e
simpler of the two. When we have once thoroughly mastered the theory,
it is easy to understand the deviations that are made to suit peculiar
local conditions.

According, then, to theory, all male peasants in every part of the
Empire are inscribed in census-lists, which form the basis of the direct
taxation. These lists are revised at irregular intervals, and all
males alive at the time of the "revision," from the newborn babe to the
centenarian, are duly inscribed. Each Commune has a list of this kind,
and pays to the Government an annual sum proportionate to the number of
names which the list contains, or, in popular language, according to the
number of "revision souls." During the intervals between the revisions
the financial authorities take no notice of the births and deaths. A
Commune which has a hundred male members at the time of the revision
may have in a few years considerably more or considerably less than that
number, but it has to pay taxes for a hundred members all the same until
a new revision is made for the whole Empire.

Now in Russia, so far at least as the rural population is concerned, the
payment of taxes is inseparably connected with the possession of land.
Every peasant who pays taxes is supposed to have a share of the land
belonging to the Commune. If the Communal revision lists contain a
hundred names, the Communal land ought to be divided into a hundred
shares, and each "revision soul" should enjoy his share in return for
the taxes which he pays.

The reader who has followed my explanations up to this point may
naturally conclude that the taxes paid by the peasants are in reality a
species of rent for the land which they enjoy. Such a conclusion would
not be altogether justified. When a man rents a bit of land he acts
according to his own judgment, and makes a voluntary contract with the
proprietor; but the Russian peasant is obliged to pay his taxes whether
he desires to enjoy land or not. The theory, therefore, that the
taxes are simply the rent of the land will not bear even superficial
examination. Equally untenable is the theory that they are a species of
land-tax. In any reasonable system of land-dues the yearly sum imposed
bears some kind of proportion to the quantity and quality of the land
enjoyed; but in Russia it may be that the members of one Commune possess
six acres of bad land, and the members of the neighbouring Commune seven
acres of good land, and yet the taxes in both c