explanation of an important
fact, which the Slavophils endeavoured to explain by an
ill-authenticated legend (vide supra p.151).

The practical consequence of all this is that in Russia at the present
day there is very little caste spirit or caste prejudice. Within
half-a-dozen years after the emancipation of the serfs, proprietors and
peasants, forgetting apparently their old relationship of master and
serf, were working amicably together in the new local administration,
and not a few similar curious facts might be cited. The confident
anticipation of many Russians that their country will one day enjoy
political life without political parties is, if not a contradiction
in terms, at least a Utopian absurdity; but we may be sure that when
political parties do appear they will be very different from those which
exist in Germany, France, and England.

Meanwhile, let us see how the country is governed without political
parties and without political life in the West-European sense of the
term. This will form the subject of our next chapter.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION AND THE OFFICIALS

The Officials in Norgorod Assist Me in My Studies--The Modern Imperial
Administration Created by Peter the Great, and Developed by his
Successors--A Slavophil's View of the Administration--The Administration
Briefly Described--The Tchinovniks, or Officials--Official Titles, and
Their Real Significance--What the Administration Has Done for Russia in
the Past--Its Character Determined by the Peculiar Relation between
the Government and the People--Its Radical Vices--Bureaucratic
Remedies--Complicated Formal Procedure--The Gendarmerie: My Personal
Relations with this Branch of the Administration; Arrest and Release--A
Strong, Healthy Public Opinion the Only Effectual Remedy for Bad
Administration.

My administrative studies were begun in Novgorod. One of my reasons for
spending a winter in that provincial capital was that I might study the
provincial administration, and as soon as I had made the acquaintance of
the leading officials I explained to them the object I had in view. With
the kindly bonhomie which distinguishes the Russian educated classes,
they all volunteered to give me every assistance in their power, but
some of them, on mature reflection, evidently saw reason to check their
first generous impulse. Among these was the Vice-Governor, a gentleman
of German origin, and therefore more inclined t