We must always bear this in mind when we meet with those imposing titles which Russian tourists sometimes put on their visiting cards, such as “Conseiller de Cour,” “Conseiller d’Etat,” “Conseiller prive de S. M. l’Empereur de toutes les Russies.”  It would be uncharitable to suppose that these titles are used with the intention of misleading, but that they do sometimes mislead there cannot be the least doubt.  I shall never forget the look of intense disgust which I once saw on the face of an American who had invited to dinner a “Conseiller de Cour,” on the assumption that he would have a Court dignitary as his guest, and who casually discovered that the personage in question was simply an insignificant official in one of the public offices.  No doubt other people have bad similar experiences.  The unwary foreigner who has heard that there is in Russia a very important institution called the “Conseil d’Etat,” naturally supposes that a “Conseiller d’Etat” is a member of that venerable body; and if he meets “Son Excellence le Conseiller prive,” he is pretty sure to assume—­especially if the word “actuel” has been affixed—­that he sees before him a real living member of the Russian Privy Council.  When to the title is added, “de S. M. l’Empereur de toutes les Russies,” a boundless field is opened up to the non-Russian imagination.  In reality these titles are not nearly so important as they seem.  The soi-disant “Conseiller de Cour” has probably nothing to do with the Court.  The Conseiller d’Etat is so far from being a member of the Conseil d’Etat that he cannot possibly become a member till he receives a higher tchin.* As to the Privy Councillor, it is sufficient to say that the Privy Council, which had a very odious reputation in its lifetime, died more than a century ago, and has not since been resuscitated.  The explanation of these anomalies is to be found in the fact that the Russian tchins, like the German honorary titles—­Hofrath, Staatsrath, Geheimrath—­of which they are a literal translation, indicate not actual office, but simply official rank.  Formerly the appointment to an office generally depended on the tchin; now there is a tendency to reverse the old order of things and make the tchin depend upon the office actually held.

     * In Russian the two words are quite different; the Council
     is called Gosudarstvenny sovet, and the title Statski
     sovetnik.

The reader of practical mind who is in the habit of considering results rather than forms and formalities desires probably no further description of the Russian bureaucracy, but wishes to know simply how it works in practice.  What has it done for Russia in the past, and what is it doing in the present?