over the first volume of the great Code of Laws might imagine that the Council of State is a kind of Parliament, and the Committee of Ministers a cabinet in our sense of the term, but in reality both institutions are simply incarnations of the Autocratic Power.  Though the Council is entrusted by law with many important functions—­such as discussing Bills, criticising the annual budget, declaring war and concluding peace—­it has merely a consultative character, and the Emperor is not in any way bound by its decisions.  The Committee is not at all a cabinet as we understand the word.  The Ministers are directly and individually responsible to the Emperor, and therefore the Committee has no common responsibility or other cohesive force.  As to the Senate, it has descended from its high estate.  It was originally entrusted with the supreme power during the absence or minority of the monarch, and was intended to exercise a controlling influence in all sections of the administration, but now its activity is restricted to judicial matters, and it is little more than a supreme court of appeal.

Immediately below these three institutions stand the Ministries, ten in number.  They are the central points in which converge the various kinds of territorial administration, and from which radiates the Imperial will all over the Empire.

For the purpose of territorial administration Russia proper—­that is to say, European Russia, exclusive of Poland, the Baltic Provinces, Finland and the Caucasus—­is divided into forty-nine provinces or “Governments” (gubernii), and each Government is subdivided into Districts (uyezdi).  The average area of a province is about the size of Portugal, but some are as small as Belgium, whilst one at least is twenty-five times as big.  The population, however, does not correspond to the amount of territory.  In the largest province, that of Archangel, there are only about 350,000 inhabitants, whilst in two of the smaller ones there are over three millions.  The districts likewise vary greatly in size.  Some are smaller than Oxfordshire or Buckingham, and others are bigger than the whole of the United Kingdom.

Over each province is placed a Governor, who is assisted in his duties by a Vice-Governor and a small council.  According to the legislation of Catherine II., which still appears in the Code and has only been partially repealed, the Governor is termed “the steward of the province,” and is entrusted with so many and such delicate duties, that in order to obtain qualified men for the post it would be necessary to realise the great Empress’s design of creating, by education, “a new race of people.”  Down to the time of the Crimean War the Governors understood the term “stewards” in a very literal sense, and ruled in a most arbitrary, high-handed style, often exercising an important influence on the civil and criminal tribunals.  These extensive and vaguely defined powers have now been very much curtailed, partly by positive legislation, and partly