Glance at Russia.

It is irritating, nay exasperating, to search at the present day for a compendium of information on any subject. Our friend Mr. Baynes, editor of the Encyclopœdia Britannica, informs us that he will be nine months reaching Russia. Meanwhile, we have to take the whipped syllabub of Mackenzie Wallace's "Russia," and the hard bluestone, or schist, of the Statesman's Year Book. To be sure, our other friend, Mr. Knowles, of the page 38 Nineteenth Century, may give a lordly wave of his hand to his myriad volumes, the catalogue of royal and noble authors, and say "It is all there," but we are not Antediluvians! We have not time to search for needles in bottles of hay.

"Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Wherever this may prove true, for the time being, in regard to Russia, it is a growing, and comparatively speaking, infantine power, the young Hercules, not strangling snakes, but grasping the throats of the chickens of John Bull—besides Turkey.

Roughly stated, it is a thousand years since Russia was planted, two hundred years since Peter the Great was the first Emperor, and a hundred years since Catherine II. gave the Empire its second strong civilising impulse. We are inclined to rank the famous Will of Peter the Great with Mother Shipton's prophecies, but no doubt it embodies the national sentiment, which urges the acquisition of Constantinople and India.

Before Peter's time, Russia was looked upon, by European powers, with the contempt which we might now bestow upon the Shah of Persia, or even the Ameer of Afghanistan. The building of St. Petersburg was a complete and successful defiance to all the laws of political economy. It was built with forced labour, and inhabited by forced occupants. Wallace tells us that the approach to St. Petersburg on every side, except up the magnificent broad blue Neva river, is through hundreds of miles of bleak wastes and wild forests. The straight railway to Moscow is 400 miles. This is the length which has to be sentried for a journey by the Czar, two thirds of the trip from Melbourne to Sydney.

The diplomatist De Talde, in the play of "Les Danischeffs," expresses the contrast of a superb and aristocratic St. Petersburg Salon with the world outside in the depth of winter. "Within we have Java or Sumatra, and without are the snows of Russia." Violent contrast is the whole law of Russian Society. The Slav party embodies the revolt against Western innovation.

Napoleon said, "In fifty years Europe will be either Republican or Cossack." His instinct led him to strike a blow at the heart of the Russian Empire, while the instinct of England led it to uphold Russia, and assist in crushing Napoleon. The last official letter written by Lord Palmerston was to Lord John Russell, apropos of the aggression by Prussia and Austria, in Schleswig-Holstein, in 1864, and Prussia's advance in 1865. He wrote that the growth of Prussia was not a bad omen, as indicating the erection of a strong barrier against France and Russia.

War between Russia and England will dissipate the Alliance of the Emperors of Russia, Germany, and Austria. The time is page 39 not ripe for Germany to seize Holland, which would involve a French seizure of Belgium, and Austria's grip of Constantinople.

A few words on the Government of Russia. In Austria there is a limited monarchy, almost equivalent to Great Britain, under the name of an Empire, and Disraeli wanted to give that name to Great Britain. His creation of the Empire in India was the first step.

The political institutions of Germany rank between the Liberalism of Austria and the utter Conservatism of Russia. We all know how Bismarck has been hampered and worried by the Reichstag, although nominally he, under the name of his Imperial master, can do as he please.

In Russia there are four Councils of State, which are fitly expressed in English by the name Boards. The most important is called the Council of the Empire. This is formed of an unlimited number of members, appointed by the Emperor. It includes all those advisers whom he thinks qualified to adjudge on the highest matters of State. These gentlemen, numbering forty or so, virtually decide on peace or war.

Second in importance comes a body more analogous to the British Cabinet, with Ministers of Finance, War, Public Works, Education, and so on, headed by the Chancellor, M. de Giers, who is, of course, the leading personage, also, in the Imperial Council. Third comes a body which is the Municipal head, and fourth is the Synod, dealing with religious establishments.