count of the
formation, at the tribal meeting, of a roving band.]

Considering the number of times that the Russian Government crushed the
Cossack revolts, broke up their self-made organisation, and transplanted
unruly bands to distant parts, their almost invariable loyalty to the
central authority is very remarkable. It may be ascribed either to the
veneration which they felt for the Czar, to the racial sentiment which
dwells within the breast of nearly every Slav, or to their proximity to
alien peoples whom they hated as Mohammedans or despised as godless
pagans. In any case, the Russian autocracy gained untold advantages from
the Cossack fringe on the confines of the Empire.

Some faint conception of the magnitude of that gain may be formed, if,
by way of contrast, we try to picture the Teutonic peoples always acting
together, even through their distant offshoots; or, again, if by a
flight of fancy we can imagine the British Government making a wise use
of its old soldiers and the flotsam and jetsam of our cities for the
formation of semi-military colonies on the most exposed frontiers of the
Empire. That which our senators have done only in the case of the
Grahamstown experiment of 1819, Russia has done persistently and
successfully with materials far less promising--a triumph of
organisation for which she has received scant credit.

The roving Cossacks have become practically a mounted militia, highly
mobile in peace and in war. Free from taxes, and enjoying certain
agrarian or pastoral rights in the district which they protect, their
position in the State is fully assured. At times the ordinary Russian
settlers are turned into Cossacks. Either by that means, or by migration
from Russia, or by a process of accretion from among the conquered
nomads, their ranks are easily recruited; and the readiness with which
Tartars and Turkomans are absorbed into this cheap and effective militia
has helped to strengthen Russia alike in peace and war. The source of
strength open to her on this side of her social system did not escape
the notice of Napoleon--witness his famous remark that within fifty
years Europe would be either Republican or Cossack[277].

[Footnote 277: For the Cossacks, see D.M. Wallace's _Russia_, vol. ii.
pp. 80-95; and Vladimir's _Russia on the Pacific_, pp. 46-49. The former
points out that their once democratic organisation has vanished under
the autocracy; and that their officers, appointed by the Cza