ham Palace, and which were connected with the
time when Church work in the United States looked to London for
superintendence and episcopal leadership. These he handed over to the
custody of the Episcopal Church of America, knowing how interested that
Church would be to possess them, and to keep them amongst other
historical records.

The same rapid progress as that which has attended the American Church
has been made in the Colonies and other parts of the world. New dioceses
and provinces have been formed one after another, and in 1842 the
Diocese of Gibraltar was formed, taking in the congregations of the
English Church in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Roumania, and all places
bordering upon the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. But the other
countries of Europe, to the north and in the centre, remain still, as
far as Church work goes, where that old Order in Council placed them, in
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London.

It is impossible, of course, that he should attempt to meet this
responsibility himself and bear the burden of such a diocese as that of
London, and so the rule has been, since 1825, to issue a commission to
another bishop, who, while being an assistant, yet has to feel himself
fully responsible, and in this way spare the Bishop of London as much as
he possibly can.

It will therefore be understood, as I have said in my few words of
introduction, that, filling such a position and having such work to
superintend, and also, for many reasons to be more fully explained in
succeeding pages, finding the Orthodox Church of Russia very friendly
towards our own, I shall write throughout with those whom I have termed
the "religious public" very clearly in my mind and sympathies. At the
same time I am hoping to interest the general reader also, and therefore
shall try my utmost to give a comprehensive view of Russian life as it
will be found to-day by travellers on the one hand if they give
themselves time and opportunity enough, and by those, on the other, who
have to go and live and work in Russia.

First impressions are usually interesting to recall. Mine were immediate
and extraordinarily vivid, and were all associated with thoughts--which
have gradually become convictions--of Russia's vast potentialities and
future greatness.

When first I had the honour and pleasure of an audience with the Emperor
of Russia--I will speak of it at greater length in a later chapter--one
of the first questions he asked