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sneers at the hated "Nyemtzi." But, sneer as they will, the fact remains; and the bitter old proverb, so often heard in the towns of the Volga, "Few German workmen, many German overseers," is merely a terse summary of one of the most momentous chapters in the present history of Russia. Not without cause did old Suvoroff, in one of his flashes of reckless humour, answer the gracious words of Catherine II. with the brusque sarcasm, "Mother Katrina, make me a German!" Since the advancing Colossus first threw its shadow across the political horizon of Europe, the men from beyond the Niemen have been her mainstay in every department. Gordon, Münnich, Benningsen, Barclay de Tolly, Diebitsch, in the army; Elphinstone, Greig, Ribas, Paul Jones in the navy; Lefort, Pfuhl, Todleben in military engineering; Osterman and Nesselrode in diplomacy—a formidable array of foreign names for an empire of such magnitude, especially with such a proportion of Germans among them. To a people of which the educated portion, at least, are feverishly anxious to make Russia self-supporting in every way, it is inexpressibly galling to be forced to admit (as the most enlightened of them have admitted in my hearing again and again) that as yet she is wholly unequal to the task. It is not too much to assert that the expulsion of the Germans so loudly called for by certain ultrapatriotic maniacs,* would be tantamount to removing

* It is worth while to remark, however, that the famous sentence attributed to the Prince Imperial, "If I had my way, I'd chase every German across the frontier to-morrow," is a pure myth.

the bones from a human body and expecting the flabby, gelatinous mass which remained, to stand erect as before. These, it will be said, are mere assertions; but let us look a little at the facts. The present proportion of foreigners in the Russian army is as follows:

Subalterns and non-com-
missioned officers,
Staff officers,
Generals

42 per cent., of whom 24 are Germans. 85 per cent., of whom 58 are Germans. 82 per cent., of whom 74 are Germans.

And when we add to this estimate the number of foreigners in the manufacturing class, the provincial administration, the higher bureaucratic circles, and the Cabinet itself, one can hardly wonder that the "German problem" should be a standing anxiety to Russia, or that that elimination of the foreign element which is the desire of the unreasoning many should be the dread of the reasoning few. It is not generally known that, barely two years ago, 200,000 German colonists on the Volga, fearing to be deprived of their exemption from military service, resolved to emigrate en masse, and actually sent several of their number to St Petersburg, in order to make secret inquiries as to the possibility of getting off to America by sea. "Of all political contingencies," as I have said elsewhere, "Russia has most reason to dread a Prussian version of her favourite 'Slavonic Protectorate,' a union of all German-speaking men throughout every land under one head resident at Berlin.* The millions that people the Baltic sea-board,

* When this was first written, the Russian journals indignantly denied it. They will hardly venture to do so now.

the hosts of industrious craftsmen that swarm in every town of the empire, may yet become an eye-sore and a loss to the country of which they are now the stay and back-bone. In the dim future the anxious eye of Russian diplomacy sees the foreshadowing of a time when the Prince Bismark of that day shall say to all Germans from the White Sea to the Black, 'Come out of her, my people!' and when they shall obey the call, bearing with them the wealth which they have amassed, and the ability which has made them rich; while the Russian peasantry, unhelped and unhelpful, sown broadcast in pestilential hovels of ten or twelve together over an area larger than all the rest of Europe combined, shall remain to cumber the ground of which every spadeful is worth a king's ransom, till they are mercifully transported by typhus or cholera to a region where there is at least no thievish bureaucracy, and no tyrannical police."

Upon the panorama of the Volga, from Tsaritzin to Saratoff (one of the best bits of purely Russian scenery in the empire), I cannot dwell here; and I must also omit, however unwillingly, the cordial reception given me by the authorities both at Saratoff and Samara. I pass at once to the time when, after so many thousand miles of rail and steamer, I plunged at length into the primeval desert, where both rail and steamer are unknown.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE WORLD.

EASTWARD Ho! at last; the horses' bells jingling merrily in the clear morning air as we fly along; the green hill sides looking fresh and beautiful under the bright May sunshine; the tall gilded church-towers and many-coloured houses of Samara melting away in the distance; and in front of us, the long smooth waves of a "rolling prairie," surging up to greet us with the first hint of the coming Ural.

When the long projected Samara-Orenburg railway shall translate itself into fact, "the easternmost town of the Volga" will doubtless resume its former importance; but for the present it is altogether eclipsed by Saratoff, which, though much farther from Orenburg, possesses the advantage of direct communication with Moscow. The surrounding country, too, is unutterably lonely, the enormous disproportion of area and population being nowhere more glaring than here. Russia is an undermanned fortress, and can spare no men to this remote outpost. It is all barren desolation farther on; it is all fertile desolation here. Nevertheless, in this magnificent weather, the wide grassy uplands, lonely as they are, have a beauty of their own; and so, ap

parently, thinks my driver, who is now lighting his short black pipe with the air of a man who, having got his work well in train, can afford to enjoy himself.

"Glorious weather, eh, Barin (master)? We shall make quick work of it to-day; but if you had come a month ago, you'd have found the road that deep in mud. Let alone that, you couldn't have got horses if you had offered a hundred roubles for them!"

"Why, were there many on the road then?"

"Weren't there, just? as thick as flies upon sugar! Why, what with officers going to Khiva, and couriers coming from Orenburg, and merchants passing backwards and forwards, and dogs of Jews hanging after our army on the chance of cheating Christian folk out. of a kopeck or two, the whole road was just like a bazaar. Ah! we poor fellows used to take a fine lot of money then!”

me.

The last remark is pointed by a sly side-glance at

"Which means that you would like some more, eh? Well, here's thirty kopecks for you (about 10d. English) if you do the stage within the hour and a half."

(It is a pity, by the by, that we do not follow the Russians in having a single word to express "one and a half;" that concise "poltorá " is a great economy.)

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Stimulated by this unusual largesse, honest Ivân puts on the steam" at an amazing rate; and the black and white posts of the little station heave in sight a good five minutes before the appointed time. Fresh horses are put to with a quickness which sufficiently

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