394 GERMAN AND RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS.
tions vanishes more and more, and the German is rapidly supplanting the Lettish and Esthonian costume. The law enacted, about five years ag-o, that all Lettes and Esthonians should adopt a surname is another sign of this Germanization. Formerly they never had family names, but generally added the name of the Gesinde to which they belonged to their Christian names ; as, for example, Yanne (John) living at Kintegesinde, would be called Yanne of Kintegesinde, or Kinte's Yanne. Should there happen to be more than one Yanne at Kintegesinde, adjectives were added, such as "taU," "fat," "small," "bad," "good," Yanne, &c. As long as they were bound to the soil, such designations were quite sufficient, but when they became free, and frequently changed their abode, the inconvenience of the want of surnames began to be felt, and the peasants on the different estates were assembled, and commanded to choose themselves names. This was a most puzzling difficulty to many. Some took the names of the Gesindes where they lived ; others adopted common German names, such as Muller, Meyer, Bergmann, and others would request some German to allow them to adopt his name. These surnames, however, are only used on official occasions, so that their owners very frequently forget them, and are much puzzled when asked their own names.
As in the west of Germany, Alsace and Lorraine are rapidly losing all political traces of their mother-country, and blending more and more with France, so in the East, the Baltic provinces are daily becoming more and more Russian, and losing their German character. The struggle, however, which is pretty nearly over in the French dominions, is still going on here, Russia cannot, like France, supply the place of privileges given up by the rights of free citizenship ; complete subjection to a foreign despotism is all the Germans of the Baltic provinces can expect, if they yield their peculiar privileges. Russia cannot, like France, offer them a polished and elegant language and literature in exchange for their own. A comparison, firstly of the institutions, secondly of the religions, and thirdly of the languages of the Germans and Russians, will present this in a clearer light.
GERMAN AND RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS.
The treaty of Nystadt, which ceded the Baltic provinces to Russia, obtained for the Germans the continuation of their civic constitutions and privileges, and those of their corporations of nobility. This concession was partly the result of their own brave defence, and partly of Peter the Great's generosity and partiality for these countries. By this treaty the Germans were not only to retain their own language, their Lutheran religion, and to be confirmed in possession of all their landed property, but the cities were to keep their old free constitutions, and their privileged guilds and corporations, and the nobles their colleges, knightly orders, titles, and rights. The provinces were declared free from certain Russian taxes, and from the duty of furnishing recruits to the army. But many of these rights have since been much infringed upon. Taxes have more and more sliackled their commerce, and recruits are demanded from them as from the other Russian dominions. The Empress Catlierine, indeed,
did all she could to erase all the peculiarities of the Baltic provinces, and to make them thoroughly like the rest of the empire ; but Paul, her successor, partly for the sake of pleasing the nobles, and more for the sake of frustrating his mother's plans, undid all she had done.
At present the cities have their old German magistrates, Rathsherrn^ and aldermen, in the same way as the old imperiiJ German cities. The nobles of Liionia and Esthonia form three colleges, those of Oesel, Esthonia, and Livonia. These colleges send deputies to the diets of Reval, Riga, and Arensburg, which meet every three years. These diets are presided over by the Adelsmarschall. The highest body is the college of Landrdthe, formerly the supreme government of the country. The knightly orders remain closed corporations, and no one, Russian, German, or foreigner, can demand admission into them. They grant or refuse at will the indigenat (naturalization), and with it the right of possessing landed property, or filling any public office.