course, at this stage of the proceedings, it is our duty to abstain from all remark upon the evidence produced, which must be left for the consideration of a jury. It was, indeed, of a formal and technical character-just what was necessary to connect the prisoners with the misappropriation of the securities in question. As information upon the subject, need only turn to the police report of the day, many of our readers as desire more exact and they will there find an account of the proceedings in full detail. The transaction is one of such enormous public interest that we cannot pass it over altogether without comment, but this comment shall be strictly confined to such general considerations as cannot prejudice the interests of the prisoners at the forthcoming trial. Nothing that we can say can at all increase the indignation which is universally felt against these men, who have brought ruin upon so many families, carried desolation to so many hearths, and so deeply shaken the foundations of commercial credit. What renders the case worse is, that all this vast network of fraud was woven under the pretensions of superior sanctity and religious zeal. Sir John Paul, we said but now, has shaken the foundations of commercial credit. He has done worse. He has done all within his power-and, unfortunately, a great deal lay in his power-to destroy the belief in virtue and morality. If this man has dealt so recklessly with the property of his clients and customers, in whom can we trust? No one wore so broad a phylactery as he; no one was more intimately mixed up with the religious and charitable institutions of the day; no one sought for and obtained a higher share of public respect and confidence, and no one deserved it less. We must, however reluctantly, resign ourselves to the belief that men of business look to the religious spirit of the public as a useful aid in their operations. Religion is to them as an advertising van, or a gaudy shopfront, or a poetic effusion from Moses and Sons. They trade upon the Bible as a Barnum did upon the Feejee mermaid or the woolly horse. human nature-and some strange stories have been recorded from time to With all our experience of time in our columns-we have never heard of a grosser instance of villany than that of this "most seeming virtuous" banker, who, with his pockets stuffed full of the securities which he had abstracted from his customers, could go down to Exeter-hall, and take the chair at some religious meeting of which he was the leader and the idol. If hypocrisy be the homage which vice renders to virtue, no one paid in so large a tribute as Sir John Paul. We must seek in the pages of fiction for his parallel-the Tartuffes, and Mawworms, and Cantwells alone can furnish an idea of this archimposter of midday and of the working world.

Shortly, he and his colleagues are to be placed at the bar of the Old Bailey for trial. At that bar, just thirty-one years ago, Fauntleroy was found guilty of an offence not one degree more heinous than that with which Paul and his colleagues are charged. As all the world knows, he was executed, and Sir John Paul may thank the humane spirit of our modern laws that he, too, at this moment, is not in imminent danger of an ignominious death. Fauntleroy's offence was, that he had forged a power of attorney for the transfer of stock; Paul's, that he has abstracted securities deposited by a client in his hands, and applied them to his own purposes. Fauntleroy's crime entailed upon others a loss of about £250,000 sterling; that sum, we fear, would but very partially cover the deficiencies in Strahan and Paul's accounts. But Fauntleroy's offences, when weighed in the scale of morality, cannot be looked upon as equivalents for the heinous acts of the banking-house in the Strand. He made no pretensions to be a Prince in Israel, a saint among the saints; he was a man of pleasure, a jovial companion, and a forger-that was all. scaffold, and his fate was a warning to all. He did not, however, desecrate He suffered death upon the

religion, and put arms in the hands of all persons who are wont to sneer at virtue and morality, and in so far he was much less guilty than his recent disciples. At his last moments, as we read in the records of the time, he presented a melancholy spectacle of agony and despair; there was nothing certainly in his fate which could incite a falling man to disregard the wholesome restraints of morality and religion. There is one remarkable point connected with the proceedings which have been taken against these offenders. We remember few instances of atrocious crime in which a morbid sympathy has not been expressed for the criminals. Whether it was a woman who had strangled her mother, or a mother who had poisoned half a dozen of her children for the sake of the burial-club bonuses, there has invariably been somebody to come forward and declare the crime an amiable weakness-a mere backsliding, at the worst. The only case which occurs to us, in which we have not been absolutely persecuted with maudlin appeals for commutation of the sentence under such circumstances, was that of Tawell, the Quaker, who murdered his mistress at Slough. In his case, too, we believe, it was the double-dyed hypocrisy and religious pretension of the man which added so much fire to the public indignation. We have noticed the same feature in this instance of the failure of the Strand bank, productive as it has been of such wide-spread misery. We attribute the absence of sympathy to the same circumstance, and, perhaps in a less degree, to the fact that, if convicted, the prisoners are not actually placed in danger of life. When the point of chicane was raised in their favour, which has now, most fortunately, been disposed of by their own act, the ingenuity of England was on the stretch to contrive some solution for the clause in the act of Parliament which should preclude the possibility of their escape.

At this moment, and although four months have elapsed since the declaration of bankruptcy, during which the subject has been canvassed on every side, we are unable to suggest any rational explanation of the immensity of this failure. The evidence given at Bow-street shows that Sir John Paul, two years ago, was passing from one spot to another hawking about the securities of his customers. We apprehend that the deficiency and embarrassment have been of far earlier date, but, until the last ten years or so, such as could be fenced off from month to month without a public explosion. The railway panic must have shrewdly tried a falling concern, and from that time to the present the partners must have had recourse to one series of experiments more desperate than another to avert, for a brief space, the crash which in the end was inevitable. Meanwhile, they lived like men of large fortune-we speak particularly of Paul and Strahan; they had town-houses and country-houses, picture-galleries and equipages; they gave costly entertainments, and maintained all the external appearance of wealthy men at the expense of their deluded customers. But extravagance alone would scarcely have produced such a result-folly might; but folly and extravagance combined were an infallible recipe for commercial failure. It is really sickening to hear of the straits to which families have been reduced by the frauds of these most unprincipled men. Widows have been ruined-orphans thrown helpless on the world-and old age left destitute, that Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and Co. might keep state a little longer against fortune and against hope.

THE GENERAL RESOURCES OF RUSSIA.

RUSSIA is, perhaps, the only country of political Europe, of which the government has not adopted the practice of rendering an annual account of that condition of its receipts and expenditure which we distinguish by the title of "Budget." In the absence of such a statement, and being left in a great measure to conjecture, it is difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the state of its finances, and all speculations on the subject must, in consequence, be more or less subject to error. When, however, it is considered that the relation between the extent of the Muscovite territory, the number of inhabitants it contains, the products of their cultivation and of their industry, the imports and exports of their commerce, are all known, and capable of comparison in detail with those of other European nations; that the same is no less true of many of the different branches of the revenue and expenditure, the quota of the taxes, the amount of the public debt, and the rate of interest which it bears, as well as the quantity and description of the paper money in circulation; it will be perceived that the problem is easier of calculating than at first sight appeared, and may be resolved by figures closely approximating to the truth.

For the statistical portion of the following paper, we are indebted to the information furnished by the works of Koeppen, Haxthausen, Storch, Petzholdt, Tengoborski, Reden, and other authors, who, with different political views and opinions, have recently written upon the subject in question; and to whom consequently, in default of any official exposition of affairs, recourse has been rendered necessary.

Previous to the commencement of the present century, the single fact which appears to have been known with reference to Russian economy was, that the resources of the empire were by no means proportionate to the extent of its territory, and that the most puissant of European monarchs was at the same time the poorest.

The revenue of Peter I., even in times of his greatest prosperity, never amounted to 8,600,000 roubles (£1,360,000 sterling). It augmented, however, considerably under his successors, and in 1782, after an interval of seventy years, Catherine II. drew from her vast dominions nearly six times this sum, or upwards of £7,000,000 sterling. This was again doubled during the twenty years that followed, the revenue of the Emperor Alexander, at the commencement of the present century, being valued at about £14,000,000. It was, not however, until the year 1810, notwithstanding the war, or rather in consequence of the activity which it occasioned, and the necessary augmentation of the imports, that the finances of this country acquired an importance commensurate with that of the state itself. Storch and Wichman have estimated the revenue at this period at £19,000,000. Malchus, however, in his statistics, fifteen years later, towards the accession of the late Emperor Nicholas, was far from placing it so high: according to his calculation, the total revenue of the empire, including that of the kingdom of Poland, did not amount to £16,000,000. Notwithstanding it might be expected that the calculations would acquire greater exactitude, in proportion as the condition and resources of the country became better known, the results are found to vary considerably, and it would be impossible to arrive at any correct conclusion on the subject from the works of Balby, Schnitzler, Schubert, Murray, and Macculloch, which all differ too materially from one another to be regarded as accurate.

One principal source of the Russian revenue is derived from the tax levied upon domains and appanages. This tax, denominated Obrok, ori

VOL. XV.

47

ginally a personal contribution by the peasants, has been in a great measure converted into a fixed charge upon the land. The proceeds may be valued, either by way of capitation, amounting to 2.60 roubles (about eight shillings and three pence) for the peasants of the crown, and 2.86 roubles (nine shillings) for those of the nobles; or in its commuted form, which varies from 2.80 to 3.35 roubles (from eight shillings and ten pence, to ten shillings and seven pence). The total product of this tax, including the charge upon the serfs, properly so called, which is taken somewhat higher, viz., 5 silver roubles (about fifteen shillings and ten pence) per head, is upwards of six millions sterling.

In the same class of duties must be included (1) those levied upon the products of the mines, the pood of gold (the pood = about 36 lbs. avoirdupois) being taxed at £1,980 sterling, in the mines belonging to the crown, and at 10 per cent. of its intrinsic value in those worked by private individuals or companies; the total, comprising the receipts from the railways and the telegraphs, amounts to about four millions and three-quarters sterling; (2) the contributions in kind for the service of the state, furnished by the so-called free peasants of the Crown domains, and those of the estates of the nobles. These consist of transports and conveyances for the government officials, and for the army, the maintenance and repairs of roads and bridges, supply of grain for the magazines and victualling departments, of which the value is estimated at about three millions sterling; (3) the contributions in money for the expenses of administration and justice, military pensions, &c., amounting to one million and three-quarters sterling; (4) the royalties and monopolies, such as the excise upon liquors, acquitted in most of the governments by a license of 58 kopecks (silver) for right of sale; the duty upon salt (at the rate of 31 kopecks the pood), &c. The gross sum of these duties, including the tax upon brandy, amounts, for the city of St. Petersburg alone, to two millions and a-half, and throughout the whole empire to upwards of twelve millions sterling. The total of this branch of the imposts yields, then, about twenty-seven and a-half millions sterling, or nearly 75 per cent. of the whole revenue of the state.

The direct taxes produce little more than 10 or 12 per cent. of the entire revenue. Of this class are the capitation tax, or Russian head-money, valued, after the last census, in 1851, at about three millions sterling; the tax upon guilds and privileges enjoyed by the mercantile community (such as exemption from military service, &c.); passports and permits of commerce; subsidies from the roads, &c., &c., amounting to one million and a-half, or altogether to about four millions and a-half sterling.

Obrok is a species of rent, paid by a portion of the peasants to their proprietors, in return for the liberty of disposing of their own time and services. M. Tengoborski, in his recent work on The Productive Forces of Russia, Vol. I., p. 327, states that, in 1851, out of a total of 23,370,000 cultivators, there were only 11,683,000 (a little less than one-half) forced labourers, or serfs, of which a considerable part was of the description above mentioned.

The number of peasants here stated must be understood as belonging to the nobles alone, there being in addition 21,000,000, the property of the Crown, together 44,000,000, out of a population of about 60,000,000.

†M. Tengoborski states the quantity of tobacco annually consumed at 50,000,000 of kilogrammes (about 50,000 tons English!)-revenue, 3,000,000 of roubles (£475,000), or only 6 kopecks (about 24d.) per kilogramme; of salt, 580,000,000 of kilogrammes (580,000 tons), producing 9,700,000 roubles (£1,500,000), equal, at the above rate of 31 kopecks per pood, to about 14 kopeck (a little more than a halfpenny) per kilogramme; and 16 kopecks, or 6‡d. per head on the population.

The receipts from the indirect taxes comprise the duty upon beet root sugar (at 1s. 5d. the pood); that also on timber, received in part by the different monopolies; the fees derived from diplomas and patents; those upon stamps, the proceeds of which are assigned to the educational establishments-together, £700,000; and, lastly, the custom duties, of which the gross receipts amount only to £4,900,000, and the net proceeds to £4,550,000, about 7 per cent. being deducted for the expense of collection. Total, about five millions and a-quarter sterling.

It would be extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, for the reasons before stated, to fix, with any pretension to exactitude, the total of the ordinary revenue of the state. found to differ. From the above figures (the accuracy of which may be relied On this point, most authorities will be on, as far as they go), it would appear to be a little above £37,000,000 sterling; and this there are good grounds for supposing to be not very far from the fact. M. Tengoborski estimated the sum for 1853 at thirty-five millions and a-half sterling, which would, in a great measure, bear out the correctness of the foregoing calculation.

In the Blue Book, recently issued by the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade, the figures of which extend down to the year 1852, the receipts for the year 1847 are stated at £24,794,735, the sources from which they are derived being divided into three heads, viz.-direct taxes, £7,275,458; brandy monopoly, £9,774,167; indirect taxes, £7,745,111: of the latter, nine-tenths, or nearly seven millions sterling, were obtained from the customs duties. Independently, however, of these returns being limited to Russia Proper-i.e., exclusive of Poland and Finland-there is reason to suppose them somewhat understated. ascertained to have been a little under £26,000,000. Now, admitting M. TenIn the year 1839 they are goborski's estimate of £35,500,000 for the year 1853, to be correct, it would appear that in fourteen years the increase in the revenue of the country amounted to 35 per cent.; and further, assuming this increase to have been progressive, or at the rate of 21 per cent. per annum, the figures for the year 1847 would stand at 314 millions sterling. In one particular, it will be seen, a remarkable discrepancy exists, viz., the receipts from the customs duties, the average of which, for the five years from 1848 to 1852, M. Tengoborski estimates at considerably less than either of the amounts as given above (or under three millions sterling), another proof of the imperfect and doubtful character of the data from which these calculations are compiled.

To come now to the per contra side of the account. Here it must be confessed we are in a great measure at fault: of the revenue, we have comparatively ample particulars furnished us, but with reference to the public expenditure, entailed by the maintenance and administration of the state, scarcely an item appears. In addition to this branch of the finances being confined exclusively to the hands of individuals of whose ministry no account is either rendered or required, the "bureaucratical" system, to which everything connected with political matters in that country is subjected, rarely permits any particulars to reach the light. It results, consequently, that there exist but few details known or authenticated upon which any conjecture is to be founded.

Amongst these, however, may be mentioned: (1.) The civil list of the reigning family, amounting to £1,700,000, a sum to all appearance excessive, were it not for the fact, that the revenues from the appanages are all included in those of the state, and that several services of general utility are defrayed at the expense of the imperial "casette." of interest paid annually upon the public debt: this is stated for the year (2.) The amount 1854 at £5,800,000 sterling. (3.) The expense of collecting the various