d their families now compose a kind of
hereditary aristocracy which has succeeded in appropriating, by means of
Imperial grants, a large portion of the land which was formerly common
property. As the Empire expanded in Asia the system of protecting the
parties by Cossack colonists was extended eastwards, so now there is a
belt of Cossack territory stretching almost without interruption from
the banks of the Don to the coast of the Pacific. It is divided into
eleven sections, in each of which is settled a Cossack corps with a
separate administration.

When universal military service was introduced, in 1873, the Cossacks
were brought under the new law, but in order to preserve their military
traditions and habits they were allowed to retain, with certain
modifications, their old organisation, rights, and privileges. In return
for a large amount of fertile land and exemption from direct taxation,
they have to equip themselves at their own expense, and serve for twenty
years, of which three are spent in preparatory training, twelve in the
active army, and five in the reserve. This system gives to the army
a contingent of about 330,000 men--divided into 890 squadrons and 108
infantry companies--with 236 guns.

The Cossacks in active service are to be met with in all parts of
the Empire, from the Prussian to the Chinese frontier. In the Asiatic
Provinces their services are invaluable. Capable of enduring an
incredible amount of fatigue and all manner of privations, they can live
and thrive in conditions which would soon disable regular troops. The
capacity of self-adaptation, which is characteristic of the Russian
people generally, is possessed by them in the highest degree. When
placed on some distant Asiatic frontier they can at once transform
themselves into squatters--building their own houses, raising crops of
grain, and living as colonists without neglecting their military duties.

I have sometimes heard it asserted by military men that the Cossack
organisation is an antiquated institution, and that the soldiers which
it produces, however useful they may be in Central Asia, would be of
little service in regular European warfare. Whether this view, which
received some confirmation in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, is
true or false I cannot pretend to say, for it is a subject on which
a civilian has no right to speak; but I may remark that the Cossacks
themselves are not by any means of that opinion. They regard them