Another grievance is the tobacco monopoly lately established, and which has knocked up a source of great revenue to tlie Malorossians, and particidarly to the kasakki, or free peasants, who formerly supj)lied the greater part of the empire with the fragrant weed. The only privilege, in short, that the nobles have retained, is that of maldng and selling spirits, which in Great Russia is likewise a government monopoly, and which in Little Russia has been extended to the cities, but not to the villages. Perhaps this last remaining privilege is the one which a sincere and intelligent patriot would be most desirous to see done away with. Li the Russian sense of the word, the people of Little Russia have very little patriotism, for they manifest but Uttle sympatliy for that blind devotion to their emperors, so characteristic of the Moscovites.
Little Russia was formerly a republic mider the protection of Poland, and the nobles preserve still many tokens of their golden age of independence. In many houses will be found portraits of all the Khmelnitzkis, Mazeppas, Skoropatzkis, and Rasumoffskis, who, at various times have held the dignity of hetman, and manuscripts relating to those days are carefully treasured up. The history of Little Russia is a field that has been as yet but little explored, but a western European who ^^slts tho country will be surprised at the abundance of historical recollections with which every part of the country is full. Malorossian histories cannot indeed be always printed, but there is no scarcity of ancient chronicles, written by native historians, manuscript copies of which will be found in the house of almost every noble of consequence.
One history, that of Bantysh-Kamenski, in four volumes, has been printed, and is said to have stood in close relation to the abortive insurrection of 1825. This work enjoys great popularity. It is written m a bold style, and could never have been published, except during the comparatively mUd reign of Alexander. The book flatters the national vanity and prejudices of the Malorossians, but in other respects its merit is of a very secondary order, for it is full of false views, and unsupported assertions.
Of the manuscript histories of Little Russia, that of Kanieffski, bishop of Voronesh, is the most important. It brings the chronicles of the country down to the reign of the Empress Catherine. This book is written in the Malorossian dialect, and in far too frank and liberal a style to admit of its being printed ; but for all that, there are few estates on which a copy of the work may not be found, and Kanieffski is everywhere a favourite and well-known author.
Should the colossal empire of Russia one day fall to pieces, there is little doubt but the Malorossians ^vill form a separate state. They have their own language, their own historical recollections, seldom mingle or intermarry with their Moscovite rulers, and are in number already more than 10,000,000. Their national sinews may be said to lie among the rural nobility living in the villages, from among whom every great political movement has hitherto emanated.
Among the families in Little Russia that have been favoured by the emperors, none has been more distinguished tlian that of the Rasumoffskis. Fieldmarshal Rasumoffski, the brother of Elizabeth's favourite, was made hetman of the country by Catherine, and was the last who held that dignity. Catherine made him a gift of the city of Baturin, on the Dnieper, formerly the residence of the hetmans, and he received from her so many tokens of her bountv, that at last he became the owner of no'less than 140,000 souls ; and, as in reckoning this description of property the male souls only are taken into the account, it follows that the marshal must have held nearly 300,000 human beings in a state of slavery. In the palace of Baturin, it is moreover said, immense treasures were found, which had been accumulated there unkno\Mi to the government, but which all passed into the hands of Rasumoffski. At his death this vast property was divided among his heirs, whose liberal expenditure^ in sundry of our European capitals, in a short time reduced the wealth of the femily within more reasonable limits.
Fortunes indeed are dissipated in Russia with the same rapidity witli which they are sometimes acciunulated. There exists no law of entail ; and as all children have an equal claim to the inheritance of tlieir fatlior, the large fortunes rarely continue long without being brokcK up into fragments.