The tshornoi narod varies in so many respects from the mob of other countries, and have so many good and bad quahties of their own, that they have furnished matter for comment and wonder to all travellers who have visited Russia during the last three centuries ; and these peculiarities are the more deserving of attention inasmuch as they are often national rather than confined to a class. There are people who believe that the lower classes in Russia are a separate and oppressed caste, without a will of their own, and without influence over their superiors ; and that the civilized class floats over the mass like oU over water, neithermingling nor sympathizing with the other. Now tliis is the very reverse of the truth. There is perhaps no comitry in the world where all classes are so intimately connected with each other as in this vast empire, or so little divided into castes ; and the same peculiarities which we notice in the bearded mushik, manifest themselves with only trifling modifications among the loftiest pinnacles of that Babylonian building, the social edifice of Russia. On the haymarket of St. Petersburg we may examine the raw material out of which all Russian classes have been manufactured for centunes : and a passing glance is enough to convince us that these bearded rusty fellows are of the same race as the polished and shaven elegants whom we meet with in the saloons. To some extent, there exists in every country, a certain affinity and family likeness between the highest and the lowest classes ; but nowhere is this more the case than in Russia, because, contrary to the prevailing belief, in no country are the extremes of society brought into more frequent contact, and in few are the transitions from one class to another more frequent or more sudden. The peasant becomes a pnest on the same day perhaps that an imperial mandate degrades the the noble to a peasant, or to a Siberian colonist. Degradation to the ranks is a punishment frequently inflicted on Russian officers. Hereditary rank is disregarded, while public services often lead rai)ldly to the highest dignities. Even tlie glcbcc adscripti are often more nomadic in their habits, and less rooted to their soil, than our free peasant in Gennany ; and the spirit of speculation that pervades the whole nation, is constantly making rich men poor, and poor men rich.
It requires but little polishing to convert the raw material of the mushik into a shrewd trader ; and expend but a little more pains upon his training, and he will chatter away in English, French, and German. He takes the polish easily, learns without much trouble to dance and dangle, and when you look at him closely, you find him a very Proteus, who ghdes at will into almost every form that he chooses to assume. On the haymarket we behold the same mob that in the middle ages at the sound of the Vetsha bell, poured into the forum of the mighty republic of No\ - gorod, the same mob that placed Boris Godunoff on the throne, tore from it the false Demetrius, and exalted the house of Romanoff, which rose to its present astonishing power, through the mighty fermentation and development of the tshornoi narod.
The common man of St. Petersburg has precisely the same characteristics as the common man of Moscow or Odessa, or as the labourer on the confines of China. All cling with the same fidelity to the customs of their ancestors, and all remain the same in manners, education, and tastes. Their food is the same throughout the whole of the vast empire, and centuries will probably pass away before any sensible change will occur. This circumstance gives to the Russian people a unity of character, which we should vainly look for in other countries where the manners and habits of one province often present a strikingcontrast to those of another.