daily toil. We have ourselves counted 1300 him by degrees to something better.'* Is the man once familiarised with such places of resort as are described in the commencement of this passage, likely to be amenable to the influences of religion? And must it not then be a vast gain to those who are charged with spiritual duties to have the power of recommending to their people a place where their evenings may be spent in pure and healthy social intercourse, if not in actual moral improvement? will be no pressing demand from any large number for any other teaching. We speak, indeed, principally of the South; but, as far as we know, apathy on religious subjects is more common than antagonism. There are those who deem the mass of mechanics to be saturated with scepticism; but it is the prominence rather than the numbers of sceptics that forces them into notice. There is, undoubtedly, a spirit of inquiry abroad; but this very spirit will make the subjects of it alive to religious questions, and interested in conversing upon them in a friendly way. It is this type that a well-conducted Bible-class will often assume, rather than a more didactic form: but in whatever mould it may be cast, more will depend on the tact and judgment with which it is conducted, than on any rules that can be laid down beforehand. And we cannot too strongly insist that tact is only to be acquired as a fruit of intercourse with and knowledge of those with whom we | have to deal. Hitherto we have said nothing as to the persons to whom the management of institutions for working-men may be best committed. The question is a delicate one itself, and its difficulties are not lessened by the sensitiveness which prevails respecting it in some quarters. By not a few it is held, that no scheme can be satisfactory which does not vest the power of management wholly in men of the working class. This view is very strongly expressed by one of Mr. Cassell's essayists, Mr. Walker of Carlisle. Speaking of some institutions in that city, which exhibit what he considers the true type of such undertakings, he says: But we are prepared to go further. It is in our opinion a fallacy to imagine with some, 'Whilst it is open to all classes to join them, that direct religious instruction cannot be ad- one of their chief regulations provides that mitted within the walls of a working-men's none but working men in the receipt of weekly institution. Such a view would greatly damp in the direction of their affairs-a rule which in wages can, under any circumstances, take part the sympathy of many, including ourselves, face of past experience, of the management of for such undertakings. Let it be distinctly mechanics' institutes especially, cannot well be understood that attendance is optional, and pronounced either invidious or unnecessary, we believe that the Bible-class may be pro- since it secures their continuance in the hands of perly introduced among the subjects of in- those who must necessarily from their position struction; and that, from time to time, a know best how to attain the objects they were lecture with a religious bearing will not be established to attain. All donations and advice tendered in the spirit of this rule are thankfully without interest. We are of course aware received and respectfully considered, but care is that the bugbear will immediately suggest it- always taken that the independence it establishes self to some of our readers, that all sects must is never in the least compromised. Indepenbe equally represented, if one be admitted, dence in every way is indeed their motto. In and so forth. But we are speaking of the everything they do, they take their stand on the great and leading features of Scripture studies, noble principle of self-reliance, always the surest as it is the manliest basis of success, and they not of points ritual; and we incline to think that there is still a majority in favour of old-rely on themselves especially both to provide and apply the sinews of war.' fashioned Protestant Christianity among the working-men of England; and that there * Hole, p. 74. * Cassell's 'Prize Essays oh Social Science,' p. 104. We are constrained to say that in this doc- | their contributions from year to year to carry on trine, if laid down as of general application, the institution with efficiency.'* we are unable to concur. In the first place we think that those who give pecuniary aid to the support of an undertaking have a right to share in its management. Hospitals, schools, public companies, and nearly all associations that we are acquainted with, are compelled to recognise this maxim; and it is hardly probable that the particular species of institution with which we are now concerned will be found to form an exception to so general a rule. If, then, there be ground to think that the help of the richer classes cannot well be dispensed with, we may, in fact, claim Mr. Cassell's editor as on our side; for we have seen that he thinks it only fair that all who contribute should take part in the direction. But we would by no means rest our case on the abstract rights of contributors. We think that the true interests of institutions would be best consulted by giving a share in their management to the higher classes. For one thing, we may observe that the advantages offered by the Society of Arts and by the Pure Literature Society could hardly be secured except by a body of a solid and permanent character; and it would be difficult for a mere society of workmen to fulfil this condition without the aid of some names of Indeed the editor of Mr. Cassell's volume of Prize Essays,' who now and then appends a few remarks of his own, thinks it a very fair view of the case,' that while the higher classes contribute to the funds, they should be represented on the committee. But, he adds, we believe their true position is that of friendly advisers, not of subscribers or ac-known position and credit as trustees and tive managers.' With this writer, therefore, the question is narrowed to the simple issue, whether such undertakings can be carried on without the assistance of wealthy friends. Now we cannot but observe that in a Report now before us of the Working Men's Readingroom in Lord Street, Carlisle (which we believe to be one of those eulogised by Mr. Walker), we find a strong appeal to the wealthier classes to give this aid, and an acknowledgment of donations received. Indeed we should not have thought much argument needed to show that most schemes of this nature involve a large outlay at first, as well as considerable current expenses-at least if they offer any great advantages in the way of lectures, classes, and libraries. A mere reading-room may perhaps cost little, but an effective establishment for mental improvement will inevitably demand proportionate funds. The mechanics of Glasgow, when (as we have seen) they separated in 1823 from Anderson's University and set up a hall of their own, passed a resolution that as the institution had begun without the assistance of the wealthy and influential citizens of Glasgow, it should be continued without asking their support, and that such property as it might acquire should belong to the mechanics of Glasgow for ever.' But Dr. Hudson, who narrates the circumstance, adds the following observation : This resolution was indicative of the spirit which has but too frequently animated the working men in their undertakings in recent times. Our social as well as our political history have abundantly proved that such an assumption of independence has rarely been sustained. The Glasgow Mechanics' Institution has followed the general rule in its recent career, by not only being dependent on the assistance of the wealthy citizens of Glasgow for the building it occupies, but for managers. In the next place, we would ask what guarantee there is, if working men be the absolute directors of an institution, that the counsels of the more thoughtful and better informed will be adopted by the rest? Men like Mr. Cassell's writers are much in advance of the majority of their comrades, and we greatly doubt their power to raise the crowd to their own level. We cannot but think that there would be a risk of the whole thing being gradually lowered to suit the taste of the greater number, until the institution became little more than a place of amusement. If it be right to make it also a place for moral and intellectual improvement, those who form the better educated portion of society should surely be invited and enabled to superintend the work. Schools are not governed by the scholars, and it looks like a dangerous scheme to give the pupils exclusive control over the subjects and methods of instruction. 'Hist. of Adult Education,' p. 43. See also the strong remarks of Mr. Hole at p. 88 of his Essay, which are in entire accordance with this view. The Legislature also must be deemed to be of a like opinion, for the Act 17 & 18 Vict., c. 112, was passed with the express object of facilitating gifts of sites for such institutions. To some extent also the same difficulty might arise in obtaining the benefit of the Act of 17 & 18 Vict., c. 112, for facilitating the grant of sites. As if to furnish a reductio ad absurdum of the theory of ultra-independence, Dr. Hudson tells us, 'On examining the rules of one institute (Selby) it empowered to elect not only their own teachers was found that the boys attending the classes were but the committee, and they exercised this right. In a society at Bramley the members had the right of being present at all committee meetings, and exercised this privilege by uproar so effectually, to the injury of the institution, that several of the most respectable directors resigned.'-Hist. of Adult Education, p. 186. Mr. Hole, no unfriendly critic of the work-ing men from the management, says, 'No ing classes, thus describes the career of insti- class can be expected to take an interest in tutions formed solely by those who required associations in the direction of which they instruction, unaided by any one who could are allowed no part' (p. 107). How was it assist them in the choice of studies, or books, that he did not see that the same must be or of lectures.' He says:true in regard to the friends of such associations who belong to the higher ranks? They, too, will not long take an interest in affairs in which they have no voice. There is but one way to secure their counsel and sympathy: they must be entrusted with a share of influence and authority. Our complaint would rather be that their co-operation has been too long withheld, owing to the separation of ranks in this country; and it would appear a strange remedy to increase this separation, and to prevent united effort under a mistaken notion of independence. 'If any superficial but fluent speaker visiting their neighbourhood told them that by means of his sixpenny Catechism on Phrenology they could acquire a whole world of mental science, besides getting a thorough knowledge of the characters of all their acquaintance merely by feeling their bumps, no wonder that a large class would at once be formed for their study. Another might promise them a royal road to all sorts of knowledge by learning a few arbitrary signs, and a class would forthwith be formed for that. A third would have a system of mnemonics which would enable the learner to remember everything. The system night be open to the slight objection that it was itself more difficult to retain than even the facts it was meant to hold tight in the treacherous brain of the learner. No matter-a class for the study was forthwith formed. No one can estimate the amount of time and energy wasted in such abortive attempts to reap the fruits of knowledge without sowing the seed. The working man requires guidance, both how to learn and what to learn.'-p. 42. Upon the whole, then, we strongly incline. (as a general rule, but with the full admission that all rules allow of exceptions) to some mixed system of government; and from certain passages from the pens of others of Mr. Cassell's essayists we are disposed to hope that they would agree with us in the matter. Mr. Robinson, a warehouseman, puts the point with much moderation :— 'There is no one,' he says, 'more likely to know the want of a working man than the working man himself, and the stability of a People's Institute depends in many cases on his taking a share in its government;* for it is impossible that the middle-class directors can be supposed to divine his wants to a nicety, or even to appreciate much of what is really necessary for them to do.'-p. 110. And Mr. Thomas, a clothier's cutter, thinks that in the government of such undertakings we should imitate Wesleyanism, and, as far as possible, find something for every man to do.'t At all events we have Mr. Hole on our side. He very sensibly says: We have endeavoured in different parts of this paper to point out some mistakes which, as we conceive, have sometimes been made by the promoters of working men's institutions, and may have led to their premature decay. But we must in fairness add that such decay is not always to be laid at the door of the promoters. Not unfrequently, we fear, it springs from the fickleness and unreasonableness of the members. We have too sincere a regard for the working classes to consent to flatter them; and we are compelled to say that their insufficient sense of the value of mental and moral improvement is forced upon the minds of those who have 'The Committee should be composed, wherbeen brought much in contact with them. ever possible, both of employers and of the They think little of lightly abandoning unworking classes. The former have more admidertakings calculated to confer large benefits nistrative talent and experience, and are more accustomed to conduct large organisations and on them, because they may not in every par- introduce improvements; the latter are needed ticular fall in with their individual views. A to secure due attention to the interest of the juster appreciation of the subject and its diffi-operative members, and to give them confidence culties, and a more earnest temper in respect to it, seem to us indispensable if they are to furnish from their own body wise and enlightened managers. The editor of Mr. Cassell's Essays seems to think that advice will always be at hand from the higher classes to prevent errors and abuses. But where, we would ask, is there ground in theory or experience for supposing that advice will be persistently tendered when there is no power to prevent its rejection? This very writer, when arguing against the exclusion of work in the management.' § This, we think, shortly expresses the right principle; but what the precise form should be in which it is embodied we should be slow to pronounce. So long as the leading idea is maintained, much variety may be admitted *The italics are ours. See also some extracts from a paper by Mr. §'Prize Essay of the Society of Arts,' p. 117. as to the details; but while the form matters | which we have too long suffered to exist and Ettle, the spirit is all important. Those who to grow wider in the fabric of our social sysbefriend the institution must be careful never tem. It would excite a smile to put forward to interfere more than can be avoided with such institutions as those of which we have the tastes of those who use and benefit by it. treated in this paper as a panacea for the The risk of conflict may be materially lessen- evil. Long neglect and manifold causes have ed by laying down at starting certain funda- concurred to create it, and long patience and mental rules assented to by all, and by pro- various remedies can alone remove it. But viding that these shall not be altered except it may be fairly urged that such undertakings upon mature deliberation and with general do at least afford that which not a few among consent. In minor matters the wishes of the us profess to be seeking-a natural field for members should always be carried out; and that unpretending sympathy and that kindly danger to the welfare and higher interests of intercourse which can alone consolidate the the undertaking should be the only motive elements of society without abolishing social for refusing compliance. distinctions.* The great defect at present is that the ope ratives of this country know and see so little of those above them. Let them come to have a better acquaintance with their wealthier neighbours, and distrust and jealousy will be lessened or disappear; and it is because co-operation in schemes like those of which we have been speaking is so favourable a method for making the various classes of society better acquainted with each other, that we feel the question to be one of so much importance. The craftsmen of England are too often at the mercy of every Demetrius, because they have not better counsellors, Like the craftsmen of Ephesus, there are times when they are unable to give a reason for their concourse, and when the words of a wise and known friend would send them to their homes, 'to be quiet and to do nothing rashly.' But their known friends are not wise, and their wise friends are not known. They have few recognised advisers except of their own order. Those above them in position should exert themselves to win their regard; and though splendid gifts may obtain applause, personal regard is commonly to be had from personal intercourse alone. We touched just now on the subject of religion. The true solution of the difficulties on that head is to be looked for in the same direction. When the esteem and confidence of the working man are won, he will respond to sincere efforts for his welfare, of whatever kind, in an entirely different temper from that which he manifests when they are made by those who are at best but strangers, and who belong to a class which he has been taught by designing men to regard with distrust and suspicion. Mr. Justice Talfourd told the Grand Jury of Stafford, in that Charge which he did not live to finish, that one great cause of crime in England was the mutual estrangement of the different ranks of the community. Surely it is a noble ambition for those whom birth or success in life has placed above the pursuit of vulgar objects, to seek to heal the breach ART. III.-1. History of the Russian Empire. By N. Karamzin. St. Petersburg, 1842. 2. History of Russia. By S. Solovief. Moscow, 1858. 3. The Provincial Institutions of Russia in the Seventeenth Century. By B. Chicherin. Moscow, 1856. 4. The Russian People and State. By W. Leshkof. Moscow, 1858. 5. The Peasants of Russia. By N. Beliayef. Moscow, 1860. 6. The Works of Constantine Aksakof. Moscow, 1861. 7. Extracts from Russian History by Solovief, in the Ruski Vestnik,' or Russian Messenger. Moscow, 1861-2. 8. Articles on the Ancient Polity of Russia by Stchapof, in the 'Vek,' or Age. St. Petersburg, 1862.t *Since the foregoing article was written, we have received the Report of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes for 1862. It states that returns obtained from many of those institutes show the average proportion of working men among their numbers to be 70 per cent. This is a higher number than we should have expected, and we cannot but feel that such averages are not easily ascertained, and are apt to be deceptive; especially as it appears that no returns were received from a large part of the bodies in union. Be this, however, as it may, it must be remembered that the institutes in question are of various kinds. Some are probably of recent growth, and of a kind really suited to working men; while others may be mechanics' institutes of the old type, but recently modified to meet their wants. Such modifications have certainly been taking place, tions quite in harmony with our own recommenda and the present Report contains several sugges tions. If it be really the case, therefore, that there has been an increase of members of the right kind during the last few years, it may well be that the fact confirms, rather than otherwise, the views on which we have insisted. The above-named works are in the Russian language. 9. Essai sur l'Histoire de la Civilisation en | supplied by Russian writers (a selection from Russie. 1858. By de Gerebtzof. Paris, 10. Cours de Littérature Slave. By A. Miçkiewicz. Paris, 1860. 11. Des Réformes en Russie. By Prince P. Dolgorukof. Paris, 1862. whose works we have placed at the head of this article) form a valuable addition to our knowledge of history, and may be of service in determining its laws. The distant Slave, we find, worked out his earlier civilisation very much like the Ger 12. The Russians at Home. By Sutherland manic races, producing a very similar classiEdwards. London, 1861. RUSSIA has so long been prominent as a despotic Power, and her earlier history has been so thoroughly concealed in her inaccessible language, that few of the inhabitants of Western Europe have ever heard of any Russian institutions more liberal and popular than those which at present exist in that empire. Indeed, the Russian people themselves have been trained up in an imperfect, if not erroneous, view of their past history, interpreted, as it has been, by imperial historians, or maimed by the scissors of the censor. Some few traditions were preserved, and especially among the disaffected sectarians, of greater freedom; of ancient popular assemblies; of diets which legislated on the affairs of the nation, and even elected the Sovereign; and, more recently, of a commission in the reign of Catherine II., which was a Parliament in all but in name. It is under these circumstances that Russian history has presented itself to the English mind as a dead level, typical of the country itself, only occasionally relieved by the deeds of Peter, the immoralities of Catherine, the murder of Paul, and the despotism of Nicholas; and connected with stories of the knout, of the mines of Siberia, and of oppression in Poland. The more recent rulers of Russia have laboured to conceal the rottenness of autocracy in the glitter of imperial pomp and the pride of military display. The climax of the deceptive policy of Russian absolutism was the Crimean war. The disasters which that struggle brought upon the country, the financial embarrassment, the impoverishment of the nobility, added to the reaction natural after so many despotic reigns, have combined to create a feeling of discontent and uneasiness throughout all classes, and a strong desire for political freedom. Under the influence of such sentiments, the history of the country has been carefully searched for the more remote causes of the present distress, and for the means of its alleviation. The time is, therefore, not inopportune for an inquiry into the more ancient forms of government in Russia; for studying their development and their sudden interruption. Apart from the interest which at present attaches to such a vast country passing through the several phases of social revolution, the materials now fication of society, and many identical laws and institutious. The Norman Princes, invited to introduce order into the land and to govern according to ancient laws, found the Russians a pastoral and agricultural people, divided, socially, into Slaviané or Slavonians, Startsi or Older men, and Lutshié muji or Best men. These formed the community, or Mir, possessing equal rights as to the tenure of land, and governed by communal assemblies which were all-powerful, and which proverbially could do no wrong. The acquisition of land could not have been restricted in such a thinly-peopled country; and up to the eleventh century the peasant of Russia could occupy any portion of the soil that he had the means of cultivating: he was free to cultivate wherever his axe, scythe, or plough would go.' The land was the property of all, farmed on the purest communistic principles, which have been ever since retained in the spirit of the Russian people. But when towns and agricultural settlements sprang up, the communes were composed of two classes, the Best men, and the luidi or people. The former became territorial proprietors, either employing the labour of the luidi or allowing them to settle on their lands at a fixed rental, and gradually reducing them to servile dependence. The towns, at first mere agricultural or pastoral groupings of population, ultimately became industrial and administrative centres, and were generally surrounded by walls or ditches, as appears from the Slavonic word for town, gorod, derived from gorodit, to inclose or fence in. The communal system was preserved in the towns, which, becoming powerful, established district communes, provincial communes, and, lastly, a commune of the whole land, forming a communal federal union, of which Novgorod and Pskof became the principal centres. The authority of the commune was vested in a Veche, or popular assembly, resembling the councils of the ancient Germanic races, and particularly our own Witenagemote. In the case of Novgorod-the most ancient town in Northern Russia-it is probable that certain elements of political organisation may have been derived from Northern Germanic races, with whom the Novgorodians were connected in the remotest ages. But the Slavonians had always, even in their re |