e Cour," "Conseiller d'Etat," "Conseiller prive de S. M.
l'Empereur de toutes les Russies." It would be uncharitable to suppose
that these titles are used with the intention of misleading, but that
they do sometimes mislead there cannot be the least doubt. I shall never
forget the look of intense disgust which I once saw on the face of
an American who had invited to dinner a "Conseiller de Cour," on the
assumption that he would have a Court dignitary as his guest, and
who casually discovered that the personage in question was simply an
insignificant official in one of the public offices. No doubt other
people have bad similar experiences. The unwary foreigner who has heard
that there is in Russia a very important institution called the "Conseil
d'Etat," naturally supposes that a "Conseiller d'Etat" is a member
of that venerable body; and if he meets "Son Excellence le Conseiller
prive," he is pretty sure to assume--especially if the word "actuel"
has been affixed--that he sees before him a real living member of the
Russian Privy Council. When to the title is added, "de S. M. l'Empereur
de toutes les Russies," a boundless field is opened up to the
non-Russian imagination. In reality these titles are not nearly so
important as they seem. The soi-disant "Conseiller de Cour" has probably
nothing to do with the Court. The Conseiller d'Etat is so far from being
a member of the Conseil d'Etat that he cannot possibly become a member
till he receives a higher tchin.* As to the Privy Councillor, it is
sufficient to say that the Privy Council, which had a very odious
reputation in its lifetime, died more than a century ago, and has not
since been resuscitated. The explanation of these anomalies is to be
found in the fact that the Russian tchins, like the German honorary
titles--Hofrath, Staatsrath, Geheimrath--of which they are a literal
translation, indicate not actual office, but simply official rank.
Formerly the appointment to an office generally depended on the tchin;
now there is a tendency to reverse the old order of things and make the
tchin depend upon the office actually held.

* In Russian the two words are quite different; the Council
is called Gosudarstvenny sovet, and the title Statski
sovetnik.

The reader of practical mind who is in the habit of considering
results rather than forms and formalities desires probably no further
description of the Russian bureaucracy, but wishes to know simply how it