usually severe. Indeed there were two censorships-the ordinary one, and another, composed (according to Mr. Herzen) of "generals, engineers, artillery staff, and garrison officers, and two monks, the whole under the immediate superintendence of a Tartar Prince" (unfortunately the name of this Mongol is not given). Although Mr.

Herzen's tale had been announced several times in the review in which it was intended to appear, the military and ecclesiastical censors gave him to understand, that not only "Duty before Everything" could not be printed, but that the Government imprimatur would be refused to whatever its author might produce-" even," says Mr. Herzen, "if I wrote of the advantages of a secret police and of absolutism; or of the utility of serfdom, corporal punishments, and the recruiting system. This decision," he continues, "convinced me that it was no longer possible to hold a pen in Russia, and that authors had no course open to them but to write away from the country." Accordingly Mr. Herzen went abroad, but it would be a mistake to suppose that all the authors of the country followed his example. He began his new career by writing in German, then published various works in French, and it is only lately that he appears to have adopted the resolution of writing entirely in Russian, and exclusively for Russian readers.

Of the effect of Mr. Herzen's writings in Russia, it is difficult for an Englishman to judge; but I have heard, on the best authority, that of the first volume of his "Polar Star," an octavo of several hundred pages, as many as three thousand copies were sold; and whether these were purchased by Russians abroad or at home, the great majority of them must have found their way into Russia. I see, too, from a supplement to the Kolokol, that from 1855 to the present time, Mr. Herzen's publishers brought out twenty-four works in London in the Russian language. There must be a sale for them, or they would not continue to be produced, and as a rule they can only be bought by

Russians. Still, the nominal exclusion of Mr. Herzen's works from Russia must deprive them of a great deal of that publicity which is the very breath of journalistic publications. They cannot be introduced openly, cannot be read openly, and cannot be discussed openly. The Times, in England, enjoys its present enormous influence not only because it is purchased daily by fifty or sixty thousand persons, and read by two or three hundred thousand more, but also because its readers reproduce, in their conversation, the opinions and arguments they have seen expressed in its articles. Insensibly they become agents for spreading its name, and circulating its ideas, and thus hundreds of thousands of persons are affected by the Times without ever seeing it. It may be doubted whether Mr. Herzen's influence would not be increased in Russia if (assuming the Imperial Government to be willing) he would write for one of the native reviews, and submit to the censorship as a man submits to other inconveniences, for the sake of some greater good. At present, Mr. Herzen has liberty to write what he likes, but he has not the privilege of addressing himself to whomsoever he pleases. Each number of the "Russian Messenger" costs four times the price of the Kolokol (published fortnightly, at sixpence), and contains about forty times as much matter-and this in a country where, as I have already pointed out, paper is twice as dear as in England, and where compositors' wages, previously very high, have doubled since the accession of the present Emperor. The sale, then, of the reviews I have mentioned must be enormous, as compared with that of the Kolokol; and the question is, whether, as Heine thought it best to say a part only of what he thought in the columns of the Allgemeine Zeitung, rather than be reduced to the necessity (in his own words) of declaiming all in the limited sphere of a pot-house, it would not also be more advantageous for the opinions entertained by Mr. Herzen to be expressed with moderation in a recognized and widelycirculating organ, than to be announced in all their fulness

E

and exaggeration through a journal which has a very limited number of readers, and which it must be difficult to obtain? Mr. Herzen would have to abandon his system of gross personal attacks, which can seldom do any good, and which carry less weight, from the fact of their being made by a writer, who, living in a foreign land, can no more be called to account for his words than can the irresponsible ministers of despotism for their acts. During Nicholas' reign, Mr. Herzen, not being allowed to publish in Russia, did well to print his works abroad. He was of opinion, in 1852, that soon "the only free spot in Europe would be the deck of a vessel starting for America; in spite of which he has, as a matter of course, brought out whatever he has thought fit in this enslaved England of ours, including books and journals which have been strictly forbidden in France and Germany. Mr. Herzen, it is seen, has a curious notion of liberty. He considers that England is not free, and-still more extraordinary delusionthat America is. Decidedly he could publish in the United States his "Bell" or his "Polar Star" as long as he confined himself to apotheosizing the chief conspirators of 1825 (whose portraits adorn the cover of the latter publication), or to accusing, by name, the ministers of the present Emperor of an intention to assassinate him; perhaps even he might be allowed to print his articles on the subject of serf-emancipation; but let him, in one of the southern States, say a word about the liberation of the American slaves, and he would, perhaps, find that the freest spot in America was " the deck of a vessel starting for England." Mr. Herzen certainly takes an immoderate advantage of the entire freedom accorded to all authors in this country. He writes, in fact, like one who is not accustomed to say what he pleases-like a freed man, a parvenu of liberty.

Without speaking at length of Mr. Herzen's English, French, and German works, which do not altogether come under the head of secret literature, I cannot help calling

attention to a kind of contradiction which runs through all his writings, and of which I am sorry to find one side has been far more readily accepted in England and France than the other. Mr. Herzen will complain in one place that Europe knows less of Russia than Cæsar before invading Gaul knew of the Gauls, will assure us (like the late Mr. O'Connell of the Irish) that the peasantry of Russia is the first in the world, will write enthusiastically about Russian poetry and the ardent aspirations of the studious youth of Moscow; and in another will point, with apparent satisfaction, to the peasants as actual incendiaries, will exaggerate greatly the number of proprietors murdered by their serfs, will represent the Emperor Nicolas as the destroyer of men he always assisted and honoured; in short, will so effectually conceal all that is good, and bring so prominently forward, and even magnify, all that is bad in Russia, that the reader feels inclined to thank Heaven he does know so little of the country, and says that, as Cæsar only knew the Gauls when he had conquered them, so we wish to know nothing of the Russians until we are compelled to fight them.

However, let no one imagine that I look upon Mr. Herzen, led away as he has often been by his hatred of Nicolas and his ministers, as anything but a sort of injudicious patriot. It is to be regretted, for himself and for Russia, that he does not abandon the publication of works which cannot possibly do good, and which tend to bring his country into contempt. On the other hand it may perhaps be said that that was a bad system which would not allow a writer of Mr. Herzen's ability and aims to remain in his native land. Fortunately a great deal of this has been already changed. "Who, five years ago," said this writer himself the other day, "would have

* It was bad taste, to say the least, to publish the "Memoirs of Catherine II." (which is merely a book of gossip more or less scandalous), just when her great grandson, the present Emperor, was introducing the important reform which Mr. Herzen has been advocating all his life.

dared to think that the settled right of possessing serfs, supported by the stick at home, and by the bayonet abroad, would have been shaken? And who now dares to say that this will not be followed by the fall of the table of ranks, the secret police office, the arbitrary power of ministers, and a Governmental system founded upon corporal punishment and the dread of superiors in office?"

CHAPTER V.

SERFDOM; ITS ORIGIN AND ITS ABOLITION. SERFDOM has not existed in Russia from time immemorial, as is commonly supposed, nor was it introduced either after the Norman or after the Tartar conquest, though it is certainly to the domination of the Tartars that the general backwardness of Russia in civilization must be attributed. Indeed, up to the thirteenth century, that country appears to have possessed more liberal institutions than any other of the European nations.

When, in the ninth century, the inhabitants of Novgorod quarrelled among themselves in their little northern republic, and at length cried out for a King, they sent to Ruric, the Varangian, begging that he would come and rule over them. The Scandinavian chiefs seldom refused these invitations. In 862, nearly a thousand years ago, Ruric arrived, and founded the dynasty by which Russia was governed until the accession of the Romanoffs, at the end of the seventeeth century. The Varangian chiefs (from the Gothic vara, signifying alliance) were Normans. Karamzin tells us that in the annals of the Franks mention is made of three Rurics-Ruric, King of the Danes; Ruric, King of the Normans; and a third, who was known simply as Ruric the Norman. After the death of Ruric, his son Igor proceeded to the south, attacked and took Kieff, and then descending the Dnieper, appeared before the walls of Constantinople, where, however, he lost nearly