and myriads move with no freedom, although, in another sense, distance of time, may be anticipated. Many factories have been erected by the government; and many more by princes, counts, and barons. The greater concerns seem to be altogether passing into their hands. Many nobles have already succeeded by these means in clearing off the incumbrances ' from their vast estates, and so releasing themselves from their dependence on court favor. Their serfs are at once workmen ' and machines,' under the auspices of this singular spectacle of a twofold titled class, passing their nights in palaces and their days in counting-houses; all this, too, with an absolute master watching the entire concern, for the success of which none can be so deeply concerned as himself. Meanwhile the rapid multiplication of the nobility is a matter of much statistical interest. The European provinces contain within Russia alone about 540,000 hereditary, and 160,000 personal nobles, making up 700,000 individuals,-a seventieth part of the whole population. In Poland, there were in 1837 no less than 283,420 nobles, or about one fourteenth portion of her total inhabitants. Hungary, as is well known, presents a somewhat similar spectacle. The burgher-class in Russia is rising very gradually; for the inhabitants of the towns (exclusive of Poland), according to the last census, of the middle and lower classes, amounted to 4,175,869 persons; of which only 251,961 belonged to the commercial families, and 2,773,416 to the guilds of handicraft and tradesmen. The whole number of burghers in 1834, according to the journal of the home department, was 835,071. Five years later (1839) the entire number of Russian merchants was 36,617, of which only 889 were in the first guild, with a declared trading capital of £1,932,608; 1874 merchants were in the second guild, with £1,630,000; 33,808 were in the third guild, with a capital of £11,759,300; besides which there were 46 foreigners with a capital of £100,000. Add to these 5299 trading peasants, the nature of whose traffic is accurately defined by their trading certificate; only 22 of these belonged to the first two, the remaining 5277 fell into the third and fourth classes. In the class of peasants were included the military settlers and their families, the Cossacks, Calmucks, and Baschkirs; their united numbers were officially reckoned at 1,932,165. The same documents for that year gave 44,826,288 as the number of individuals belonging to the class of peasants; of which 21,463,993 were the property of the crown, and 23,362,595 belonged to different landed proprietors.'--pp. 180, 181. With respect to spiritual matters, the emperor, as we have already perceived, is head of the Greek Catholic church, comprising within the limits of Russia Proper about nine-elevenths of the population, or 45,000,000. A religious war of conquest has been for nearly half a generation going forward against the Romanists, as well as the Armenians. The old Greek Roman Union, on the terms that, retaining the Greek forms, the pope should be acknowledged supreme head of the church, arranged as far back as A.D. 1595 between Russia and Rome, has been lately annihilated. A similar combination for Little Russia shared the same fate near two hundred years since. By the ukase of the 5th of July, 1839, on this subject, the Vatican has lost nearly 4,000,000 of adherents; so that the papal allocution might well style it the most bitter and melancholy' event which has fallen out since the Reformation. This heavy blow and great discouragement will be felt in Europe, because 'all the life of Romanism is thus roused against Russia; because 'Austria is called on as the champion of Sclavonian Romanism; ' and because, while another rent has been thus made between 'political absolutism and the Roman church, the latter is forced to throw itself for support on public sympathy.' It must be borne in mind also, that in Hungary alone there are four millions of Greek Christians, besides those in Wallachia, Moldavia, Turkey, the new kingdom of Greece, and throughout the Mediteranean shores and islands. The clergy of the Greek church, within all the Russias, amount to upwards of 500,000 individuals,—awakening every day, it is to be trusted, from their torpor and gross superstition, as compared with past times, and not likely to forget that Russian eagles, as well as Roman and Austrian ones, have gleamed from the Alps upon the plains of Lombardy and Italy. The achievements of another Suwarrow, in some future European struggle, may be possibly directed more nearly against the Seven Hills and the Castle of St. Angelo,-whose religious subjects, under the auspices of the czar do not now exceed half a dozen millions. The Protestants ma be stated at about 3,000,000; the Mahometans at 3,500,000 whilst Judaism, Lamaism, Fetishism, Schamanism, and Poly theism, divide the remainder. One can hardly fail feeling some degree of interest as to the recent efforts of the Bible Society, which Alexander so warmly patronized. Doctor Lyall observes, that the empire may not have been ripe enough to receive all 'the benefits anticipated from them by some; but a few seeds may fall into good ground, and in time may send forth blooming fruits amidst the widely-extended field of tares. Their effects may be looked for long after the present races shall ' have passed away from the face of the earth.' We have only space left us for glancing cursorily at the Forces, the Finances, and the probable Foreign Policy of Nicholas and his immense empire. The two vast armies, existing down to 1835, have since that year been consolidated into one, with a considerably reduced staff in consequence. Its subdivisions consist of six corps of infantry, each 48,000 strong, with 12,000 cavalry attached to it, and 120 pieces of artillery. |