cal Self-Government of Russia Contrasted with That
of England--Zemstvo Better than Its Predecessors--Its Future.

After the emancipation of the serfs the reform most urgently required
was the improvement of the provincial administration. In the time of
serfage the Emperor Nicholas, referring to the landed proprietors, used
to say in a jocular tone that he had in his Empire 50,000 most zealous
and efficient hereditary police-masters. By the Emancipation Law the
authority of these hereditary police-masters was for ever abolished, and
it became urgently necessary to put something else in its place. Peasant
self-government was accordingly organised on the basis of the rural
Commune; but it fell far short of meeting the requirements of the
situation. Its largest unit was the Volost, which comprises merely a
few contiguous Communes, and its action is confined exclusively to the
peasantry. Evidently it was necessary to create a larger administrative
unit, in which the interests of all classes of the population could be
attended to, and for this purpose Alexander II. in November, 1859,
more than a year before the Emancipation Edict, instructed a special
Commission to prepare a project for giving to the inefficient,
dislocated provincial administration greater unity and independence. The
project was duly prepared, and after being discussed in the Council
of State it received the Imperial sanction in January, 1864. It was
supposed to give, in the words of an explanatory memorandum attached
to it, "as far as possible a complete and logical development to the
principle of local self-government." Thus was created the Zemstvo,*
which has recently attracted considerable attention in Western Europe,
and which is destined, perhaps, to play a great political part in the
future.

* The term Zemstvo is derived from the word Zemlya, meaning
land, and might be translated, if a barbarism were
permissible, by Land-dom on the analogy of Kingdom, Dukedom,
etc.

My personal acquaintance with this interesting institution dates from
1870. Very soon after my arrival at Novgorod in that year, I made the
acquaintance of a gentleman who was described to me as "the president
of the provincial Zemstvo-bureau," and finding him amiable and
communicative, I suggested that he might give me some information
regarding the institution of which he was the chief local
representative. With the utmost readiness he proposed to be my Mentor,