y
increasing energy, and _the most brilliant success_, up to the present
time." This was published in 1842. We shall proceed to test the merits
of the case by reference to documents of official origin, Russian and
British--both to the latest dates to which made up in a sufficiently
complete shape for the object in view, and the former in some instances
later than any yet published in this country, and, as believed,
exclusively in our possession. We shall have to deal with masses of
figures; but to the general reader in search of truth, they can hardly
fail to be more acceptable than whole pages of allegations and
assumptions unsupported by proof, however eloquently worked out to
plausible conclusions.

We commence with laying the foundation for a comprehension of the
industrial progression of Russia, by a comparative statement of the
average imports of a few of the chief articles of consumption, raw
materials of manufacture, and manufactures, for two series, of three
years each; the first series being the earliest for which official
records can be cited, or were perhaps kept. Accidental circumstances,
and the special influences which, favourably or unfavourably, may act
upon particular years, producing at one time a feverish excess of
commercial movement, and at another, a reacting depression as unnatural,
are best corrected and balanced by taking averages of years. Thus, the
mean term of imports for 1793, 1794, and 1795, may be thus contrasted
with that for 1837, 1838, and 1839, of the following commodities:--

Annual imports, 1793-95 1837-9
Sugar, 341,356 poods 1,675,806 poods
Olive oil, 42,239 ib. 345,455 ib.
Machines and Instruments
of all kinds, for 111,300 silver rubles 1,025,264 silver rubles
Woollen cloths for 3,978,000 ib. 570,000 ib.
Raw cotton, 10,000 poods 315,000 ib.
Cotton-yarn, 50,000 ib. 600,000 ib.
Cotton fabrics for 2,600,000 silver rubles 3,866,000 ib.

During the first triennial period, a large proportion of the sugars
imported was in the refined state, the number of sugar refineries being
then very limited; in the second period, the imports consisted
exclusively of raw sugar for the numerous existing refining
establishments, which consumed besides 125,000 poods of beet-root sugar,
the