oppress us. It is coming: we are
overpowered now, but not conquered! We hate the Russians! No true
Finn can ever amalgamate with such a race!"

This was the strain in which I was constantly addressed.
Notwithstanding the electoral privileges guaranteed to the Finns under
their Constitution, and the fact that many of the municipal offices
are filled by themselves, there is no more community of interest
between them and their rulers than between the Italians and the
Austrians. Their hatred of the government and of all its concomitants
is implacable. It seemed a luxury to some of these poor people to find
a sympathizing listener. I met many intelligent Finns, both in
Helsingfors and Abo, who spoke good English, and never conversed with
one for five minutes without hearing the same strong expressions of
dislike to the present condition of affairs, and sanguine hopes for
the future. There is only hope for them, that I can see--that the
emancipation of the serfs may lead to the establishment of a more
liberal system of government throughout the Russian dominions. All
hopes based upon isolated revolutions are futile.

CHAPTER XXII.

A BATHING SCENE.

I devoted the afternoon to a stroll on the sea-shore, which presents
many interesting features in the neighborhood of Helsingfors. A
considerable portion of the town, as already stated, is built upon
immense boulders of solid rock, and some of the streets are entirely
impracticable for wheeled vehicles, owing to the rugged masses of
stone with which Nature has thought proper to pave them. Indeed, it is
no easy task for a pedestrian to make his way through the suburbs,
over the tremendous slippery boulders that lie scattered over the
earth in every direction, the trail being in some instances higher
than the houses. I can not conceive how people can travel over such
streets in wet weather; it seems a task only fit for goats under
favorable circumstances; but the Finns are an ingenious people, and
probably ride on the backs of the goats when walking is impracticable.
Passing the straggling lines of fishermen's huts forming the outskirts
of the town, I rambled over two or three miles of rocky fields till I
found myself on the shores of the gulf, at a point sufficiently
lonesome and desolate to be a thousand miles from any inhabited
portion of the globe. Taking possession of a natural chair, worn in
the rocks by the rains of many centuries, I seated myself upon its
moss