“I am now just six weeks back in England after a four months’ journey in which I visited places so wide apart in the Russian Empire as Ekaterina, in the far north, and villages of the Central Caucasian range, in the south; and I stayed a while in Petrograd and Moscow, Rostof, Orel, and other considerable cities, and I can say by the evidence of my eyes that intoxicating liquor has disappeared. The only drunken men I saw were in Archangel. Officers to-day sit down to talk over a bottle of _citro_. In the restaurants you are given _kvas_, a sort of fruity ginger-beer, which in truth is not allowed to have more than 1-1/2 per cent. of alcohol, and is in no sense a beer. “The article in the Russian Section is by the Petrograd Correspondent of _The Times_, and consists chiefly of extracts from an article by the Russian Professor Migulin. I find the phrase in the translation is ‘malt beverage,’ and not ‘mild beer,’ as Mr. K---- puts it; and I think it refers to a beverage something like birch beer as sold in America, a sort of empty symbol of beer taken not because it is pleasant but because one must order something with one’s meals. It has no alcoholic reality, is sold in bottles, and is of a standardised taste and quality. “As regards wine, it must be remembered that in the Caucasus, in Transcaucasia, and in Russian Central Asia there are wine industries, wine is the local popular drink, not tea as in Russia proper. This wine is usually kept in skins and sold in pots. There is also a bottling industry, but the export of this wine from these remote parts of the Empire to Russia proper has been prohibited except in cases of specially guaranteed orders. “I believe British and American and other foreign subjects are allowed to purchase wine for their private use on the presentation of a certificate. Professor Migulin appears to be advocating a State monopoly in the sale of wine on the ground that ‘only on condition of a State monopoly would it be safe to allow the free circulation of grape-wine; otherwise under the guise of wine vodka will again make its appearance.’ For the phrase ‘grape wine’ read ‘grape juice.’ Professor Migulin’s figures are apparently incorrect--the population of Russia is not consuming a gallon of grape-juice per head in addition to what it drinks in the way of _citro_, _kvas_, _narzan_, birch beer, etc. “As regards the revenue returns, may I make the following remarks: “1. Although the sale of alcohol in the form of drink has been abolished, the manufacture continues in perhaps larger quantities. “Enormous quantities have been exported to France for use in the manufacture of high explosives, and I do not need to say more than that on the head of the extensive industrial uses of alcohol.