There is not in Europe any nobility which possesses such large fortunes, (?) such vast personal privileges, such _liberties_, (??) such political rights in the internal administration of the empire, (???) or so much physical power as the Russian aristocracy. The nobles possess in absolute property more than one-half of the lands under tillage. More than half the population of Russia Proper, that is, more than 12,000,000 of souls, which means more than 24,000,000 of heads, are not only their subjects, but their serfs. It must be understood that in Russian rent-rolls the term “souls” means exclusively the males on an estate. In every valuation of the agricultural population, however, the unity taken is the Tiéglo of two souls, or, more exactly, five persons; the women and younger children being included. The class of Russian serfs, or _mougiks_, represents, according to M. Leouzon le Duc, no less than one-twentieth part of mankind. It exceeds the whole population of France or Austria, and is computed to amount to no less than forty millions of human beings. The condition of these serfs differs in no material respect from that of the negro slaves of the United States, for the law holds them to be absolutely disqualified from possessing property; all they may earn or hold is really the property of their lord, and at his mercy. The Russian landlord is armed with a power which even the American planter does not possess. He is bound to feed the terrible conscription of the army, year by year, with an aliquot part of his own peasants. The rule of the Russian army is twenty-five years’ duty. The power of drafting off particular men into the army amounts to an absolute control over their existence. The body of the serf is equally subject to every caprice of the master, and the use of the whip is universal. The virtue of the female serf is in his power, and it is considered an honor among the Russian peasantry to reckon the adulterous offspring of their master amongst their own. The law itself precludes all redress, for the _Swod_ expressly enacts that, “if any serf, forgetting the obedience he owes to his lord, presents a denunciation against him, and especially if he presents such a denunciation to the Emperor, he shall be handed over to justice, and treated with all the rigor of the laws--he, and the scribe who may have drawn up his memorial.” We cannot conceive in any country or any age a more complete annihilation of human independence, or a more total degradation of human society. The pay of the Russian army in all ranks is wretchedly small. The common soldier receives about $7 50 a year; a lieutenant-general about $850; a colonel, $500; a captain from $250 to $300. THE PROGRESS OF RUSSIA. There is something really grand and imposing in the steady march of Russian dominion, since Peter the Great first consolidated his empire into a substantive state.