The passport, by which every individual is, or ought to be, held and ticketed so as to be recognised and easily followed wherever he goes, is a terrible burden on a people half of whom are compelled by the climate and the poorness of the soil to spend six months of every year away from home. To be obliged to take out a passport before leaving home is at once a hindrance to movement and a tax upon the pocket. To abolish the passport would be a first great step towards according freedom to the whole population. As it is, no one can choose his own residence, nor follow his profession as he pleases; still less can people collect and group themselves in places where the productiveness of the soil would naturally encourage them to do so. Yet the obligation is by no means effective; it is constantly evaded. The fabrication of false passports is a very flourishing trade, which has been of immense service to the revolutionists in covering up their movements and concealing from the eyes of justice those "wanted." [Illustration: VERA ZASSOULICH SHOOTING GENERAL TRÉPOFF] A story is told of a Russian gentleman who was in a hurry to leave Odessa and travel to the shores of the Mediterranean. Not choosing to waste time in presenting himself at the Passport Bureau, he accepted the services of a commissionaire, who promised to get him the passport for a comparatively small sum, a little under £4. The would-be traveller accepted the offer, and next day started from home with the passport all in proper form. Nor have the passport regulations reduced the number of vagrants for ever on the tramp, who can show no papers, and yet are seldom interfered with. When the authorities awoke suddenly to the need for enforcing the rules in some of the more remote towns, such as Tiflis and Odessa, there was a general exodus of the working population, and the well-to-do people were left without the servants, small tradespeople, and others who had ministered to their wants.