CHAPTER XIII.

Duty

Government employés, their servility — Baseness, and its fruits of the senate — Dishonesty, bribery, and poverty — New way to pay old debts Mistrust Conduct of the ladies - Duties of those in office - The railway serfs-Police-masters in Russia - The military officers and the soldiers The wretched fare of the army - Peculations of the colonel Army regulation A colonel in the CauWhy the people are created.

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THE most detestably mean class in Russia are certainly the government employés. There is no baseness too base, no dishonesty too dishonest, no cringing too low, no lie too barefaced, no time-serving too vile for them. "Do you see those men in their gold-laced coats, cocked-hats, swords, and ribbons?" said a governor's lady to me one day; "they are all coming to congratulate my husband. There is not one but would think it an honour to wipe the dust off his shoes." I fear, although severe, she spoke the truth, and knew well how to appreciate the character of her countrymen. There are, as far as we could learn, few exceptions to this servility, and unfortunately it seems to run through the whole of the different official ranks in Russia. It begins at the beginning: the ministers cringe to the Emperor, the heads of the departments to the ministers, the employés to their chiefs, and so on down to the very lowest writer or clerk receiving pay from the government; and, what is worse, every one has his price according to his rank. When I was staying at the house of a provincial governor, the Emperor paid a visit to the place, and

walked up and down in front of the station talking to his Excellency. His Majesty had no sooner left the town than the heads of the departments, the military officers, police, and employés rushed in full dress to the governor's to offer their congratulations on the occasion. If he had been promised the inheritance of the imperial crown itself, they could scarcely have magnified the honour more, or proffered a greater amount of flattery and adulation than they did on this event.

There were two of the employés in the province of which I speak who were exceptions to this: the governor respected them accordingly; they were almost daily at his house, and he esteemed them highly; they were the two principal adjutants, and were honourable men. Neither of these gentlemen came to congratulate the governor upon the occasion to which I have referred. One of them came in the evening, as usual, to take tea. He sat almost in silence, and seemed much out of spirits at last he arose, and, complaining of a headache, asked if we would like to take a walk round the garden. Madame declined, but I arose and accompanied him. As soon as we had reached the broad avenue, I said,

"I fear it is more than a headache that you are suffering from; you have been annoyed by something."

"You are right, Madame," answered he; "I am vexed and ashamed when I think that I am obliged to be the witness of such degrading baseness in my own country-people as was shown to-day. What a dreadful thing it is that men should so lower themselves, and vilify the image in which they have been created!" He

stopped suddenly, and he seemed overwhelmed with

sorrow.

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'They will behave more nobly," I said, "when more enlightened."

"Never, never!" he exclaimed, "until a dreadful revolution has swept over the land and destroyed every vestige of the government now existing and of the corruption throughout every rank."

“Hush! you must not talk so, Dmitri Ivanowitch ; suppose any one should hear you.”

“I am quite glad,” he replied, “that I have had an opportunity of telling my feelings to some one: I know I am safe in speaking to an English person.

You can sympathize in our cause of grief, as yours is a free nation.”

Poor man! such noble sentiments were almost a misfortune to one condemned to serve in Russia.

"Without being base, it is impossible to get on," was the remark of another Russian to me one day.

The general rule certainly seems to be, that every encouragement shall be given to slavishness, and none to nobility of soul. "Do you know," said Dmitri Ivanowitch one day, "do you know why there are so many mean people? It is this: a young man, for example, enters the service with the determination to keep up a character for honour and integrity, and he does so for some time, and lives in poverty; in the mean while he sees those whose meanness he despises rise over his head in reward for their cringing; he gets no credit for being honourably poor; he wearies of the pursuit of honour, and so gradually becomes as debased as the others.”

There is a senate of the empire; the senators assemble at the ministerial department in St. Petersburg. Their duties cannot be very fatiguing, as they consist in saying, "Sa Majesté a parfaitement raison" to everything that is proposed. One would be apt to think, also, that the law must be an easy study, as on the first page of the statute-book it is announced that everything is according to the will of the Emperor.

I am certain that the dishonourable actions to which many of these employés are addicted, and which I myself have witnessed, would scarcely be credited in England, where officers and gentlemen are synonymous terms. One day we saw an officer boldly pocket some money belonging to his neighbour, at cards. Another slipped some concert tickets up his sleeve, that were the property of my friend. We both saw him do it, but neither of us could accuse him to his face. Many a time things were missing that could have been missing in no other way. One day a young officer called while the family were at dinner. The footman very carelessly had requested him to enter one of the drawing-rooms whilst he went and informed his master. He came back in a minute or two, and begged him to wait a little, but the officer politely said that he did not wish to derange the dinner-party, and, as he had to call elsewhere, he would shortly return. He then went away. No sooner had he done so than the servant discovered that his lady's watch had disappeared. The police were not informed of it, out of respect to his uncle, who was of rank.

Bribery is everywhere practised. There are some honourable men among the employés undoubtedly, but

they are generally so wretchedly poor, that really the temptation must be almost irresistible. Their pay from the government is so small that they can scarcely supply themselves with shoes and gloves out of it; so the money must be obtained somehow to enable them to make a genteel appearance. A few have perhaps private property, but the major part have only their appointment.

From all that is told concerning them, the Russo-Germans seem to be the most rapacious of any people in the country: they are the most cringing when in an inferior station, and the most tyrannical and merciless when in power.

"Immense numbers of our officers are Germans," said a nobleman to me. "They enter the service, and, as they have their fortune to make, they will submit to all sorts of insults, cringe and curry favour with their superiors, and do anything to get on. Now, a Russian will not do that; he will throw up his commission and leave the service upon a very slight provocation." My experience did not enable me to agree with him.

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Every man has his price," is said to have been one of Sir Robert Walpole's axioms; had he lived in Russia, he would have nearly hit the truth, and, he might have added, "every woman" too.

A lady in St. Petersburg, whose husband was indebted to the crown in the sum of about ten thousand silver roubles, and had not the means, or perhaps the will, to pay it, hit upon the following expedient:-It was the anniversary of the marriage of a personage of the most exalted rank, so she thought fit to address a letter of humble congratulations on the occasion. Humble enough!