fi) NISHNI-NGVGOROD.

455

“ Moscow, Aug. 3lst.—Found my companion a man of 1847.
3reat good-nature, and full of information upon the com- Ar. 43.
Beres and manufactures of Russia.
“.... The Emperor and the higher functionaries of
‘he Government are anxious for good administration, and
hey are all enlightened and able men, but the subordindes
 or bureaucracy are generally a corrupt or ignorant
ody, There are three or four grave difficulties for
he future—the emancipation of the serfs —the religious
‘One, which is one of mere unmeaning formalities, and
"hich, it not adapted to the progress of ideas, will
“come a cause of infidelity on the one hand, and blind
Oigotry on the other—the tiers-dat, comprising the freed
%rfs, the manufacturers, and the bureaucracy: all these
Te elements tending to dangerous collisions of opinion
for the future, unless gradually provided against by the
Sovernment.

.... At Bogorodsk we paid a visit to the haltingtation
 of prisoners who are on their way from Moscow to
“beri ; upwards of twenty were lying upon wooden benches,
heir heads resting upon bundles of clothes. Baron Meyenlor
 questioned them as to the cause of their banishment;
three confessed that theirs was murder, and another coinng:
 several were for smaller offences; the latter were not
Toned like the greater criminals. One man said he was
*xiled because he had no passport, which meant that he
Was a vagabond. -One man was recognised by the Baron
% having been a servant in a nobleman’s family which he
hi acquainted with, and he stated, in answer to the inquiry,
 that he was sent to Siberia because he was ill-tempered
Yo hig owner and master ; this man, like all the rest, seemed
0 be in a state of mental resignation quite oriental, ‘If
God has allowed me to be banished, I suppose I deserve

It