There were two of the _employés_ in the province of which I speak who were exceptions to this: the governor respected them accordingly; they were almost daily at his house, and he esteemed them highly; they were the two principal adjutants, and were honourable men. Neither of these gentlemen came to congratulate the governor upon the occasion to which I have referred. One of them came in the evening, as usual, to take tea. He sat almost in silence, and seemed much out of spirits: at last he arose, and, complaining of a headache, asked if we would like to take a walk round the garden. Madame declined, but I arose and accompanied him. As soon as we had reached the broad avenue, I said,— “I fear it is more than a headache that you are suffering from; you have been annoyed by something.” “You are right, Madame,” answered he; “I am vexed and ashamed when I think that I am obliged to be the witness of such degrading baseness in my own country-people as was shown to-day. What a dreadful thing it is that men should so lower themselves, and vilify the image in which they have been created!” He stopped suddenly, and he seemed overwhelmed with sorrow. “They will behave more nobly,” I said, “when more enlightened.” “Never, never!” he exclaimed, “until a dreadful revolution has swept over the land and destroyed every vestige of the government now existing and of the corruption throughout every rank.” “Hush! you must not talk so, Dmitri Ivanowitch; suppose any one should hear you.” “I am quite glad,” he replied, “that I have had an opportunity of telling my feelings to some one: I know I am safe in speaking to an English person. You can sympathize in our cause of grief, as yours is a free nation.” Poor man! such noble sentiments were almost a misfortune to one condemned to serve in Russia. “Without being base, it is impossible to get on,” was the remark of another Russian to me one day. The general rule certainly seems to be, that every encouragement shall be given to slavishness, and none to nobility of soul. “Do you know,” said Dmitri Ivanowitch one day, “do you know why there are so many mean people? It is this: a young man, for example, enters the service with the determination to keep up a character for honour and integrity, and he does so for some time, and lives in poverty; in the mean while he sees those whose meanness he despises rise over his head in reward for their cringing; he gets no credit for being honourably poor; he wearies of the pursuit of honour, and so gradually becomes as debased as the others.” There is a senate of the empire; the senators assemble at the ministerial department in St. Petersburg. Their duties cannot be very fatiguing, as they consist in saying, “Sa Majesté a parfaitement raison” to everything that is proposed. One would be apt to think, also, that the law must be an easy study, as on the first page of the statute-book it is announced that everything is according to the will of the Emperor.