first place, they are misgoverned by their spiritual rulers. The Greek Orthodox Church, with her parish priests, or white clergy—who are compelled to marry—with her hierarchy of monks and bishops, or black clergy—who are forbidden to marry—remains grossly ignorant and slothful, and maintains the people in sloth and ignorance. She is out of touch with modern life, and continues in abject mental submission to a despotic State.
Nor do the Russian people fare much better with their temporal rulers. The Tsar is the nominal head of the Empire. But the reality of power is vested in an irresponsible bureaucracy, corrupt by tradition, and what is worse, corrupt by necessity, because they are badly paid, because despotism must needs breed corruption, and because the huge distances from St. Petersburg make supervision and responsibility impossible. The immortal comedy of Gogol, "The Inspector-General," denouncing the abuses of the provincial bureaucracy, remains partly true to this day. No doubt since the heroic rising of 1905 the Russian people have received representative institutions; but the Duma is only a beginning. No reforms can be fruitful unless they are attended by a
