ery wholesome
dread of casual newspaper correspondents. Thus the men who were formerly
described by the satirists as "little satraps" have sunk to the level
of subordinate officials. I can confidently say that many (I believe the
majority) of them are honest, upright men, who are perhaps not endowed
with any unusual administrative capacities, but who perform their duties
faithfully according to their lights. If any representatives of the old
"satraps" still exist, they must be sought for in the outlying Asiatic
provinces.

Independent of the Governor, who is the local representative of the
Ministry of the Interior, are a number of resident officials, who
represent the other ministries, and each of them has a bureau, with the
requisite number of assistants, secretaries, and scribes.

To keep this vast and complex bureaucratic machine in motion it is
necessary to have a large and well-drilled army of officials. These are
drawn chiefly from the ranks of the Noblesse and the clergy, and form
a peculiar social class called Tchinovniks, or men with Tchins. As the
Tchin plays an important part in Russia, not only in the official world,
but also to some extent in social life, it may be well to explain its
significance.

All offices, civil and military, are, according to a scheme invented
by Peter the Great, arranged in fourteen classes or ranks, and to each
class or rank a particular name is attached. As promotion is supposed
to be given according to personal merit, a man who enters the public
service for the first time must, whatever be his social position, begin
in the lower ranks, and work his way upwards. Educational certificates
may exempt him from the necessity of passing through the lowest classes,
and the Imperial will may disregard the restrictions laid down by
law; but as general rule a man must begin at or near the bottom of the
official ladder, and he must remain on each step a certain specified
time. The step on which he is for the moment standing, or, in other
words, the official rank or tchin which he possesses determines what
offices he is competent to hold. Thus rank or tchin is a necessary
condition for receiving an appointment, but it does not designate any
actual office, and the names of the different ranks are extremely apt to
mislead a foreigner.

We must always bear this in mind when we meet with those imposing titles
which Russian tourists sometimes put on their visiting cards, such as
"Conseiller d