d hospitals, and all the other requisites of
civilisation. Agriculture would become more scientific, trade and
industry would be rapidly developed, and the material, intellectual,
and moral condition of the peasantry would be enormously improved. The
listless apathy of provincial life and the hereditary indifference to
local public affairs were now, it was thought, about to be dispelled;
and in view of this change, patriotic mothers took their children to the
annual assemblies in order to accustom them from their early years to
take an interest in the public welfare.

It is hardly necessary to say that these inordinate expectations were
not realised. From the very beginning there had been a misunderstanding
regarding the character and functions of the new institutions. During
the short period of universal enthusiasm for reform the great officials
had used incautiously some of the vague liberal phrases then in fashion,
but they never seriously intended to confer on the child which they
were bringing into the world a share in the general government of the
country; and the rapid evaporation of their sentimental liberalism,
which began as soon as they undertook practical reforms, made them less
and less conciliatory. When the vigorous young child, therefore, showed
a natural desire to go beyond the humble functions accorded to it, the
stern parents proceeded to snub it and put it into its proper place.
The first reprimand was administered publicly in the capital. The
St. Petersburg Provincial Assembly, having shown a desire to play a
political part, was promptly closed by the Minister of the Interior,
and some of the members were exiled for a time to their homes in the
country.

This warning produced merely a momentary effect. As the functions of
the Imperial Administration and of the Zemstvo had never been clearly
defined, and as each was inclined to extend the sphere of its activity,
friction became frequent. The Zemstvo had the right, for example, to
co-operate in the development of education, but as soon as it organised
primary schools and seminaries it came into contact with the Ministry of
Public Instruction. In other departments similar conflicts occurred,
and the tchinovniks came to suspect that the Zemstvo had the ambition to
play the part of a parliamentary Opposition. This suspicion found formal
expression in at least one secret official document, in which the writer
declares that "the Opposition has built itsel