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pect, on the one hand, of advantage being so remote and so doubtful, and the evils on the other hand to be incurred so imminent and so dreadful.

While the present Emperor remains on the throne in health and vigour, his vigilance and activity, and the respect attached to his name (for where he is not loved by his subjects, he is feared) will, it may be hoped, preserve the Empire in tranquillity. Should Russia, however, have the misfortune to lose her present sovereign before his successor, who is now (in 1838) twenty, attains an age of greater maturity and experience, a dangerous crisis might arise, and the elements of disturbance, which are at present held in a state of repose, might not improbably be roused into activity, as was the case at the time of his present Majesty's accession: he scotched, but could not kill the snake.

The character of the Emperor Nicholas is much calumniated when he is called a tyrant who delights in human suffering. Nothing can be a greater misrepresentation than this: when any calamity occurs, he is always the foremost to aid the sufferers; he is extremely tender and affectionate to his own family, and nothing can be better than the example which he sets to his subjects in domestic life as a father and a husband. It is very evident that he does not dread his subjects, but relies on their personal attachment, since he may be seen every day when he is at Petersburg, sometimes with the

Empress, or one of the Grand Duchesses, and more often alone, driving, if in winter, in a small sledge with one horse, and, if in summer, in a small calêche with a pair, wrapped up in his cloak, and without any servant or attendant, but his coachman.

To ordinary criminals he is frequently even too lenient; to political offenders he is uniformly and inexorably severe; but however this severity may be lamented, however erroneous it may in many instances have been, and to whatever extent it may have been carried, it appears evidently to be always inflicted under a firm conviction, whether just or not, of its necessity.

The Emperor is a man of a firm and resolute mind, and it is obvious that he has laid it down as a fixed and fundamental principle to maintain united the Russian Empire, and, if possible, to allow no political changes to disturb its tranquillity; and that for this grand object he holds that any amount of individual suffering must be disregarded, or rather must be considered as a painful sacrifice necessary for the preservation of the state.

The Emperor Alexander did not understand the character of his people; he slacked the curb till he brought Russia to the brink of a revolution, and the country was only saved from a state of anarchy and bloodshed by the iron mind and iron hand of Nicholas.

DETAILS OF RUSSIAN HUSBANDRY

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RURAL ECONOMY;

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CENSUS OF THE RUSSIAN POPULATION.

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DETAILS OF RUSSIAN HUSBANDRY

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RURAL ECONOMY,

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LETTER FROM M. DE SABOUROFF, OF TAMBOFF.

I HAD frequently, in the course of conversation with M. Sabouroff, taken opportunities of gaining information, which he was always extremely kind in imparting, on the state of husbandry in Russia, and the system of management generally pursued; these being points to which he devoted much of his time and attention. One day he said to me, after we had been talking on the subject:-" You appear to take a considerable interest in these matters, and if you like I will put on paper a few remarks, which may give you a general idea of our mode of managing our estates, and of our system of agriculture." I thanked M. Sabouroff for this kind offer, which I gladly accepted, and the day that I left Tamboff, on taking leave of me, he presented me with the promised paper, in the form of a letter, of

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