versities--Administrative Procedure--Russia's Capacity for
Accomplishing Political and Social Evolutions--A Court Dignitary in his
Country House.

Hitherto I have presented to the reader old-fashioned types which were
common enough thirty years ago, when I first resided in Russia, but
which are rapidly disappearing. Let me now present a few of the modern
school.

In the same district as Ivan Ivan'itch and the General lives Victor
Alexandr'itch L----. As we approach his house we can at once perceive
that he differs from the majority of his neighbours. The gate is painted
and moves easily on its hinges, the fence is in good repair, the short
avenue leading up to the front door is well kept, and in the garden we
can perceive at a glance that more attention is paid to flowers than
to vegetables. The house is of wood, and not large, but it has some
architectural pretensions in the form of a great, pseudo-Doric wooden
portico that covers three-fourths of the facade. In the interior
we remark everywhere the influence of Western civilisation. Victor
Alexandr'itch is by no means richer than Ivan Ivan'itch, but his rooms
are much more luxuriously furnished. The furniture is of a lighter
model, more comfortable, and in a much better state of preservation.
Instead of the bare, scantily furnished sitting-room, with the
old-fashioned barrel-organ which played only six airs, we find an
elegant drawing-room, with a piano by one of the most approved makers,
and numerous articles of foreign manufacture, comprising a small buhl
table and two bits of genuine old Wedgwood. The servants are clean,
and dressed in European costume. The master, too, is very different
in appearance. He pays great attention to his toilette, wearing a
dressing-gown only in the early morning, and a fashionable lounging
coat during the rest of the day. The Turkish pipes which his grandfather
loved he holds in abhorrence, and habitually smokes cigarettes. With his
wife and daughters he always speaks French, and calls them by French or
English names.

But the part of the house which most strikingly illustrates the
difference between old and new is "le cabinet de monsieur." In the
cabinet of Ivan Ivan'itch the furniture consists of a broad sofa which
serves as a bed, a few deal chairs, and a clumsy deal table, on which
are generally to be found a bundle of greasy papers, an old chipped
ink-bottle, a pen, and a calendar. The cabinet of Victor Alexandr'itch
has an