d reform by
proceedings of the most arbitrary and summary character. For instance,
it was the custom of all the great nobles, or boyars, as they were
called, to go in grand state whenever they moved about the city or in
the environs of it, attended always by a long train of their servants
and retainers. Now, as these followers were mostly on foot, the nobles
in the carriages, or, in the winter, in their sledges or sleighs, were
obliged to move very slowly in order to enable the train to keep up
with them. Thus the streets were full of these tedious processions,
moving slowly along, sometimes through snow and sometimes through rain,
the men bareheaded, because they must not be covered in the presence of
their master, and thus exposed to all the inclemency of an almost
Arctic climate. And what made the matter worse was, that it was not
the fashion for the nobleman to move on even as fast as his followers
might easily have walked. They considered it more dignified and grand
to go slowly. Thus, the more aristocratic a grandee was in spirit, and
the greater his desire to make a display of his magnificence in the
street, the more slowly he moved. If it had not been for the banners
and emblems, and the gay and gaudy colors in which many of the
attendants were dressed, these processions would have produced the
effect of particularly solemn funerals.

The Czar determined to change all this. First he set an example
himself of rapid motion through the streets. When he went out in his
carriage or in his sleigh, he was attended only by a very few persons,
and they were dressed in a neat uniform and mounted on good horses, and
his coachman was ordered to drive on at a quick pace. The boyars were
slow to follow this example, but the Czar assisted them considerably in
their progress toward the desired reform by making rules limiting the
number of idle attendants which they were allowed to have about them;
and then, if they would not dismiss the supernumeraries, he himself
caused them to be taken from them and sent into the army.

The motive of the Czar in making all these improvements and reforms was
his desire to render his own power as the sovereign of the country more
compact and efficient, and not any real and heartfelt interest in the
welfare and happiness of the people. Still, in the end, very excellent
results followed from the innovations which he thus introduced. They
were the commencement of a series of changes w