n the social well-being of the people--on the
one hand anxious to obtain it more fully for themselves, and on the
other really wishful to give and promote it, even if watchful and
cautious lest they should make mistakes and have to draw back.

And surely caution is very necessary in Russia. It is only a little over
fifty years since the emancipation of the serfs. Let any one think of
Russia with a servile population so short a time ago, and then think of
what she is to-day, and they will form some idea of the extraordinary
social improvement and transformation which has taken place. Yet with
all this caution the desire to see improvement is general, and no one is
satisfied with the lives of the working-classes in the large towns as
they are. It is well known indeed, as I have already said, that Russia
has been absorbed in plans for social improvement for the last few
years, and was meaning to launch out into great undertakings this very
year. Those plans are only deferred, we hope, and will be taken up with
greater zest and confidence than ever when peace comes. Perhaps the
delay will prove to have been an inestimable gain, if it has made it
clearer than before that there are certain examples it might be well to
avoid. A great deal has been said and written of late years of the vast
superiority of German municipal government and organization, and
certainly no cities in Europe approach those of Germany for
attractiveness and excellence of arrangements as to streets, parks,
public buildings, and imposing blocks of flats for private families of
all classes. Germans have been for many years now animated by the very
best spirit of municipal initiative and responsibility, and have shown a
really worthy civic pride. Railway stations, post offices, walks, and
squares in Germany are beyond comparison with those of any other
country. And yet I am assured that much is sacrificed for effect and
appearance; and I was astonished to hear, a little while ago, how
miserably inadequate was the accommodation that even a skilled artisan
in Berlin could afford to have.

A well-known social authority, Mr. T. C. Horsfall, writing in the
_Spectator_ last December, told us that there is terrible overcrowding
in nearly all large German towns, and that the overcrowded tall blocks
of buildings are themselves too closely crowded together, and the effect
is bad both for health and morality. The death-rate, including that of
infants, is much higher