agricultural and out-doors employment is at a stand-still during the winter, he naturally turns to the establishment of a manufactory as a means of employing his peasants and as a source of profit to himself. In some cases the manufactory is at work only during the winter, and the people are employed in the summer in agriculture. Husbandry on an extended scale is often but an unprofitable trade in Russia, from the badness of roads, the paucity and distance of markets, and the consequent difficulty in selling produce to advantage.

The alternate employment of the same man in the field and in the factory, which would be attempted in most countries with little success, is here rendered practicable and easy by the versatile genius of the Russian peasant. One of his leading national characteristics is a general capability of turning his hand to any kind of work which he may be required to undertake. He will plough to-day, weave to-morrow, help to build a house the third day, and the fourth, if his master needs an extra coachman, he will mount the box and drive four horses abreast, as though it were his daily occupation. It is probable that none of these operations, except, perhaps, the last, will be as well performed as in a country where the division of labour is more thoroughly understood. They will all, however, be sufficiently well done to serve the turn, a favourite phrase in Russia. The people are a very ingenious race; but though they will carry many arts to a high degree of excellence, they are apt to stop short of the point of perfection, and their manufactures in no way rival the finish and durability of English goods.

Where the rural manufactory is established on a considerable scale, and is constantly at work, the serf operatives are put on the footing of hired labourers, and, instead of having an allotment of land, they are paid for their work, and left to provide themselves with the necessaries of life. Their master, it is true, can compel them to work in his manufactory, and that on his own terms; but these are regulated by custom; and since the serfs are paid at the same rate with the free workmen who may be employed with them, they seldom have reason to complain of injustice in this respect.

Not only have the Russian nobles, from the nature of their

property and the constitution of the country, become manufacturers, but they carry on the business in every branch, almost entirely to the exclusion of other classes; since they alone can command without difficulty, and on advantageous terms, the hands necessary for the purpose. A manufacturer who is not noble, being incapable by law of possessing serfs, while free labour is scarce, must compete at a disadvantage with a rival who can enforce the performance of whatever work he requires, and who has his operatives as it were under military discipline. Besides the regularly established manufactories, the exercise of various arts on a smaller scale in private houses, either for profit or for home consumption, is very general. One consequence of this system of things is, that the prices and qualities of various fabrics, such as cloth, linen, paper, glass, china, &c., are as usual subjects of general interest and of common conversation here, as are farming, planting, or draining among country gentlemen in England.

Boys are often sent to Petersburg or Moscow, as apprentices, to learn various trades, which they afterwards practise at home for the use and profit of their masters. Thus, in a remote country district, the nobles often have well-taught cabinetmakers, coach-makers, smiths, and sometimes even medical practitioners and musicians, ready at command.*

I have often been surprised at the excellence and apparent finish of a home-made carriage. But the art of coach-making is in fact one of those most generally exercised for private use, owing, doubtless, to the number of equipages which a Russian habitually requires, and which he thus obtains at a cheap rate.

Many ladies employ a number of girls, generally the children of household servants, in embroidering and in making all kinds of fancy-work, which they execute most beautifully, and which their mistress sells; receiving orders for it, as is common in charity-schools in England. In a house where we were visiting some time ago, we were shown a shawl with corners

Occasionally, at the expiration of their apprenticeship, these people, instead of returning to their masters, pay them an obrok agreed upon as an equivalent for their services, and establish themselves in their trades on their own account in towns.

and borders of a most beautiful pattern of flowers in brilliant colours, which had been entirely made at home by a young girl, who brought it to us to exhibit, and who was then employed upon another which we saw in progress. Even the wool, the colours of which were admirable, had been dyed in the house. The shawl was valued at fifteen hundred roubles, about sixty-two pounds, and it had occupied the girl who made it about a year and a half.

In almost every house some female art is carried on, useful or ornamental; and the women are employed in spinning, weaving, knitting, carpet-making, &c. ; for the raw material in Russia is worth little, and the manufactured article alone is valuable in the market.

The ladies of England, however, "who live at home at ease,” little know the disagreeable and troublesome duties of inspection and correction which thus devolve upon the mistress of a family in Russia, from all the various branches of domestic industry which she is obliged to superintend. The discipline of the estate and of the household is maintained by means of the lash, from which neither sex is exempt. The frequency and severity of its use depends on the character of the master or mistress, many of whom, like those among whom I have lived, voluntarily limit the application of this punishment to male offenders, and always resort to it with great reluctance. The system, however, is revolting in itself; and it necessarily opens the door to frequent scenes of gross oppression and cruelty, where, as sometimes happens, the power is vested in hands nearly as rude as those of the serf himself. All owners of serfs are noble, but the law cannot make them all gentle.

The following anecdote, which I am assured is true, will illustrate the results of serfdom, while it will remind you of my remarks in a former letter on the Russian system of military rank, as furnishing the universal rule of precedence. Among the serfs owned by a widow lady was a girl, who had been brought up with unusual indulgence in the household, receiving a superior education, and acquiring manners far beyond those of her class; to which advantages was added the natural gift of an attractive person. At a proper age she was apprenticed at Petersburg to a French dressmaker or milliner;

and, having attained to some skill in the business, she was after a time offered profitable employment. This her mistress permitted her to accept, on the usual payment of an obrok to herself in lieu of personal service. The girl conducted herself well in her situation, acquiring a knowledge of French, and forming habits of some refinement. Here she attracted the notice of an officer of the rank of colonel, who in due time proved his attachment by offering her marriage. The girl accepted his proposal, and nothing remained but to obtain her freedom from her mistress, the consideration for which-or in plain words the purchase-money-the colonel was eager to pay. This ought to have been regulated by the obrok which the girl had paid, calculated at so many years' purchase. The lover, however, was not inclined to dispute the price the lady might demand, but on applying to her, and unfortunately explaining the state of affairs, he received for answer that on no terms whatever would she emancipate her slave. Every effort was used to shake her resolution, which appeared unaccountable; but argument, entreaty, and money were alike unavailing, and the lady remained inexorable; giving in the end the clue to her obstinacy, by observing that she would never see her serf take precedence of her, as she would do if married to a colonel, while she was herself but the widow of a major. The match was necessarily broken off, and the girl's prospect of happiness destroyed. To complete her misery, her mistress revoked her leave of absence, and ordered her immediately to return to her native village; an order which the system of passports and police rendered it impossible to resist or evade. Arrived in the village, the unhappy girl, accustomed to the habits and comforts of civilised life, was clothed in the coarse garments of an ordinary peasant, and was moreover ordered forthwith to marry a rough-bearded moujik, or common country labourer. Revolting at this tyranny, and refusing to obey, she was flogged, and, though she still resisted for a while, a long continuance of cruel and degrading treatment conquered her in the end; and she was forced to submit to the miserable lot entailed upon her by the wretched jealousy of her remorseless mistress. The story of this barbarity was told me with an

indignation as strong as could be felt among ourselves, but there was no redress for the sufferer. The mistress up to a certain point had the law on her side, and where she had not, as in the compulsory marriage, might overpowered right. That such a case should be possible sufficiently condemns the whole system of serfdom.