deal of dissatisfaction
and does not always improve the relations between employers and
employed. Some of the Russian inspectors, if I may credit the testimony
of employers, are young gentlemen imbued with socialist notions, who
intentionally stir up discontent or who make mischief from inexperience.
An amusing illustration of the current complaints came under my notice
when, in 1903, I was visiting a landed proprietor of the southern
provinces, who has a large sugar factory on his estate. The inspector
objected to the traditional custom of the men sleeping in large
dormitories and insisted on sleeping-cots being constructed for them
individually. As soon as the change was made the workmen came to the
proprietor to complain, and put their grievance in an interrogative
form: "Are we cattle that we should be thus couped up in stalls?"

To return to the northern agricultural region, the rural population
have a peculiar type, which is to be accounted for by the fact that
they never experienced to its full extent the demoralising influence of
serfage. A large proportion of them were settled on State domains and
were governed by a special branch of the Imperial administration, whilst
others lived on the estates of rich absentee landlords, who were in the
habit of leaving the management of their properties to a steward acting
under a code of instructions. In either case, though serfs in the eye
of the law, they enjoyed practically a very large amount of liberty. By
paying a small sum for a passport they could leave their villages for
an indefinite period, and as long as they sent home regularly the
money required for taxes and dues, they were in little danger of being
molested. Many of them, though officially inscribed as domiciled in
their native communes, lived permanently in the towns, and not a few
succeeded in amassing large fortunes. The effect of this comparative
freedom is apparent even at the present day. These peasants of the north
are more energetic, more intelligent, more independent, and consequently
less docile and pliable than those of the fertile central provinces.
They have, too, more education. A large proportion of them can read and
write, and occasionally one meets among them men who have a keen desire
for knowledge. Several times I encountered peasants in this region who
had a small collection of books, and twice I found in such collections,
much to my astonishment, a Russian translation of Buckle's "Histor