C. Minister for Internal Affairs. (HOME DEPARTMENT.) 1. The Minister's personal Office. 4. Superintendance of the Medical Profession. a. Imperial Medico Chirurgical Academy. b. Physician General for the Civil Department. D. Minister of Public Instruction. This important office, to which is attached the General Direction of the "Cultes Étrangers" in the Empire, is at present filled by Prince de Lieven, a brother of the Russian Ambassador in London, who was Curator of the University of Dorpat, when I visited that City; and who is said to be admirably qualified for the situation to which he has just been appointed. 1. The Minister's Personal Office. I. Department of Public Instruction. 2. Academies. a. Of Sciences. b. Of Arts. c. Russian Academy. 3. Principal Direction of Schools. 4. Universities. a. Of St. Petersburgh. b. Of Moscow. c. Of Dorpat. 5. Imperial Public Library. 6. Special Institutions. a. Society of Belles Lettres and Natural Philosophy at Riga. b. Economical Society of Arts and Sciences. c. Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburgh.. ture. II. General Direction of the "Cultes Étrangers." 1. Roman Catholics, 2. Greco-Uniats, 3. Armenians, 4. Armeno Catholics, 5. Evangelical, 6. Reformed Evangelical, 7. Mahometans. With their Colleges, Courts, and Consistories; and the Administration of Secular Affairs. A gentleman has been appointed within the last few months to this post of great delicacy, who, in his capacity of principal Counsellor of the Russian Embassy in London, became well known, about nine years ago, to the principal literary characters of this country, where he was indefatigable in studying the several public and private institutions connected with the particular objects of his researches. Mons. Bloudoff, to whom I allude, has been attached to the Minister of Instruction for some years, as "Adjoint," and the additional charge conferred on him on the present occasion, proves how much his services, as well as his abilities, are valued. In the course of an acquaintance of some years with this gentleman and his family, I can safely say, that I have not found a person who did not admit that Monsieur Bloudoff was deeply versed in ancient and modern literature, and possessed of much historical information, particularly respecting his own country, and the religious and civil institutions of Europe. E. Minister of Finance. This Department includes the different branches of Administration, known in England under the name of Treasury, Chancellor of Exchequer, Board of Trade, Woods and Forests, Custom-house and Excise, and is thus formed:1. The Minister's personal Office. 2. Crown Lands. 3. Mining Department. 5. Foreign Trade. 6. Duties and Taxes. 7. Internal Trade and Manufactories. 8. National Banks. a. Bank of Assignats (Bank Notes). b. Loan Bank. c. Commercial Bank. 9. National Treasury. General Cancrine is, at present, the Minister of this department. F. Minister of Justice. 1. College or Department of Justice. 2. Magistracy. 3. Archives of ancient State Documents. 4. Court of Equity for the settlement, valuation, and surveying of Landed Property, Houses, and Estates, with subordinate departments in six different parts of Russia. The Minister of Justice is particularly connected with the Directing Senate. Of that branch of the public service, the General Post Office, which forms a distinct department of the Imperial Government, I have spoken at full length elsewhere. There are several other minor, though important branches of administration, which I need not enumerate here, as my object, in supplying the above general exposé, or “quadre," of the Imperial Government at St. Petersburgh, was merely to afford a correct and collective view of its characteristic form and constitution, without entering into more detail than was necessary, and which could not be interesting to English readers. But it remains for me to add the information contained in this exposé, an observation which candour and justice demand, and which indeed will readily suggest itself to my readers; namely, that that nation must have reached a considerable degree of civilization and power which can require, and is known to make visible progress under, such an extended and systematically arranged plan of government rule; to which I may farther remark, that the character of the individuals who have been lately selected by the Emperor to fill some of the most responsible situations in that system, may be fairly assumed as a guarantee of the disposition in that Sovereign to improve it, and give it stability. My own limited personal observations, and the public opinion, entitle me to make this assertion. Nor is the attention of the Emperor directed only to the more important departments of his administration; for, from an ukase published in October last, it appears that his Majesty has even bestowed his thoughts on the well-being and instruction of the inferior clerks of all the public offices, and has ordered certain measures to be adopted in their behalf, which, while they tend to promote the service of the State, are also calculated to benefit those deserving individuals, and secure the means of appropriate education to those young men who may wish to enter the civil service. That the Russians in becoming an European power of the first magnitude should have, almost at once, adopted that system of multiplied bureaucracy which is prevalent among the continental nations, and which their Imperial Rulers deemed essential to their own political existence, is a fault which has been ascribed to them by writers of authority on Russia. If it be a fault indeed, it is one which was almost to be expected in the case of so vast an empire, and of which France has been guilty to a much greater degree, though with far less extended dominions. Comparing the two departments of the ministry of the interior alone, by way of illustration, in Paris and St. Petersburgh, it will be found that the number of persons employed in each are as eight to eleven, and that the subdivisions in the former are triple the number of those of the latter. The manner also of arranging the subdivisions of the department in question at St. Petersburgh, and the method which I am told exists among them, however unnecessarily complicated, are extremely simple compared to the divisions, sections, bureaux, and other fractional subdivisions to be found in the home department in the French capital. How either system works in practice, compared to the other, I cannot pretend to assert. What I have so far advanced on the subject is a matter of notoriety to be found in printed documents, and respecting which one cannot err; but as to their execution, my experience in the case of St. Petersburgh does not supply me with the same data, which I took great pains to procure in regard to the same department in Paris, where I once resided for nearly two years. There the system of bureaucracy is not only pushed to excess, but works ill. Before the most trifling business can attain the honour of falling under the consideration of the head of the department, it has to pass through what is not unaptly called a filière,* and be subjected to the several processes That opening through which a small piece of metal is forced in order to draw it out into a lengthened wire. The bureaucrates could not have adopted a more significant expression to designate the progress of subjecting the most trifling matter to the above described interminable operations. |
