he must sell the produce of two out of his four acres of arable land, and with the remainder he must support his family. Half the year then is occupied in working for his master, and half the remainder, as we see, must be employed in raising the means of paying his taxes, which at first sight appear so small: the peasant, therefore, on the whole, has but three months in the year to labour for his family. The dues paid by the crown peasants are three times as great, but he has all his time and all the land to himself, in place of dividing both with a master: this is an advantage; but to counterbalance this, the crown estates are in general worse managed than those of private individuals. In the latter case, the master aids and supports the poor peasant, and defends him from usurious exactions at the hands of the rich, and from all vexatious treatment; while on the crown estates, the peasant, who is rich, increases his wealth, while the poor man is entirely ruined, besides being subject to every sort of vexation. This state of things has become so intolerably bad as to demand a complete reorganization, with which General Kissileff has been charged.

Besides the poll-taxes which I have mentioned, there are two other imposts which press on the agriculturist; these are the duties which are laid on salt and vodka, or home-made brandy, by the government monopoly of these two articles. Salt indeed is not very dear, but the price of the brandy

is exorbitant. This liquor, which is distilled from rye, is sold in the spirit shops at eight roubles the vedro, or measure of four gallons, while its prime cost is but one rouble and a half. This impost, however, is at least indirect, and it depends upon the choice of every individual to be affected by it, or not. In fact, though drunkards are to be met with, this is by no means the general character of the people, a fact which I can prove statistically. The district of Tamboff, with the town, comprises a peasant population male and female, of 180,000 souls, while its consumption of spirits amounts to 120,000 vedros. Deduct for the consumption of the nobility and trading class, 20,000 vedros: and of the population, suppose one-fourth, or 45,000 to consist of women and children who never drink spirits, and you will have 100,000 vedros to be consumed by 135,000 peasants, which amounts to but two little glasses of spirits for each per week, reckoning about a hundred glasses to the vedro, and this is certainly not much. Every gentleman and person in easy circumstances takes in general twenty-one glasses a week, according to our ordinary custom of drinking a small glass of spirits or liqueur before dinner, another as a chasse café, and a third before supper, and yet no one thinks of calling them drunkards. The peasant, however, has gained this character, by drinking quass all the year round, excepting on two or three days, when he varies his monotonous existence by a fit of excessive

intoxication. Besides here, as every where else, one man, when drunk, makes more disturbance than a hundred when sober.

There is another grand disadvantage under which our agriculture labours, in the land not being divided. The law of Catherine the Second only partitioned the villages; a more special provision is yet to come. This subject at present occupies the attention of Government; but the difficulties to be overcome are immense.

Here M. Sabouroff's letter concludes. I believe that by the last clause he means that the law as it now stands, provides only for the division of separate properties, and that the measure to be desired is one which would assign to each peasant his own allotment, so as to give him a permanent interest in its improvement.

I think, however, that one most important obstacle to the prosperity of the landed interest of Russia, is not alluded to by M. Sabouroff, and this is the compulsory partition of an estate among the children of a proprietor at his death. This law reduces every man to the condition of a life-tenant on his property, and of course must often prevent him from beginning an extensive system of improvement, which he cannot expect each of his various heirs to follow up, or which, when the estate became divided, would be probably out of their power. The law at the same

time destroys those feelings of local attachment and pride with which a man regards the property which is connected with the names of his fathers, or which he hopes will be connected with those of his descendants.

The following prices of provisions and agricultural produce at Tamboff, in November, 1837, are, I believe, tolerably correct; they prove the extreme scarcity of money alluded to by M. Sabouroff:

Meat from d. to 2d. per fb.

Rye 3s. 9d. per chetvert (=216lbs.), Wheat somewhat dearer.

Potatoes from 8d. to 10d. per chetvert.

Oats, as I was assured, had been sold as low as 1s. per chetvert, though it seems hardly credible.

In this number, however, the private soldiers of the Army and Navy, with their wives and children, are not included, so that the sum total, in round numbers, may be estimated at sixty-one millions. In addition to which, must be reckoned the inhabitants of the mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian, 1,445,000 souls. There are also Wandering Tribes of Circassians and others, whom it is impossible to number.

This statistical account of Russia is translated from an official table, published in the newspapers.-Some of the classifications, especially those of the inhabitants of towns, do not appear very intelligible.

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