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venality of the bureaucracy, has cost one hundred and twenty millions of roubles, and brings in little or nothing, but because the said bureaucracy did not like to see themselves superseded by a house which would not countenance malversation and robbery, and which might summon the whole Russian administration at the bar of European public opinion, to be scouted as it deserves.

The civil list is, it appears, open to many reforms in Russia. It has been the custom hitherto, however low the state of finances, to build a special palace for every one of the grand-dukes on the occasion of their settling in life. Half a century ago Alexander I. had three brothers, of whom only one had sons; in the present day, the Emperor Alexander II. has five sons, three brothers, and four nephews-altogether, twelve granddukes. Following this progression, Russia may expect to be able to boast by the end of the present century of more than fifty grand-dukes. It must not be forgotten that under Peter I., a century and a half there were nineteen princes Galitsyne, of whom seven only in the present day have descendants in the male line, yet there are now upwards of one hundred and twenty princes Galitsyne living.

ago,

When the empress-mother travels, she is not attended by a mere suite, but by a whole tribe of servitors of all grades and positions. A whole hotel is always taken beforehand, at an expense of from three to four thousand francs a day. Upon the occasion of her passage of the Simplon in 1859, fresh horses had to be sent on for miles, and even then a portion of the followers and baggage had to proceed to Nice by way of Mount Cenis. "If," says Prince Dolgoroukow, "they fancy at the court of Russia that, by such exorbitant and unpardonable wastefulness, they produce an effect worthy of the power of a vast empire in Europe, they are much in error, for it is the contrary effect that is produced. These journeys, marked by the seal of an Oriental and purely Asiatic luxury, only excite laughter in Europe, where they take us for half-civilised people, entertaining the wish worthy of Asia, of dazzling by our display."

But of all the evils that Russia groans under, that of the political police is transcendent in its bad working; it is not only that it makes personal liberty an uncertainty, but it undermines all social ties. It also opens an almost inexhaustible field for plunder, of which its acolytes, it can be readily imagined, are not slow to avail themselves. The ordinary process is simple enough:

A wealthy man is arrested.

"What am I accused of?" inquires the trembling victim.

"Of having taken part in treasonable proceedings."

"But I have always kept aloof from all society, and been most careful

not to mix myself up with political matters."

"So much the better for you; it will be easy to justify yourself after one or two interrogatories."

"When shall I be examined ?"

"Oh, every one is examined in his turn, according to the date of his arrestation."

"Will my turn come soon?"

"Hum! there are more than two thousand imprisoned before you; your turn may possibly come in two or three years' time.

Seeing the effect produced by this astounding piece of intelligence, the

police agent begins to insinuate that by the sacrifice of a certain sum of money (the demand being regulated by the previously well-ascertained means of the victim) he may be at once liberated. There is no resisting the alternative. When, however, as sometimes happens, the alternative is refused, then the victims are loaded with chains, consigned to dungeons, subjected to the most frightful tortures, and martyrised, till, to save themselves from insupportable agony, they plead guilty. They are then sent to Siberia, and their property is passed over to their heirs if Russians, but confiscated if Poles.

Instances have been known, and happily too many, in which on the return of persons thus unjustly exiled, their property has been restored to them by their heirs; but Prince Dolgoroukow details many sad instances where the contrary has been the case. The senator Paul Divow took possession of the lands of his exiled nephew, and left the latter in abject misery, refusing to send him even the slightest assistance! The unfortunate man having appealed for even a small sum of money, the only answer he got from the man who was living on his estate, was that he did not recognise a rebel for his nephew! The senator Dmitri Lanskoi, whose wife was aunt and heir to Prince Alexander Odoievski, betrayed and delivered up the latter to the police upon the occasion of his taking refuge in his house and asking for a single night's asylum. By this act he became possessor of his worldly goods. The young Divow and Prince Odoievski both perished in the Caucasus in exile.

Not only are social relations thus broken up by such a frightful state of things, but mistakes of an almost ludicrous character sometimes occur. Thus, for example, Prince Peter Dolgoroukow, the author of the work before us, has occasion to explain that when Herzen, the well-known editor of the Memoirs of Catherine, speaks of certain discreditable acts of Prince Dolgoroukow at Perm and Viatka, Prince Peter having been an exile at both these places, naturally thought that he was the person alluded to; but he declares that it was a Prince Michel. Herzen, versed in the peculiarities of Russia, where, as we have before seen, there are upwards of one hundred and twenty princes of the same name, ought to have distinguished between one and another when penning anything that was likely to be detractory to a whole tribe or clan of princes.

But even Prince Peter Dolgoroukow's morality has, according to his own admission, been sorely tried: it was when the priesthood were enrolled among the fraternity of the political police.

Here is what happened to us at Moskow, a few years after our return from exile at Viatka! The priest to whom we were confessing that year, asked us if we loved the emperor? Never shall we forget that solemn moment; our confusion was extreme: to speak the truth was to be sent back to Viatka, a thing we had no desire to do. To lie is always an indignity; besides, one cannot deceive God, who sees into the depths of human conscience, and knows the most secret thoughts. After a moment's reflection, we addressed the following mental prayer to God. "O Lord, thou seest with what individuals I have to do in this country; pardon me, in Thy infinite mercy, the disgraceful falsehood that I am obliged to tell!" And the prelate repeating the question: "Do you love the emperor ?" we answered, "Yes." It was doing that which was wrong, we know it, and to punish ourselves we make public acknowledgment of it, but we had no wish to return into exile, and was it not an atrocious government which could so degrade religion as to make of it a branch of political detection and inquisition?

No newspapers, magazines, or reviews are permitted to enter Russia by the post. They must be subscribed for at the post-office itself. All travellers, be they Russian or foreigners, have all their books taken from them on passing the frontier, even guide-books or conversationbooks, or even engravings or drawings. They are removed to the nearest censor, who returns them or not, just as suits his fancy or convenience. All strangers arriving at St. Petersburg have to appear before the political police, who interrogate them as to their objects in travelling, as to whom they are acquainted with, and what letters of introduction they are bearers of. An Englishman, wearied with the questions put to him one day as to the object of his travelling, replied to General D. that his journey had no precise political object. "Then why do you come here?" insisted the general. "To be cured of the spleen," was the

answer.

"If our European readers," says Prince Dolgoroukow, (6 were to ask us what party or what opinion governs Russia in the present day, we should be much embarrassed to find a suitable reply. The actual march of events in Russia presents the spectacle of a permanent struggle, daily renewed, of the bureaucracy, supported by the camarilla and the political police, against public opinion and against the true interests of the country, represented and supported by the enlightened portion of the nobility, by all the serious and honest men in Russia, and by the Russian press, which, by its high intelligence and eminent loyalty, has found means to render the greatest services to the country during the five years that have elapsed since the termination of Nicholas's reign. This deplorable situation as we have thus signalised it, this incessant struggle, is replete with serious dangers to the future. St. Petersburg, the theatre of intrigues ever since its foundation, is now more busy than ever with such; at a moment of such solemn gravity as that opened by important reforms, urged at once by the emperor and by public opinion, personal interests, rivalries founded on self-love, and, more than all, cases of individual rapacity, come every day to obstruct and vitiate the progress of events. The Russian goverment resembles at this moment a vessel cast upon the sea, at hap-hazard, without an object; the captain is animated with the best intentions, but the pilots and officers are incurably stupid. Between them and the passengers of the ship there exists the deepest aversion-a constant struggle. The captain cannot make up his mind to supplant them by men of capacity; he prefers waiting till the officers die away and the men of capacity have grown old and no longer capable, before he entrusts to them the management of the ship; in the mean time, the vessel may go upon a rock. Such, in a few words, is the actual condition of Russia."

Elsewhere the prince, whose politics, however moderate, must be admitted with the caution essential to a person writing under the peculiar circumstances in which he is placed, says: "At this hour Russia is at the point where France was in 1785; she is moving onwards to her 1789, that date which would have been so prosperous and brilliant for France had it not been for the incurable obstinacy of a few short-sighted men! In the name of God, save us-save us from 1793!"

BURMAH.*

Ar any other time than the present, a work on Burmah would be passed over with the indifference which travels in remote and littleknown regions too often meet with. Circumstances have arisen, however, to attach a very peculiar interest to the territories that extend between India and China, and which comprise the valleys of the Irawady, the May-Nam, and the May-Kiang, or of Burmah, Siam, and CochinChina, with the Malayan peninsula. "The French," Mr. Marshall remarks, "are evidently desirous of obtaining a footing in India; they have waged an unsuccessful war with Cochin-China; their emissary occupies an important position at Ava; their troops have been operating in the Chinese waters; and there is every reason to believe that they will again be found asserting the dignity of the tricolor before the walls of Pekin. It is true that their next movement must be associated with the union flag of perfide Albion, but who can foresee what complications may arise out of the ill-assorted alliance? Who can tell, that after forcing submission from the Celestials, the arms of France may not be turned against Cochin-China, as a step towards that acquisition of territory in the south of Burmah, which is evidently the object of imperial ambition ?"-8 —an alternative which is more than probable. The East may be made to furnish its Savoy contingent as well as the West.

Previous to the year 1796, when Colonel Symes was accredited to Ava, little was known of Burmah. Trade, under certain restrictions, was opened with Rangoon, on the Irawady, but the authorities were so arrogant and exacting that it never developed itself. The people, oppressed by the same tyrannous persecutions, took refuge in Chittagong, at that time a British province. The Burmese invaded our territory, and a British force was sent to expel them. This was in 1799. Twelve years after this, in 1811, a native prince, Bur-Hing, took refuge in Chittagong, and organised there a conspiracy against the king, who was so indisposed in consequence against the British, that Captain Canning's mission failed to convince him of our non-complicity in the proceedings of the rebels. The conciliatory policy adopted by the Company's government had the usual and inevitable results of encouraging insolence of demeanour. Such a line of conduct is always looked upon by Orientals as weakness. A letter was addressed by the King of Ava to the Marquis of Hastings, demanding the cession of Chittagong, Ramor Moorshedabad, and Dacca. This failing, in 1823, the Rajah of Assam having taken refuge in our territories, the Burmese invaded the island of Shapooree, and being expelled, a remonstrance was addressed to King Tharawady (whose name, like that of the great river of Burmah, illustrates the construction of the language), and was received, as might have been anticipated, with the utmost insolence and contempt. It became absolutely necessary to put up with such conduct no longer, and war was declared in March, 1824. The British fleet, with Sir Archibald CampBy W. H. Marshall, Esq., late Editor of the Charles J. Skeet.

* Four Years in Burmah. Rangoon Chronicle. Two Vols.

bell as commander of the forces, entered the Irawady on the 10th of May, and soon afterwards our flag was flying over the maritime capital of Burmah. Negrais, Arracan, Martaban, and other important places, successively succumbed, and the first war terminated with the cession of the Tenasserim and Arracan provinces, and liberty to trade on the Irawady, but, as usual, under absurd and impracticable conditions. There is no protectionist like your dunder-headed Oriental. Amherst was selected as the British port, but it was afterwards changed to Maulmain, higher up the river, and which has since risen into an important commercial mart, the trade of which is rapidly increasing. The Burmese were not yet, however, brought to a sense of responsibility. They vented their insolence and extortion on all British traders that came into their clutches, whipping some, putting others in the stocks, and otherwise maltreating them. The unfortunate merchants and ship-masters protested to the Indian government against such outrages, and a squadron was sent to bring the Burmese once more to reason. An account of this second Burmese war has been given by Lieutenant Laurie, of the Madras Artillery. On this occasion, Martaban and Bassein were added to our conquests, and the steamers proceeded far up the Irawady, reducing the fortified cities of Pegu and Prome, whilst a land force advanced from the north by the Aeng pass, cutting off all communication with Ava. Thus was the important province of Pegu added to our colonial possessions.

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Mr. Marshall, the author of the work now before us, arrived in Burmah in 1854, seven months after peace had been proclaimed. The country was in anything but a settled condition; conspiracies were almost every day discovered, dacoities and murders committed, and rebellions organised. But still there were prospects of improvement and of hope for the future, at least for that kind of hope which the enterprising Anglo-Saxon appears always to indulge in, however fatal the climate, or however insolent and bloodthirsty the people may be. Maulmain itself, with pestilence in its suburbs, and assassination stalking abroad in its streets, was a perfect paradise to look at. Any verbal description," says Mr. Marshall, "of the varied and beautiful scenery by which it is surrounded, would be altogether inadequate to convey any just conception of, perhaps, one of the most splendid panoramas in the world. A range of wooded hills forms one of the eastern boundaries of the town, and a long chain of mountains extends away in the interior to the southward, as far as the eye can reach. The summits of the hills which overlook the town and suburbs are crowned with Buddhist pagodas, and from the site of either of these a magnificent view of the surrounding country, and the charming varieties of hill and dale, river, field, and forest, which it presents, is opened out to the delighted gaze of the

beholder."

The interior of the town is not, however, remarkable for its architectural beauties. The main street runs parallel with the river bank, and is about three miles in length. Most of the houses are of wood, irregularly built, the lower apartments being shops or warehouses. The barracks stand on a hill-side, and close by is the wooden church of St. Matthias. There are also arsenal, commissariat, hospital, magazine, gaol, and offices. The private residences of the gentry are beautifully

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