nothing to fear from him; but upon the
slightest suspicion his heavy hand was felt. Thus, in 1710, he
suddenly ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits. He used to say: "God
has given the czar power over the nations, but Christ alone has power
over the conscience of man." This did not prevent him from exacting a
double tax from the raskols in Moscow, nor from punishing cruelly any
Russian converted to one of the western churches.

The great mass of the people suffered severely by Peter's reforms. The
peasants as tenants of the large landowners had enjoyed some liberty
and were legally free men; they were by him assigned to the soil,
which they were not permitted to leave. Thus they, too, passed into
serfdom. If the proprietor sold the estate, the rural population (p. 166)
went with it. The owners paid a poll-tax for their serfs. These
unfortunates could also be sold without the land, but the czar made a
law that "If the sale cannot be abolished completely, serfs must be
sold by families without separating husbands from wives, parents from
children, and no longer like cattle, a thing unheard of in the whole
world."

The citizens of towns were divided into three classes; to the first
class belonged bankers, manufacturers, rich merchants, physicians,
chemists, capitalists, jewelers, workers in metal, and artists;
storekeepers and master mechanics were in the second; all other people
belonged to the third. Foreigners could engage in business, acquire
real estate; but they could not depart from the country without paying
to the government one tenth of all they possessed.

Cities and towns were administered by burgomasters elected by the
citizens; this board selected its own president or mayor. If an
important question arose, representatives of the first two classes
were summoned for consultation. All the mayors of Russia were subject
to a magistrate selected from the Council of St. Petersburg, and
appointed by the czar. This official watched over the interests of
commerce and agriculture, settled disputes between citizens and
burgomasters, confirmed local elections, authorized executions when a
death sentence was pronounced by provincial authorities, and made
reports to the tsar.

The _voievodes_ or governors of a province directed all the affairs of
their jurisdiction and disbursed the revenues as they thought (p. 167)
best. "Help yourself first!" was the unwritten law, and it was
universally obeyed. Peter divided