ke one almost
at random. It is a memorial relating to a proposed reform of benevolent
institutions. First I find a philosophical disquisition on benevolence
in general; next, some remarks on the Talmud and the Koran; then a
reference to the treatment of paupers in Athens after the Peloponnesian
War, and in Rome under the emperors: then some vague observations on the
Middle Ages, with a quotation that was evidently intended to be Latin;
lastly, comes an account of the poor-laws of modern times, in which I
meet with "the Anglo-Saxon domination," King Egbert, King Ethelred, "a
remarkable book of Icelandic laws, called Hragas"; Sweden and Norway,
France, Holland, Belgium, Prussia, and nearly all the minor German
States. The most wonderful thing is that all this mass of historical
information, extending from the Talmud to the most recent legislation
of Hesse-Darmstadt, is compressed into twenty-one octavo pages! The
doctrinal part of the memorandum is not less rich. Many respected names
from the literature of Germany, France, and England are forcibly dragged
in; and the general conclusion drawn from this mass of raw, undigested
materials is believed to be "the latest results of science."

Does the reader suspect that I have here chosen an extremely exceptional
case? If so, let us take the next paper in the file. It refers to a
project of law regarding imprisonment for debt. On the first page I find
references to "the Salic laws of the fifth century," and the "Assises de
Jerusalem, A.D 1099." That, I think, will suffice. Let us pass, then, to
the next step.

When the quintessence of human wisdom and experience has thus been
extracted, the commission considers how the valuable product may
be applied to Russia, so as to harmonise with the existing general
conditions and local peculiarities. For a man of practical mind this
is, of course, the most interesting and most important part of the
operation, but from Russian legislators it receives comparatively little
attention. Very often have I turned to this section of official papers
in order to obtain information regarding the actual state of the
country, and in every case I have been grievously disappointed.
Vague general phrases, founded on a priori reasoning rather than on
observation, together with a few statistical tables--which the cautious
investigator should avoid as he would an ambuscade--are too often all
that is to be found. Through the thin veil of pseudo-erudition th