of
the people in the necessity of their political servitude, is permitted
to enter the country without a most careful examination. A rigid
censorship is exercised over the press, the libraries, the public
colleges, the schools, and all institutions having in view the
education of the people and the dissemination of intelligence. The
Censorial Bureau is in itself an important branch of the government,
having its representatives diffused throughout every province, in
every public institution, and even extending its ramifications into
the sacred realms of private life; for it is a well-known fact that a
family can not employ a private tutor whose antecedents and political
proclivities have not undergone the scrutiny and received the official
sanction of the censorial authorities.

How can a country, under such circumstances, be expected to take a
high rank among the enlightened nations of the earth? The very germ of
its existence is founded in the suppression of intelligence. It may
enjoy a limited advancement, but there can be no great progress in any
direction which does not tend at the same time to the subversion of a
despotic rule. Even the theatres, operas, _cafes_, and all places of
public amusement, are under the same rigid surveillance. No play can
be performed, no opera given, no _cafe_ opened, no garden amusements
offered to the public, unless under the supervision and with the
sanction of the censorial authorities. In all well-regulated
communities there must be, of course, some local or municipal
restrictions respecting popular amusements, based upon a regard for
public morals, but in this case the question of morality is not taken
into much account. Provided there is nothing politically objectionable
in the performance, and it has no tendency to make the people better
acquainted with the rottenness of courts, the selfishness, wickedness,
and insincerity of men in authority, and their own rights as human
beings--provided the theme be _Jishn za Zara_--"Your life for your
Czar," or the exhibition a voluptuous display--provided it be merely a
matter of abject adulation or fashionable sensation, the most
fastidious censor can find no fault with it. What, then, does the
education of the masses amount to? We read of lectures for the
diffusion of knowledge among the people; of colleges for young men; of
various institutions of learning; of a liberal system of common
schools for the poor. All this is very well in its