not

and far-seeing policy, as respects, at any | touch on the periodical literature. Most
rate, their own subjects. Russians them- towns have their local newspapers
selves often told me that the system of
teaching adopted in these schools left
much to be desired in many respects. But
where is not this the case, more or less?
The great point is that schools have been
established throughout the whole country,
and that attendance is practically obliga-
tory. Even in small towns on the shore
of the Sea of Azov and along the banks of
rivers and in the Caucasus-i.e., in the
most distant parts of European Russia -
such schools are found. It will surprise
many people to hear that there is a uni-
versity in Siberia - at Tomsk. We may,
I think, confidently expect that as time
shows more and more the benefit of the
great wave of education which has passed
over the country the system of education
will improve.

As indicative, however, of the not alto-
gether unmixed good of these democratic
schools, I may relate the following: In
one family where I lived that of a
colonel of artillery-the lady one day
apologized for some boyish piece of ill-
behavior at table on the part of her son,
a lad of fourteen or fifteen, in these terms:
"Please excuse him; but what can you
expect, Mr.
-? He is all day at his
school, and may be sitting next some un-
educated peasant's children most of the
time, so small wonder if he acquires some
of their habits and manners."

I have already mentioned the general
hospitality of the Russians; everywhere
it seems the same, and they are (in spite
of an inquisitiveness which at times seems
puerile) always anxious to get you to eat
and drink with them, and give you all the
information they can. In fact, they are
often quite as communicative as they are
inquisitive, although they may be total
strangers. I had ample proof of this
throughout my travels. Again, though
generally a poor people, they are usually
charitable, and free with their money
when they have any.

Another small point which is very quickly and literally shaken into one is the wretched system of paving the streets of towns which prevails almost everywhere. They are commonly paved with small boulders about the size of a child's head, and the consequent jolting given by the springless and comfortless national conveyance, the drosky, rattling over such roads, is no less dreadful than the resultant din. Of the majority of country roads, the less said, the better.

It is not possible to do more than just

so well got up as our own, and a good deal dearer. But the strict censorship exercised stifles any development or improvement in this direction, and tends to degrade the press. Cheap editions of the many excellent Russian authors are now beginning to come into general existence. That admirable and great "Russian apostle of truth," Count Leo Tolstoï, has done more than any man living to effect this great reform, both by example and precept. He is indeed the Russian "grand old man." There are a few fair weekly illustrated papers, but it is not yet possible to buy single numbers of any of the better-class ones, which is a great drawback and much curtails their circulation, for few people care to become yearly subscribers to a paper which may at any moment be suppressed by the censor.

I was much impressed by the fact that the English papers I received often gave me details of occurrences which had taken place in Russia, but of which nothing was generally known in the country itself; such, for instance, as the banishment or dismissal of some officers of the army and of certain professors or students from universities, or the persecution of the Jews, or incidents connected with the marriage of a certain duke against the czar's orders, etc. I always found my Russian friends very keen to know the contents of my English papers, and on several occasions they wrote to inquire from persons at the places named if so and so was really true, and on each such occasion it was verified by the private replies received. This is not a little remarkable. Since my return to England I have regretted to find several Englishmen who have been in Russia and are friendly disposed towards that country inclined to show their friendship by abuse of our own, for the most part, admirably and impartially conducted newspapers, for publishing "all sorts of nonsense about Russia." This line is sure to be popular with many Russians, who are often childishly susceptible of the criticisms of a foreign press, and resent them with no less childish petulance in some of their own journals. I have always found though with warm feelings of sympathy for the Russians that any such cases which they took the trouble to trace out were found to be based on facts, as indicated above.

It is pleasant to note how frequent lectures about Russia are now becoming in England. Nothing but good can result

from an increased knowledge of and in- There are, in addition to the ordinary
terest in that country and its kindly peo- police, whose officers are usually mili
ple, struggling to force their way into the tary men, two other branches - the gen-
forefront of the world's civilization, though darmerie or detectives, and the secret or
in some respects so heavily handicapped political police. Both these latter are
as compared with other nations enjoying very unpopular ana held in great awe.
greater individual liberty and indepen- Their duties may be expressed in one
dence. People often ask me about bribery word, "espionage," and very well they do
in Russia, and about Siberia. With re-it, sometimes too well, indeed, as I learned
gard to the first, it is a great pleasure to to my cost. Their numbers are legion,
me to reflect that I never even found it and they are everywhere. No party of
expedient to pay anything of the nature of Russians, no society, feels secure from
a bribe, and much less was asked for one. their mysterious presence.
On the other hand, Russians themselves
seem to be quite ready to admit that it is
a common practice amongst officials of all
ranks. It is not an inviting subject to
investigate.

It was my misfortune to see a good deal
more of these two latter services, which
are, though quite distinct, closely united
and dependent the one on the other, than
I at all wished. Indeed, had it not been
One may live a long time in Russia and so, I doubt if I should have heard much
hear little of Siberia. The Russians of them. I am quite sure that their sus
seemed to think it was a necessity of their picions never fell on a more perfectly in-
political existence, and say that its hor-nocent subject than myself, yet I only just
rors are for the most part a thing of the escaped being unceremoniously bundled
past. I never heard any very marked out of the empire with a very few hours'
aversion expressed to the system of Sibe- notice thanks to the energetic and prompt
rian exile, and any attempt to elicit expres- intervention of the English consul and
sion of their thoughts about it always his vice-consul, with both of whom I was
seemed to lead them back to the two fortunately acquainted and able to com-
great grievances of the educated middle- municate before being expelled. That
class Russian, viz.: (1) the censorship of intervention obtained for me as a great
the press, and rigid prohibition of free concession permission to stay five or six
public discussion of political or even so- days longer in the town I was in at the
cial questions; and (2) the impossibility time, when I had to quit, but might go on
of having any popular or representative to another part of Russia, and not, as first
form of government. There is a deep, ordered, be conducted to the German
widespread conviction that these must frontier. This was the most that could be
come in time. It is, indeed, the teaching allowed. The English consul wished to
of the world's history. Happy for Russia
if they come peacefully, as the princely
gift of some future benignant Peter the
Great, and not as the result of a gigantic
upheaval of the whole social fabric and
government of the country, causing a
world-wide, devastating, blood-curdling
revolution. A growing impression pre-
vails that Siberia is a rich country, full of
promise of future wealth to the empire,
which the railway now being constructed
will speedily develop.

My sketch would not be complete without some reference to the very necessary pillar of Russian autocracy, the police, without which, indeed, it could not last a week in its present form. The ordinary police form a fine body of men, and of late years are for the most part fairly educated. Personally I have always found them as deserving of the name "the friendly policeman" when addressed or appealed to as in our own country, and have often had pleasant talks with some of them excellent conversational practice.

report the case to our government, but
kindly consented not to do so at my ear-
nest request, as I feared I should be re-
called to London to give explanations,
etc., and so lose the opportunity of seeing
the country as I wished to do, and be put
to considerable extra expense.

It is, however, too long a story to be told in detail here, so I will simply say that the Russian authorities appear to have got it into their heads - how or why I know not that I was a German spy. Many of my letters were stopped, and I was interviewed, followed everywhere by from one to three detectives, and the people with whom I had then lived (three families) visited and questioned about my movements, habits, objects, character, etc., for a period of nearly two months, culminating in an order, received at eleven o'clock at night, to leave that place for the German frontier by the first train the next day, as just related.

I devoted the last three months of my stay in the country to travelling about,

Tiflis is nearly one hundred and forty | the Caspian Sea, Baku is the windiest, miles long, and rises to a height of about sandiest, most unpleasantly odoriferous eight thousand feet above the sea-level. town that I have ever visited. The name, From time immemorial this has been the I believe, means "a blow of the wind," great highway of communication between and is most apt. The surrounding counEurope and Asia, and the present road is try consists for the most part of bare sanda striking instance of engineering triumph hillocks or plains, and nothing but a keen over great natural difficulties, and abounds desire to see how the naphtha is worked at every turn with magnificent scenery and could induce one to linger long in it. relics of past history. Here, and there along the road are some excellent mineral springs. A very small but powerful fort at one part of it commands the pass on both sides; indeed, I think the pass or road in the hands of the Russians would be impregnable at any point, or very easily made so, from any foe, until the hearty co-operation of the mountaineers had been secured, but it could be closed at both ends and its defenders starved out with little difficulty as long as we commanded both Tiflis and Vladikavkaz. The road passes within a few miles of that splendid and majestic mountain (over sixteen thousand five hundred feet high), Kazbek, which is said to be about the height of Mont Blanc. I attempted its ascent twice, but the local inhabitants say that no one has ever quite succeeded in reaching the summit. Just below the great mountain and about fifteen hundred feet above the halting station (where there is a fair inn, as all along this road at intervals of from nine to sixteen miles), on the summit of a curious hill, stands a church of unknown antiquity, but said to be the oldest Christian church known still standing. It is, though small, very striking both from its unique position and its curiously massive architecture. The local inhabitants are mostly Gruzins, one of the largest tribes inhabiting the Caucasus, whose Christianity is a curious mixture of Mahomedanism and Christianity. To th them this church belongs.

09

But the Caucasus abounds in interest and traces of the remotest antiquity, far beyond the scope of a single magazine article to deal with, and I therefore hasten on to Tiflis. This city ity of gardens, with its unattractive a and dirty river and its teeming mixture of races, is more picturesque than pleasant, at any rate in August, when the heat is very considerable; grapes abound bought at about

From Baku to Astrakhan is about two days by steamer, stopping en route at Derband and Petrovsk, both pretty places; but the Caspian Sea lacks good harbors, and its commerce is comparatively insig nificant. The trip up the Volga from Astrakhan to Nijni Novgorod is interesting; the steamers plying up and down are innumerable, and many of them are simply luxurious in point of accommodation and food. The scenery is nothing to speak of, but the towns are interesting, and some of them, as Nijni Novgorod, are very pretty as viewed from the steamer. They do not, however, as a rule, improve in this respect on closer inspection. But, indeed, in every town or village throughout the country the church or churches add much to their picturesque appearance. They are often made more conspicuous by the prevalence of gilt, sometimes entirely covering the large central dome and spire of the building, and they generally occupy the most prominent situations in the town; others, again, have bright blue or green colored domes, perhaps dotted with gilt points or stars, and often beautiful pictures of saints or Bible scenes are painted outside at the entrance to the building. The churches, too, have very fine peals of bells of a size rarely seen in other countries, and of exceedingly sweet tone. To a West European eye, however, all this bright coloring, and the general construction of the building, with its dome and surrounding minarets, seem more Oriental than Occidental.

The great fair was going on when I was at Nijni Novgorod, and like every one else who has visited it of late years, I was disappointed with it. From this point my travels lay through the larger central cities of the empire, which are too well known to require mention.

Very great has been the interest to me ere, and may be of seeing this country and its various half-pence a pound types of inhabitants, and I cannot be too in August, and the poorest peasants may thankful that I utilized the last three be seen everywhere eating this excellent months of my sojourn n in the country to fruit. The country between Tiflis and travel about as much as possible. The Baku grows less and less attractive as you Caucasus alone richly repays the trouble near the latter town and the hills recede and expense of a visit. have seen many from the view. Situated on the shore of parts of the globe from the East to the

We

of th

West Indies, from America to the borders | must say he never recommended the marof the Celestial Empire, from South Africa riage), and rubbing our eyes of a morn. to Russia and on the whole, for charming, to a terrible Babel of sound in Covent and beauty of nature and for interesting Garden Market worse than the cawing of variety of races, I give the palm to the the rooks at my own back door here. Caucasus. Of the strange medley of costumes which the world's panorama reveals, I think none exceed in picturesque quaintness, at once becoming and exceed ingly convenient, the dress of the majority of the inhabitants of the Caucasus, commonly called the "Circassian costume." Having worn it in the country itself, riding, walking, and mountain climbing, I may claim to have tested its convenience. Heartily do I advise any one to whom it falls, not to lose the opportunity of visiting this part of the dominions of the czar of all the Russias.

From The National Review.
THE ROW'TILLY GIRL.
"He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be."
I.

Tosh and Shirra, Writers, has been upon the office door for thirty years and more, although Mr. Tosh was carried off with a blood-poisoning a quarter of a century ago, and left neither son nor heir to share with me in the business, but just his name that has outlived his memory. In the days I am writing of I was only Mr. Tosh's clerk; but, being his sister's son, I knew his affairs, and other peoples', as well as he did himself. That is saying a great deal, for Michael Tosh was a big man in these days-indeed, the biggest man in the place unless you share Mr. Henry Anderson's opinion of himself holding the confidences of all the gentry for miles around, and down even to St. Brise and the villages on the coast, forby being consulted by lesser folks of all degree, as you could have seen for yourself if you had had my place in the waitingroom on a term day. In one way it's the same now; but it is more a matter of exchange and less an honorable confidence between lawyer and client than it was when those titles and bonds were drawn, which, yellow and faded, I found to-day in the Learmont deed-box.

it except that he married her. And Mimi

THIS day, ransacking among my old deed-boxes, it all came back to me that story of Kate Coulter- -as some in cities have told me that their countryside will rise with the opening of a book upon a faded hedge-leaf. For myself, not being a John Learmont was a sprig of a very townsman, except in so far as I belong to slender branch of a family once mighty in Riverton, which some upsetting bodies in the east end of the county. There was an it would fain call a town, I could never ancestor whom a righteous man in the know that feeling. When I studied the Scots Kirk called the "Frenchiest, Itallaw in Edinburgh I lodged down in Pilrig ianest, jolly gentleman," meaning that as way, which was as good as living in the a reproach, and John Learmont, I have country; although from my high-up win- heard, was not slow to take after him in dows, looking over to the hills of Fife some of his ways. He sailed to India and (which I did just as often as I could), I took a woman of the country, a proceedfelt the masts in the Firth coming being which had nothing uncommon about tween me and them like to make me play the traitor, so able were they to quicken even my peaceful inclination to a longing for the wide worlds they sailed to. But I went back to Riverton early, it was at the August Market before Robert Learmont was given out as dead, and, maybe, in its little compass have seen as many of the tangled and the crooked things of life, as the most venturesome; and since then I have not wakened ten mornings together Even for a dark woman, Mrs. Learmont upon any sight but the uplands towards had no beauty. She was small and squat, the coast and, against them, the tree-tops, and without comeliness of feature. But now bare, now cosy; except, indeed, in she had spirit; and that, I fancy, was why my honeymoon which we spent in Lon- Learmont had come to fancy her and ultidon, putting up at the Tavistock, on the mately to marry her. Being highly edu recommendation of Mr. Tosh (although Icated among her own people, and nimble VOL. LXXIX. 4104

LIVING AGE.

that was how he called her, and how she signed her name neatly enough to these papers Mimi bore him a child, a boy, that grew up with no more color than any Scotch laird would be proud of in his son. In course of time the father died, and the widow and her boy Robert turned to Learmont's county of Fife, and settled at Hawfield.