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812 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
Thus, the great fchools in the principal towns will depend on the academy of Peterf-
burgh, and each fchool in the fmaller towns on the principal fchool in each govern-
ment; a f{cheme, which if carried into execution, will effectually promote the interior
civilization of this vaft empire.
Such are the outlines of thefe excellent inftitutions. How far, or in what degree,
they may operate upon a people fo widely difperfed, and of fuch different manners and
cuftoms, can only be proved by time and experience. But though they may fail in
producing a// thofe advantages which the fpeculative reafoner might expect, yet they
mult be attended with moft beneficial effects; as fufliciently appears from the flourifhing
{tate of thofe provinces in which they have been already admitted. If-it be allowed that
many evils have been reformed, and many improvements introduced, it cannot at the
fame time be fuppofed that the national manners fhould be fuddenly changed, or that
the moft abfolute fovereign can venture to fhake thofe fundamental cuftoms which have
been fanctioned by ages. It is furely fuificient if the abufes are remedied, as much as
can be expected in fuch a country; where the va{t difproportion of rank and fortune,
and the vaflalage of the peafants, render it extremely difficult, if not impoffible, to
eftablifh at once an impartial adminiftration of juftice.
Ruffia, with refpect to the valt mafs of people, is nearly in the fame ftate in which
the greater part of Europe was plunged during the eleventh and twelfth centuries;
when the feudal fyftem was gradually declining ; when the unbounded authority of the
land-holders over their flaves was beginning to be counter-balanced by the introduction
of an intermediate order of merchants; when new towns were continually erecting,
and endowed with increafing immunities, and when the crown ventured to give freedom
to its vaflals.
Cuap. XVII.—Inquiry into the prefent State of Civilization in the Ruffian Empire.—Di-
vifion of the Inhabitants into Nobles, Clergy, Merchants, and Burghers.—Peafants.—
Privileges granted to the Merchants, Burghers, and Peafants.—State of Vaffalage.
MUCH has been written concerning the great civilization which Peter the Great
introduced into Ruffia; that he obliged the people to fhave their beards, and relinquifh
their national drefs; that he naturalized the arts and fciences, difciplined his army,
created a navy, and made a total change throughout his extenfive empire. We may
readily admit the truth of this eulogium with refpect to his improvements in the difci-
pline of his army and the creation of a navy ; for thefe were objects within the reach of
his perfevering genius: but the pompous accounts of the total change which he is faid
to have effected in the national manners, feem the mere echoes of foreigners, who never
vifited the country, and who collected the hiftory of Peter from partial information.
For though a nation, compared with itfelf at a former period, may. have made a rapid
progrefs towards improvement; yet, as the exaggerated accounts which 1 had heard
and read of the great civilization diffufed throughout the whole empire led me to expect
a more polifhed {tate of manners, I mult own I was aftonifhed at the barbarifm in which
the bulk of the people ftill continue. Iam ready to allow that the principal nobles are
as civilized, and as refined in their entertainments, mode of living, and focial intercourfe,
as thofe of other European countries. But there isa wide difference between polifhing
a nation, and polifhing a few individuals. The merchants and peafants ftill univerfally
retain their national drefs, their original manners, aud, what is moft remarkable, the
greater part of the merchants and burghers of the large towns, even the citizens of Pe-
7 terfburgh
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