uch a church
costs ten, twenty, or thirty thousand silver roubles (six roubles equal to
one pound); but nothing is more easy than to get this sum. A dozen of
stout fellows disperse in various directions, to collect by begging the
sum required for the construction of the projected church, which is done
without any expense, as the collectors are hospitably received in every
house. As soon as the necessary sum is obtained, the village petitions the
government for a plan and for an architect, because the plan of every such
church must be approved at St Petersburg. Thus, in a few years, a fine
church is built, constructed in the modern style, and the rank of the
village rises in its own and in its neighbours' opinion.

"Such things cannot be done in Western Europe, partly because an active
religious feeling amongst the people disappears more and more,(118) and
partly on account of the great fluctuation of their ideas, and want of
stability in their opinions. With the Russian it is quite otherwise. This
nation has no political ideas: but two sentiments pervade its whole
being--a common feeling of nationality, and a fervent attachment to the
national church. Whenever these two feelings take hold of the Russian's
mind, he is ready willingly to sacrifice without a moment's hesitation his
life and property."(119)

It is these two national feelings that the Emperor Nicholas is now trying
to excite to the utmost pitch, and there can be little doubt that if he
succeeds in his object there will be a hard struggle between barbarity and
civilization, though the final triumph of the latter, to the advantage not
only of the victors, but also of the vanquished, cannot be doubted for a
moment. I must, however, return to Baron Haxthausen, who continues his
account of the Russian village churches, saying,--

"It must not be forgotten, in order to understand how such large
collections for a church of some obscure village, and made for the most
part amongst the peasants, are obtained, that _giving_ is as much in the
Russian character as _taking_. Nowhere property hangs upon such loose
threads and changes hands with such rapidity as in Russia. To-day rich,
to-morrow poor. People earn and squander away almost simultaneously; they
cheat and are cheated; they steal with one hand, and give away with the
other. The common Russian sets not his heart on any kind of property; he
loses with perfect equanimity what he had just earned, in the hope of
ge