the Siberians are paying enormous prices for inferior manufactures, and have no voice in the Duma, so that special fiscal autonomy for Siberia would be strenuously fought by the great manufacturing interests. These Moscow trusts with millions of capital at their back are powers which the Government of Russia is forced to serve and obey, and so the development of Siberia is retarded by the high prices of the manufactures and machinery which are essential for agricultural and industrial development. But, he added, the subordination of Siberia to the commercial interests of old Russia is having the effect of creating a national feeling, and a desire for local autonomy, with a parliament in Tomsk and the right of fiscal autonomy such as the British self-governing colonies now enjoy. The question of Free Trade and Protection is one which Siberians consider vital for their future development, but they are powerless in face of the great interests of old Russia.
All this struck me as being remarkably analogous to the struggle which is going on in Canada at the present time between the agriculturists of the northwest territories and the manufacturers of the Eastern provinces, by whom the agriculturists are economically dominated and from bondage to whom they are endeavouring to free themselves.
"But how can the Siberians govern themselves as yet?" I asked. "Is not their state of society too primitive to develop a coherent public opinion?" Public opinion is growing, he said, in the towns, and particularly in those of Western Siberia along the railway, but the large bulk of the population are peasants, often isolated in colonies far distant from each other, and this makes the growth of public
