The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

an approximation to the truth can be looked
for; yet in the comprehensive series of tables
and commentaries which M. Tegoborski has
given us he appears to have collected, classi-
fied, and analysed an immense amount of facts,
without prejudice and with singular imparti
ality and moderation.
M. Tegoborski places the productive forces
of a nation under two categories, the "Physical
and Material," and the " Intellectual." Under
the former, the geographical and topographical
position of the country, its soil, its popula-
tion, and its animal and mineral products,
are classified ; and under the latter head the
degree of civilisation to which the people have
arrived, and the national customs and cha-
racter, are closely analysed.
That portion of the work which treats of the
classification of territory in regard to the
geographical position and extent of each pro-
vince is remarkably clear, and had a chart
been added to the volume a comprehensive
survey of the empire could have been ob-
tained at a glance. Russia, which claims an
extent of territory of 367,200 geographical
square miles, 99,275 of which lie in Europe, is
divided into fifty-ono Governments, which
appear to be remarkably disproportioned ono
to another ; that, for instance, of Archangel,
which amounts to 15,000 square miles—a
superficial extent nearly one-third above the
superfices of the whole Austrian empire, in-
cluding Hungary—is nearly three times larger
than any other province in the Russian
empire, and from thirty to forty times more
extensive than many of them, including St.
Petersburg and Moscow :
This immense extent of empire ( observes M. Tegoborski)
is attended with many inconveniences in regard to adminis-
tration and finance. It opposes great obstacles to internal
communication, to the exchange of the productions of the
soil and of industry, and consequently to the progress of
national wealth. It also presents great varieties of result
from administrative and financial legislation ; for a measure
or regulation which is of easy execution in one of the
Baltic provinces, having an extent of three or four hun-
dred square miles, may often be attended with very different
practical results in the Governments of Wologda or Arch-
angel,—the former with a surface of nearly seven thousand,
the latter of more than fifteen thousand square miles, and
with an exceedingly thin and scattered population.
For a considerable portion of the empire, Nature has ob-
viated the di;. oulties resulting from these great distances
by a very extensive network of river communication, the
utility of which we shall afterwards have occasion to refer
to. During four or five months of the year, likewise, land
transport by means of sledges is facilitated by the
abundance of snow.
Russia possesses an European population
of nearly 62,000,000, and a total of nearly
68,000,000 in both Europe and Asia, which is
increasing at an average rate of one per cent.
per annum.
With great variety in the quality of the
land, her soil is on the whole abundantly
fertile ; her rivers are numerous, and, with the
exception of two, the Vistula and the Dniester,
take their rise within the limits of the empire;
her lakes are many and extensive, and of great
importance in completing the vast natural
system of fluvial communication which
obviates the difficulties resulting from the
immense extent of the empire, and forms a
network of communication between the several
provinces of the empire. With abundant
supplies of timber in the recesses of her im-
mense forests, with an average of five cattle,
ten sheep, and about three horses to every
twelve persons—an average far beyond that of
any other continental country—with varied
and numerous agricultural productions, and
the most valuable mines of gold, silver,
platina, copper, iron, and coal, producing, in
their present imperfectly worked state, an
annual revenue of about 5,500,0001., we see
that Russia occupies a thoroughly inde
pendent position in everything which re-
gards the wellbeing of her inhabitants
and the development of her resources. But,
on the other hand, if her population is enor-
mous, it is vastly disproportioned to her
extent of territory ; it is thinly scattered, and
gives in Europe an average only of 847 per-
sons to the square mile. If her rivers are
numerous, they empty themselves—with the
sole exception of the Dwina, which is
only navigable for a few months in the
year either in seas which are entirely
closed, such as the Caspian, or which, like
the Baltic and Black Seas, have their egress
through narrow straits held by other Powers,

717

and iu time of hostilities easily blockaded
by an enemy's fleet. And, finally, if her
mines are rich, her supplies great, and her
resources enormous, the ono cannot be
worked without labour, the other cannot be
rendered available but by trade ; and it is this
want of external outlets for the develop
ment of her resources which is the secret but
natural cause of Russia's perpetual aggressions
upon neighbouring States.
With regard to the statistics of population
M. Tegoboraki offers us some curious facts.
The disproportion of males to females in the
towns and cities of Russia is a singular ano-
maly :

On comparing the male and female populations of the
towns, we find that the former commonly exceeds the latter,
sometimes—especially in towns of the first and second
class—by a very considerable proportion, as, for example,
by 30 to 50 per cent. At St. Petersburg, there were
reckoned in 1661, 336,000 male individuals out of a popu-
lation of 892,0ta1, which gives the proportion of 67 males
to 33 females; at Moscow, out of 893,5(k) inhaniuits,
241,300, or more than 61 per cent., belonged to the male
sex. M. Haxthausen cites, as one of the most striking of
these contrasts, the town of Rybinsk, of which the total
population amounts in summer, according to him, to
130,100 inhabitants, whilst the number of females dues nut
exceed 2,500. These proportions betwixt the numbers of
the two sexes present an anomaly nowhere else met with.
In Germany, and other countries, it is precisely in towns
of the first and second class that the female population
almost invariably exceeds the male.

N. Tegoborski accounts for this difference
by the fact that in Russia it is the male popu-
lation only which moves about and emigrate
to the capitals, while the women invariably
remain at home. The vast accumulation of
military in the towns would perhaps bo the
more correct way of expressing the emigra-
tion of the males ; and this singular dispro-
portion of sex may in some measure account
for the peculiar dissoluteness of society in
Russian towns. The account of the origin
of the Russian cities is well given :

The classification of our towns according to the extent
of their population, and the numerical comparisons which
we have exhibited betwixt them and those of France,
Austria, and Prussia, do not show to our disadvantage, if
we take the absolute cipher of their number, and of their
population, that is, if we leave out of view the extent of our
total territory, and the number of our entire population.
But with us the wealth and prosperity of the towns are not
always in proportion to the number of their inhabitants.
This is often seen in their exterior. The large number Lf
our towns, even of those whose population is most consi-
derable, are badly built ; the greater part of the houses are
of wood ; frequently it is only the churches and public,
buildings that are constructed of stone or brick; the streets
are ill paved, or more frequently not paved at all. With
the exception of a few towns especially favored by their
situation, and which are so many centres to which the
great Interests of our home and foreign commerce converge,
we seldom find the bustle and animation produced by com-
merce and industry.
In general, the origin and foundation of our towns, *As
constituent elements, and their condition, give them a pe-
culiar character very different from that of other towns of
the European Continent. In Germany, France, Italy, and
the other countries of Europe, the greater number of the
larger towns date from the middle ages, or a still earlier
period ; they were founded spontaneously, as it were, by a
concourse of circumstances peculiar to the times and places
which called them into being. They were corporations,
associations formed in the midst of feudal institutions,
sometimes with the view of affording better means of
resistance to the oppression of the great feudatories, and
sometimes with a view to commercial and industrial
interests. Frequently there was the union of a political
with a material object, as in the case of the Ranee towns
of Germany. This community of interests developed from
the °Meet a municipal spirit, which has been the cause of
their strength and their prosperity. A similar spontaneity
of origin has been wanting to the greater part of our towns.
With the exception of a few ancient cities, to which the po-
litical or commercial interests of a more remote epoch con•
verged, as Moscow, Kazan, Vlladitnir, Souzdal, Jaruelaw,
Rostow, Nowgorod, Wologds, Nijni•Nuwgorod, Kiew, Riga,
Archangel, and some provincial capitals, the major part of
the Russian towns are of modern foundation. They have
arisen at the fiat of Government, and frequently much
lass for the sake of existing interests than with a view to the
future. The Empress Catherine 11. erected into towns
a great number of villages of which the situation, favor-
able to commerce, contained the germ of their prosperity,
and several of these foundations, due to the foresight of
Government, have been completely successful. A consi•
derable number of these paltry villages have become rich
and populous cities.
The second part of this volume opens with
an able discourse upon tho importance of
agriculture to the advancement of the tunpirc,
upon the vast disproportion between the value
of lilnd and the value of labour, and concludes
with a general view of the efforts towards modern
improvement, and of the position of Russia
with regard to her industrial interests.
Russia, says M. Tegoborski, is eminently an
agricultural country :