of 
each colony. A subaltern officer goes every day into each 
of the houses, and makes his report of the state of the in¬ 
mates ; and on parade days, the master-colonist and his as¬ 
sistant appear at the door of their cottage to shew themselves 
to the inspecting field-officer. 
At the head-quarters of each regiment is its chancery, in 
which the code of laws is deposited, where the committee of 
the regiment meet, and a number of clerks are employed 
to keep the accounts, and register the proceedings. 
In most of the military villages are churches, where the 
priests officiate who belonged to them, before they were in¬ 
cluded in the colonies. 
Such an imperium in impcrio can hardly subsist with im¬ 
punity to the parent-state, unless its energies are directed 
against foreign powers. It is held in utter abhorrence by 
the peasantry; it is detested by the regular army to such an 
extent, that the government is obliged to give the officers a 
higher degree of rank, and additional pay, in order to in¬ 
duce them to attach themselves to colonized regiments ; and 
it is highly disapproved of by all classes of the nobility. 
The nobles regard the plan, and apparently with much 
justice, as highly dangerous to the empire. For, suppose a 
popular leader, especially in the south of Russia, should 
differ with the government, or with his sovereign, after a few 
hundred thousand men were first taught to obey him, and 
afterwards obeyed him through attachment, what might not 
he effectuate ? 
When the experiment of colonizing was first made in the 
neighbourhood of Novgorod, it produced much discontent 
and some disturbances in the south of Russia. Its institution 
elsewhere was followed by discontent and murmurs, which 
sometimes went so far as to cause disturbances, and to threaten 
revolts. The poor peasants loudly and generally complain 
of being restrained in their dwellings by the severe military 
police; and bitterly regret their fate in being forced to be¬ 
come colonists. When the empress and the dowager-em- 
ress went to and returned from Moscow, in the year 1818, 
undreds of the peasants collected at the post-stations, and 
when the imperial carriages stopped, in the language of the 
deepest sorrow and distress, entreated their majesties to inter¬ 
cede with the emperor to abandon the new system of colo¬ 
nization. 
Notwithstanding the extreme unpopularity of the system 
of colonization, and the vehement and general opposition 
which it has met with, it still goes on. 
With this careful attempt at supporting invincible land- 
forces the extension of the Russian marine has not been for¬ 
gotten. The improvements of the fleets in the Baltic and 
Black Sea, have been so extensive, as to enable Russia to 
assume a somewhat formidable station among the maritime 
powers of Europe. The fleet consists of thirty-two ships of 
the line, eighteen frigates, six cutters, seven brigs, twenty-five 
floating 
