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 12,600 students in 1883. Finland has a university of its own at Helsingfors, with a teaching staff of 77 and 1,518 students in 1885. 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 and Kieff having, same year, 1,303 female students; the medical academy for women was closed in 1884. In 1882 there were in European Russia proper 456 secondary' schools (lyceums, gymnasiums, real schools') for boys, with 107,390 pupils, and 384 for girls, with 79,625 pupils, besides 45 in Finland with 4,422 pupils. There are besides numerous agricultural, industrial, mining, and other special schools, representing a total of 355 schools, with 45,303 male and 3,199 female pupils, in 1882.

In 1882 there were in the villages 28,329 primary schools, with 1,539,975 pupils (1,177,504 boys, and 362,471 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 1885, a sum of 20,419,963 roubles was set down for public education in the schools under the Ministry of Public Instruction. From all sources, imperial and local, about 5,000,000l. 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 1884 Finland had 771 primary schools with 46,687 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 46,018 were condemned in 1882, giving thus a percentage of six in each 10,000 inhabitants. 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 are 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 1875 to 1884, taking the paper rouble as 2s. :—

The budget for 1885 estimated the revenue at 771,534,355 roubles, and the expenditure at 723,294,696 roubles.

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 bcrrowed 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 :

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 1882, 103,810,688 roubles, of which only 13,681,897 roubles were levied from land holdings, both of peasants and landlords, and the remainder was levied directly from peasants. In the Caucasus, and in Siberia, the same direct taxes yielded 10,186,954 roubles, and for Poland all direct taxes yielded 8,094,800 roubles. The direct taxation of trade yielded only 16,817,051 roubles in European Russia, 1,228,743 roubles in Poland, and 2,350,139 roubles in Asiatic Russia. Of the indirect taxes, 199,333,035 roubles in European Russia, 14,607,553 roubles in Poland, and 15,888,855 roubles in Asiatic Russia were derived from excise duties on spirits and beer.

On the average, the direct taxes reach 1.55 rouble (3s. 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 1885, the total amount required for interest and sinking fund was divided as follows:

Interest, &c., on Public Loans

1885

The total in English money would be about 29,000,0001. The finances of Russia, almost since the beginning of the century, exhibit large annual deficits, caused partly by an enormous expenditure for war, and partly by the construction of reproductive works, such as railways. But the war expenditure was by far the greatest cause of the deficits. The extraordinary war outlay incurred by Russia during the seven years 1876-82 amounted to 1,113,483,502 roubles, or 111,348,3507.

The following is a list of the various loans of Russia up to January 1, 1885:

M. Brzeski estimated the total liabilities of Russia in 1884 as follows:-Consolidated debt, 237,000,0007.; current debt, 139,300,000l.; railway debt, 107,100,000l.; redemption operations, 50,000,0007.; total, 523,400,000.

According to official reports, the total amount of bank notes in circulation on the 1st of January 1885, was 716,515,125 roubles, of which 71,472,495 roubles were covered by funds.