only years
but generations must pass before Russia can assume the appearance of
Germany, France, or England. The metamorphosis may be accelerated or
retarded by good government, but it could not be effected at once, even
if the combined wisdom of all the philosophers and statesmen in Europe
were employed in legislating for the purpose.

The Zemstvo has, however, done much more than the majority of its
critics admit. It fulfils tolerably well, without scandalous peculation
and jobbery, its commonplace, every-day duties, and it has created a
new and more equitable system of rating, by which landed proprietors and
house-owners are made to bear their share of the public burdens. It has
done a very great deal to provide medical aid and primary education for
the common people, and it has improved wonderfully the condition of the
hospitals, lunatic asylums, and other benevolent institutions committed
to its charge. In its efforts to aid the peasantry it has helped to
improve the native breeds of horses and cattle, and it has created a
system of obligatory fire-insurance, together with means for preventing
and extinguishing fires in the villages--a most important matter in
a country where the peasants live in wooden houses and big fires are
fearfully frequent. After neglecting for a good many years the essential
question as to how the peasants' means of subsistence can be increased,
it has latterly, as I have mentioned in a foregoing chapter, helped them
to obtain improved agricultural implements and better seed, encouraged
the formation of small credit associations and savings banks, and
appointed agricultural inspectors to teach them how they may introduce
modest improvements within their limited means.* At the same time, in
many districts it has endeavoured to assist the home industries which
are threatened with annihilation by the big factories, and whenever
measures have been proposed for the benefit of the rural population,
such as the lowering of the land-redemption payments and the creation of
the Peasant Land Bank, it has invariably given them its cordial support.

* The amount expended for these objects in 1897, the latest year
for which I have statistical data, was about a million and a half
of roubles, or, roughly speaking, 150,000 pounds, distributed under
the following heads:--1. Agricultural tuition
41,100 pounds.
2. Experimental stations, museums, etc 19,800
3. Scien