The general class of boors are those called mine boors, who are attached to particular mines, apart from which they cannot be sold or exchanged, though they may be transferred along with the works to different masters.
• The third class comprehends those boors who be. long • to individual noblemen, and whose condition, of course, depends entirely on the temper or the caprice of their -lords. The condition of many of these boors indeed is far' from being unhappy ; for when their lords- are wealthy and good natured, re quiring only a moderate abrock, they are enabled to grow rich, and to enjoy many of the comforts of life. In general, however, the abrock demand ed by their proprietors is regulated by their means of getting money, and becomes thus a direct tax upon the industry of the peasant. The abrock ex acted by individual proprietors from their peasant. ry, amounts, at an average, to about eight or ten rubles annually for every male. Besides this abrock, the lord may demand from his slave the labour of three •days during each week ; or may even employ him every day, provided he furnish him with food and clothing. Nor is this task service imposed on male slaves alone. Women, and children above the age of ten, are likewise compelled to perform their share. When the peasant is thus obliged to give his labour for three days in the week, the abrock is in general diminished. But 'still both the quantity of -labour which lie bus to perform, and the amount of the tax which he must pay, depends entirely on the will of his tyrant. To'render hid servitude still more oppressive, be must resign to his lord a tythe of all the property which he may earn by the •culture of his little spot of land, or by•any manual employment; and if by any accident he should be deprived of the tribute which lie is expected to'pay, he must beg, borrow, or steal, to make up the deficiency. The master is obliged to fur nish his vassal with a house, and a small portion of land, the allotment of which is settled by the storasta, (el der of the village,) and a meeting of the peasants them selves: If they happen to exercise any trade more profitable than agricultural 'employments, the abrock imposed upon them is proportionally higher. Pea sants employed as drivers, pay a certain portion even of their drink money, for being permitted to drive. The aged and infirm are allowed a certain portion of food and raiment ; but if any of them chute rather to depend on , public charity, than to on the wretched pittance which they receive from their lords, they must pay a certain abrock out of what they earn by begging. A master is allowed to correct his slave by blows and confinement ; but for any wanton cruelty, is amenable to the laws, which are said to be iiecuted in such cases with the strictest impartiality. A certain countess was lately confined in one of prisons near Moscow with an unrelenting- severity; which she had justly merited by her barbarity to. wards her slaves. Instances of the most dreadful cru elty, however, frequently occur." M: Heber, as quo• ted by Dr Clarke, mentions one instance.of a man having caused his slave to be nailed to a cross: The master was sent to a monastery, and the busi ness was hushed over. The slaves, in their turn, are extremely vindictive. Some years ago, the master of a distillery suddenly disappeared; and it was univer sally understood that his boors had thrown him into a boiling vat. .No slave can quit his .village, or his mas ter's family, without a passport, which he mudt pro duce to the storasta of every town or village through he happens 'to 'pass., The punishment of a runaway is imprisonment and bard labour in the. go vernment workhouse t, and if a person be found dead without a passport, his body is given for dissection. The boors on the coasts or frontier provincei often find means to effect their escape. In the interior it is extremely difficult, yet desertion is very frequent, particularly in,summer, or when. there is to be a new levy of soldiers. A slave,can, on no pretence, be sold , out of Russia; and in Russia .to none but a person of noble birth, if not noble,- having at least the rank of lieutenant-colonel. This law, however, is sometimes evaded : Many of the boors are sold .to
plebeians ; and all nobles. hive the privilege of letting out their slaves ror hire.' In short, the condition of the boors is, in general,' deplorably wretched. The only property which their lords allow them to possess, is the food which they themselves cannot, or will not eat, the bark of, trees, chaff,. and other refuse ; grass, yater, and fish oil.. If by any means they. acquire any portion of wealth, it becomes a very dangerous pos. .session, and when discovered, is invariably seizcd.by tyrannical lords. A peasant in the village of Celo-Molody, near .loseow, who had accumulated :onsiderabte wealth, wishing to marry his daughter to a tradesman of the city, offered his lord fifteen thou. sand rubles for her liberty. The tyrant took the ` ransom, and then told the father, that both the girl and the money were his property, and that she must still continue among the number of his slaves. "•• It is thus;" says Dr Clarke, " we behold the subjects of a vast empire stripped of all they possess, and existing in the most abject servitude; victims of tyranny and torture, of sorrow• and poverty, of sickness and fa mine." " Traversing the provinces south Of Musco vy,',' he continues, " the laid appears•as the garden of Eden, a fine soil, covered with corn, and apparently smiling in plenty. Enter the cottage of the poor la bourer, surrounded.by all these riches, and yoti find him dying of hunger, or pining from bad food, and in want of the common necessaries of life. Extensive pastures, covered with cattle, afford no milk to him. In autumn; the harvest-field yields no'•bread 'for his children.. 'The lord claims all, the produce. • Can there be a more affecting sight than:a Russian family having got in' an abundant harvest, in want of the common stores to .supply and support them, thniugh the .rigours of their long and inclement Winter !" The empress Catharine often expressed her anxie ty to abolish the system of vassalage throughout the empire, or at least to ameliorate the condition of the and to restrain the abuses to which'they were exposed. „To accomplish' this benevolent purpose,. she instituted a regular tribunal for the boors, entire ly ehosen•Out of their Own body; delivered the boors at the mines' from the•oppressive,servitude in which they had formerly been held•; appointed overseers add guardians to prevent every species of violence ; and• on all, occasions recommended gentleness and huma nity, of which she herself exhibited a most laudable example. - .
By far the:greater number of vassals in Russia are those who have been born of bondmen. By the com! mon law of Livonia, every child, born of an unmarried, vassal,' belongs to the estate on which itis born; whe ther the father has been bondman brIree. Peter I.,. however, ordained, that a child born 'in such circum stances should be free, if- a' freeman own himself. its father, and cause it baptised in his name. Not withstanding the degraded state in which the boors are some of them rise to considerable-re spectability. Several have been known to obtain com missions in the army for their good behaviour ; and others live comfortably at home, having abundance of wholesome food, 'and neat and becoming apparel. In some villages a degree of comfort, and even of wealth, which the peasantry of very few countries can rival.
A Russian nobleman- estimates the value of his es tate by the number of his vassals, as a West Indian estimates his by the number of hogsheads. Some of them possess seventy, or even an hundred thousand: In all mortgages, the national lombard takes the vassal. at forty rubles ; but in the sale of an estate, they are or never estimated•at so low a price. In:the•government ofSt•Petersburgh, every slave is valued at 9.00 or 300 rubles, according to the qua lity of the estate ; in other parts of the empire their price is commonly much lower, though there is scarce ly any part of the empire where it is under 100 rubles.
According to an enumeration of male 'inhabitants . made from 1781 to 1783, in the forty-one vieeroy-al— ties of the empir^, the number of crown boors was• 4,671,603, and of private boors 6,678,239. See Tooke's View of the Russian Empire ; and Clarke's Travels, chap. b. (k)