* I suppose that the more serious partisans of the union scheme mean union with the Eastern Orthodox, and not with the Russian, Church. To them the above remarks are not addressed. Their scheme is, in my opinion, unrealisable and undesirable, but it contains nothing absurd. CHAPTER XX THE NOBLESSE The Nobles In Early Times--The Mongol Domination--The Tsardom of Muscovy--Family Dignity--Reforms of Peter the Great--The Nobles Adopt West-European Conceptions--Abolition of Obligatory Service--Influence of Catherine II.--The Russian Dvoryanstvo Compared with the French Noblesse and the English Aristocracy--Russian Titles--Probable Future of the Russian Noblesse. Hitherto I have been compelling the reader to move about among what we should call the lower classes--peasants, burghers, traders, parish priests, Dissenters, heretics, Cossacks, and the like--and he feels perhaps inclined to complain that he has had no opportunity of mixing with what old-fashioned people call gentle-folk and persons of quality. By way of making amends to him for this reprehensible conduct on my part, I propose now to present him to the whole Noblesse* in a body, not only those at present living, but also their near and distant ancestors, right back to the foundation of the Russian Empire a thousand years ago. Thereafter I shall introduce him to some of the country families and invite him to make with me a few country-house visits. * I use here a foreign, in preference to an English, term, because the word "Nobility" would convey a false impression. Etymologically the Russian word "Dvoryanin" means a Courtier (from Dvor=court); but this term is equally objectionable, because the great majority of the Dvoryanstvo have nothing to do with the Court.