the Church, was established with the concurrence of the Russian clergy and the four Eastern patriarchs.

The Emperor is head of the Church; he appoints to every office in the Church, and is restricted only so far as to leave to the bishops and prelates the privilege of proposing candidates; and he transfers and dismisses persons from their offices in certain cases. But he has never claimed the right of deciding theological and dogmatic questions. In official documents the Emperor is not called the Head, but the Protector, or Defender, of the Church.

The points in which the Greco-Russian Church differs from the Roman Catholic faith are, its denying the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, its prohibiting the celibacy of the clergy, and its authorising all individuals to read and study the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. There were in Russia in 1883 594 cathedrals, 37,604 churches, and 4,818 chapels attached to the established faith, with 84,974 clergy of all kinds. There were at the same date 437 monasteries, with 10,779 inmates, and 171 nunneries with 4,941 (574 above the legal number) nuns and 13,803 'sisters.' The Holy Synod has a capital of about 5 millions sterling at its disposal.

6

The Russian Church formerly possessed immense wealth, but it was confiscated partly by Peter I. and principally by Catherine II. With the exception of the restraints laid on the Jews, all religions may be freely professed in the empire. The Dissenters have been and are still, however, severely persecuted, though recently some liberty has been extended to those of the United Church.' It is estimated that there are more than 12,000,000 Dissenters in Great Russia alone. The affairs of the Roman Catholic Church are intrusted to a Collegium, and those of the Lutheran Church to a Consistory, both settled at St. Petersburg. Roman Catholics are most numerous in the formerly Polish provinces, Lutherans in those of the Baltic, and Mohammedans in Eastern and Southern Russia, while the Jews are almost entirely settled in the towns and larger villages of the western and south-western provinces. The number of members of the principal religious creeds in European Russia was returned as in the following table for 1879 (the last official returns of the synod for 1883 being incomplete):

Under the Ministry of Public Instruction, Russia is divided into thirteen educational provinces, each presided over by a curator. The empire possesses eight Universities, with 686 professors and 12,415 students in 1883. Finland has a university of its own at Helsingfors, with a teaching staff of 72 and 1,652 students in 1886. The Russian students are mostly very poor, 3,485 of them either having been supported by bursaries, or dispensed from paying fees. There are 4 free high schools for University education of women, those of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kieff, which had in 1883, 1,442 female students; the medical academy for women was closed in 1884, and further reception of lady-students at St. Petersburg suspended by Imperial order in 1886. In 1883 there were in the Russian empire, without Finland, 524 'secondary' schools (lyceums, gymnasiums, 'real schools') for boys, with 129,280 pupils, and 431 for girls, with 91,115 pupils, besides 79.in Finland, with 7,601 pupils. There are besides numerous agricul tural, industrial, mining, and other special schools, representing a total of 455 schools, with 54,040 male and 3,657 female pupils, in 1883. In the same year there were in the Empire (exclusive of Finland) 35,470 primary schools, with 1,924,181 pupils (1,454,708 boys, and 469,473 girls) and 24,389 teachers (19,511 males, and 4,878 females). In 1882 there were 61 normal schools, including Finland, with 3,969 pupils.

In the budget for the year 1886, a sum of 39,507,846 roubles was set down for public education in the schools under the various Ministries. From all sources, imperial and local, about 5,000,0001. is annually devoted to education.

The mass of the population of Russia is as yet without education. In 1860 only two out of every hundred recruits levied for the army were able to read and write, but the proportion had largely increased in 1870, when eleven out of every hundred could read and write, and 19 per cent. in 1882. In the Grand-duchy of Finland, which has a system of public instruction separate from that of the rest of the empire, education is all but universal, the whole of the inhabitants being able at least to read, if not to write. In 1886 Finland had 835 primary schools with 49,874 pupils; besides 102 schools of higher grade and many special schools. Nearly the whole of the children of school age are at school.

Criminality in Russia is not high. Within the fifty Russian provinces only 33,139 were convicted in 1881 by Courts, giving thus a percentage of six in each 10,000 inhabitants, and 36,840 by Judges of Peace. One-tenth only were women.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The public revenue of the empire is derived to the extent of twothirds from direct and indirect taxes, while nearly two-thirds of the total expenditure is for the army and navy, and interest on the public debt. There are annual budget estimates published by the government, and also, since 1866, accounts of the actual receipts and disbursements of the State, which, entering into minute details, cannot be issued till after the lapse of a number of years.

The following table gives the total actual ordinary revenue and expenditure of the Imperial Government for each of the years from 1876 to 1885, taking the paper rouble as 2s. :—

The expenditure from 1876 to 1882 is exclusive of the large expenses incurred during the war with Turkey, which in 1876 amounted to about 51 million roubles, in 1877 to over 429 million, in 1878 to 408 million, in 1879 to 132 million, in 1880 to about 55 million, and in 1881 and 1882 to over 38 million.

The financial estimates of Russia are framed on the model of the former Imperial French budgets. The estimates of revenue are subdivided under the three heads of, first, ordinary receipts; secondly, 'recettes d'ordre;' and thirdly, extraordinary receipts. The estimates of expenditure are subdivided into four heads; namely, first, ordinary expenditure; secondly, anticipated deficits in receipts (non valeurs dans les recettes'); thirdly, dépenses d'ordre;' and fourthly, temporary disbursements, the latter chiefly incurred for the construction of railways. The ordinary revenue includes all the direct and indirect taxes raised for the purpose of meeting the ordinary cost of the administration, while the 'recettes d'ordre' represent the estimated receipts from the sale of volumes of laws printed by the government, of the produce of State mines, and of other miscellaneous sources. These receipts are balanced by sums of a similar amount placed on the estimates of expenditure under the heading of 'dépenses d'ordre.' The extraordinary receipts consist mainly of sums borrowed for the purpose of subsidising railways and for promoting

other works of public utility. They are entered in the same manner as the 'recettes d'ordre' on the expenditure side of the budgets. The following are the budget estimates for the years 1885 and 1886

In the budget for 1887 the ordinary revenue is set down at 793,118,046 roubles, and expenditure 829,676,680 roubles. There is further an extraordinary expenditure of 48,414,194 roubles, to be met, as usual, by extraordinary resources.

The direct taxes consist chiefly of imposts on the peasantsnine-tenths of the whole-the other tenth consisting of a land-tax on non-peasant proprietors, and a house tax in cities. Customs and excise duties form the bulk of the revenue from indirect taxation.

The direct taxes yielded, in 1883, 97,748,642 roubles, of which only 14,097,797 roubles were levied from land holdings, both of peasants and landlords, and the remainder was levied directly from peasants. In the Caucasus, Siberia, and Turkestan the same direct taxes yielded 11,288,180 roubles, and for Poland all direct taxes yielded 8,344,784 roubles. The direct taxation of trade yielded only 17,264,646 roubles in European Russia, 1,243,332 roubles in Poland, and 2,351,729 roubles in Asiatic Russia. Of the indirect taxes, 202,927,424 roubles in European Russia, 14,356,560 roubles in Poland, and 16,184,552 roubles in Asiatic Russia were derived from excise duties on spirits and beer. The arrears reached

10,504,927 roubles.

On the average, the direct taxes reach 1.55 rouble (38. 1d.) per head of population, and the indirect about 4.65 roubles (9s. 4d.), while the State debt reaches more than 50 roubles (51.) per head of the aggregate population of the Empire.

It will be seen from the above table that the largest branch of expenditure is that for the public debt. In 1886, the total amoun required for interest and sinking fund was divided as follows: