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    S ^ e ^ icl ^ tu ^ S S ^ rfect shape . The so-called authorized translation . both aS ^ Sd profS ?? om the « £ > < 7 e * ffft *» re ™ e * a ^ ento . Mark the words , ' re ? £ r MS / says in his tetter that the authorized translation was made from the iWa * d secondI editions-meaning , of course , that althoug h commenced from the fScS puSished in a periodical in their imperfect shape , it was completed , perfected , 2 nd made fn aU respects to correspond with the second edition revue et autjinentee . Yet , shifting his ground in the very next sentence , he says that he has compared the third editioS witkW * ( not those ) from which the translation was made \ A hl ? . that ? It can only be the two incomplete and unfinished articles ; for had it been with the seconde edition revue et augment ^ :, the suppressions would have been made manifest . » Your obedient servant , " The Reviewer of Moxtalembert and bis Translator in ' Fkaskk ' s Magazine . ' "

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    HAXTHAUSEN'S RUSSIAN EMPIRE . Tie JRmsian Empire ; its People , Institutions , and Resources . By Baron von Haxthausen . Translated by K . Farie . 2 vols . Chapman and Hall . Mb . Fame remarks in the preface to this translation , that , before reading Baron Haxthausen ' s work , lie was completely at a loss to form any idea whatever of the Russians , or their history . Mr . Farie ' s studies in this direction , must have been very limited . The Baron Haxthausen's experience -of Russia was derived from little more than a year ' s residence , and was spread over the cultured country between St . Petersburg and Moscow , the immense forest region of the north , the Tatar districts as far eastward as Jlazan ., aad the corn lands of the south . Certainly , during these journeys he applied to the social aspects and political sy . ^ tem of the empire a natural faculty of observation , sharpened by twenty years of travel , and by the exercises of a studious life . But to believe that Russia is now for the first time described is to be ignorant of the existence of an extensive literature , German , French , and English , devoted to the illustration of Russian history

    and manners . Baron Haxthausen himself , however , is not responsible for his translators extravagance . If his narrative be not a unique and faultless view of Bussiari society and institutions , it possesses solid merits , which will be Appreciated by all who read for information . Though not purely impartial , it i& free from vulgar bias , the writer being influenced less by his prejudices than by his character , first as a noble , then as an admirer of positive power , next as a German addicted to subtle speculations . It is necessary , therefore , before accepting his new method of studying Russian life , to receive his theory of the national microcosm found in the family , of the social laws -operating in Russia in a direction contrary to that in which they operate elsewhere , of the pacific genius of the later Czars , and of the indigenous process by which their dominion has dilated , less by force of arms than by colonization , until a thousand years of growth Lave created in . Russia the parallel of British conquest , and possessed that aspiring people of one seventh of toe habitable globe .

    However irreconcilable the reader ' s knowledge and convictions may be with some parts of Baron Haxthausen ' s view , it will be admitted that , in 4 hese masterly volumes , he has collected , classified , and presented , in a philosophically simple form , a vast variety of fresh and minute information . He starts from St . Petersburg , to which Moscow supplies a contrast , representing the difference between the Orientalism of Russia and the peculiar civilization of ' Western Europe . Many tourists fancy that a residence in the city-of Peter I . qualifies them to judge dogmatically of Russian life and manners . St . Petersburg , however , as Baron Haxthausen reminds us , has been called a window which Peter opened that he might look out upon Europe , and breathe European air . Ifc is inhabited , not by a pure

    population of Russians , but by Germans and Finns , and it stands on Finnish ground . As to pure populations , he disparages the part they have played in the world's history—excepting , indeed , the Arabians and the Jews—and is content to find that the Slavonic people—the nucleus of Russia—has received a Finnish , German , Tatar , and Mongol admixture . These varying elements it is melting by a gradual process into one , the Polish nation being tliat which , alone is likely to maintain what Baron Haxthausen calls a -separate spiritual existence , though he discredits the Idea that it will ever resume a distinct political position . A common language , a peculiar and ottuform religion , and patriarchal institutions , form the threefold basis of the dtestrnies winch he believes to be reserved for the Russian Empire .

    - The illustrations he offers are taken from every grade of Russian life , and -almost from every province . He describes in picturesque chapters the ceremonies o £ the Greek Church , the public offices , schools , manufactories , the comiiniUTial organization of the empire , cities , villages , palaces , cottages , oolonies , fortifications , nobles , citizens , serfs , the graduated ranks of society , -tbe position of women , the employments of the peasantry , their costumes , tW-elKngs , festivals , songs , their modes of agriculture , their taxes , the disci-. pfine or the great farms , the variations of national character in the Asiatic and European provinces ,, the several governments , the penal settlements of -Siberia ^ tli Q curious religious sects of Old Believers and Mennonites , with almost everything within the range of a traveller ' s inquiries , or of a reader ' s iA&urfXt . Among the circumstuiices emphatically noticed by him na

    evi-• denceeh ur . { kvKmr . of his particular view , some are well worth attention . ISsmtwe women and girls , be says , are never seen as shop-women in Russia . Agree * port of the-fixed property is in the hands of women . On the front of ewiy house in Moscow and St . Petersburg is written the name of the proprietor , and before every third houso at least the name is that of a wdnwwfc .- _ JFhw i » itlao the case with landed property , from , one fifth to one fourth being in the hands of the female bcx , thus conferring on it a social influence not ; iwoog ^ iiacd , in tins sense , in othor countries . Kuastan legislation fttoo favours wofexken in the control and assignment of their possessions . NdWh «*» , ? a ! y BarajV Haxthausen , ia there such a perpetual revolution of propHHy m frt R , uss ! a ; the laud is continually passing from owner to owner ;

    large fortunes , rapidly made , are as rapidly lost . In Moscow , the ancient palaces in which the nobles lived , sometimes with from five hundred to a thousand servants , have disappeared , or descended to opulent manufacturers notwithstanding which , however , all the efforts of the Government to form and foster a citizen class Jiave failed . This the writer traces to mysterious causes in the character and history of the Slavonian people , showing that neither the Poles nor the Southern Slavs ever hud a middle order , while that in Bohemia is an importation , from Germany . The tendency of the Slavonic people , upon this hypothesis , is to separate into two classes , and to preserve their respective positions . Baron Haxthausen left Moscow in May , 1843 , directing his course among the gabled villages of Yaroslaf , and through agricultural districts in which the modes of peasant life seemed to have been influenced by a modification

    of the St . Simonian theory . St . Simon laid down as a principle that the land belongs to the Spirit of Humanity , the God of the Earth . Every individual , being an emanation from this spirit , has a right to a personal use of the earth ' s productions . The Russians declare that the land belongs to its Creator , but that the human family , while it exists , has a joint property in it , and that in Russia , the Czar , as the father of the family , has a right to distribute it among the family section , under his patriarchal control . Every Russian city , in the interior , is , says Baron Haxthausen , an epitome of Russian history . It is usually approached through a village , where the old peasants dwell , cultivating gardens and orchards for the

    supply of the town . This is a monument of the rural age . Through the village , as through a porch , the traveller enters the quarter belonging to the period of Catherine II . Here the streets are long , straight , wide , and unpaved , with log-houses and gabled cottages of one story , inhabited by graindealers , mechanics , and others of the industrious classes . Next appears the European town , with spacious squares , palaces , droschkies driving to and fro , and government buildings . These trip le cities are found even on the verge of the steppes , among the Little Russians , whose pastoral manners are described with pleasant sympathy by our German traveller . Hence traversing the steppes to the Dnieper , he reached the great German Men , nonite settlement in the circle of Khoritz . The settlement contains

    seventeen villages of German appearance , the inhabitants of which have given a German aspect to the whole district—to the flocks , to the houses , to the gardens , even to the scenery , by Germanizing the hedges and the meadows . The Mennonites are passivists , who declare the use of the sword unlawful , who hold the cultivation of the soil to be a sacred duty from which no one , unless under absolute necessity , is exempted . From a curious notice of this settlement Baron Haxthausen proceeds to give a description , full of colour and animation , of the Russian colonies of the Ukraine and the Don , of the forests and the steppes , travelling thence to the borders of the Azof and the Euxine , to the Crimea , and , through Odessa , back to Moscow , where he pauses to write a summary of his observations and views . This is succeeded by a sketch of the military and naval institutions of the empire , and of the administration of the crown lands .

    "Without assenting to Mr . Farie ' s notion that this translation of Baron Haxthausen's narrative is the sole exposition in our language of Russian politics , of Russian society , and of Russian national progress—which would be an absurdity , and unfair to previous writers—we attribute a high value to the book , which abounds in graphic and suggestive matter .

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    THE MICROSCOPE . The Microgrqphic Dictionary : a Guide to the Examination and Investigation of tJi ^ Structure and Nature of Microscopic Objects . By J . W . GrMith , M . D ., and Arthur Henfrey , F . R . S . Van Voorst . There arc works which are pleasant , works which are valuable , and works which are indispensable . The Micrographic Dictionary is one of the indispensable works—to those at least who possess a microscope for any other purpose than that of a mere toy . It contains 696 double-columned closelyprinted pages , illustrated with forty-one plates , many coloured , each plate representing some thirty or forty objects , and , besides these plates , eight hundred and sixteen woodcuts ! Never was such a mass of illustration produced in so small a compass , and for so insignificant a price . the volumeWhen

    This is what strikes the observer who merely takes up . he comes to examine it , he finds that it is intended as an alphabeticul index to all the structures revealed by the microscope — from the minutest organisms * vegetable or animal , up to the most complex tissues . If he wants to know the structure of some animalcule , some alga , or lungna , thie Dictionary will not onl y tell him a great deal , perhaps as much as lie wants , but will refer him to all the best sources of fuller information . _• " (' . wants to know the best methods of mounting an object so as to elicit its true structure , this Dictionary gives him ample and precise details . The numerous plates and woodcuts greatly aid him in that difficult but indispensable task of identifying the annual or vegetable ho has met with . In short , although the book is one which can only bo properly estimated after it has been long in use ( no ono reads a dictionary ) , we venture to say that the guaranteo ottered by the reputations of Messrs . Griffith and Henfrey will be fully borne out by protracted experience of their work . Up to this tune we have found it always usefulalways readyalways reliable . Althoug h our

    , , use of it has been somewhat fragmentary , our " jt eefl was great , and we are delig hted to say that , it did not serve us as dictionaries usually kitvo us , namely , give every information except what was sought . Wo found tne thing we wanted , and we found it where we sought it . In their admirable Introduction the authors properly allude to the many and absurd errors which have been set forth by microscopisltt , and wbica have brought discredit on the Microscope umoivg those not accustomed u > its use . Thus the fruit of the mulberry has boon mistaken for onLou / . R , " careous corpuscles for ova , for nucleated colls , and even for blood corpuscles ; minute hair « projecting from tho surface of a membrane have been mistake for spicula within subjacent cells . But it is with colls and cellular . sl , ru « t"rej wo find thu greatest amount of wrong observation . Since Schlo 1 « len an Soliwuim btartlod Europe with tlio cell theory , " almost everything rouiiu has boon regarded as a coll , any single body within this , or where there tvio

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    5 gg THE LEADER , [ No . 323 , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1856, page 522, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2143/page/18/