people for their new duties, and finally of the zemstvo, or popular assembly. Now the present marshal, Snetkof, was a man of the old aristocratic stamp, who had squandered an enormous property, was a very worthy and honorable man in his way, but wholly incapable of comprehending the new needs of the present time. He always on every occasion took the side of the nobles; he always cast the whole weight of his influence against the extension of popular education and he gave the zemstvo, which was coming to have such an enormous significance, a partisan character.
It was considered necessary to put in his place a new and active man, imbued with the most enlightened modern ideas, and to manage the business so as to extract from all the rights given to the noblesse,[1] not as the noblesse, but simply as a constituent part of the zemstvo, such advantages of self-government as were possible.
In the rich government of Kashin, which always took the lead in every advance, such forces were now concentrated that the business now before the assembled nobles would be likely to set an example for all the other departments, indeed for all Russia, And therefore the business had a great importance.
It was proposed to elect as marshal instead of Snetkof, either Sviazhsky, or, still better, Nevyedovsky, a man of eminent understanding, formerly a professor, who was an intimate friend of Sergyeï Ivanovitch's.
The sobranie, or provincial assembly, was opened by a speech from the governor, who urged the nobility to elect the necessary functionaries, not from partisan reasons, but for merit and for the public weal; and he hoped that the nobility of the department of Kashin would do their duty, as they had always done, and thus deserve their monarch's confidence.
Having finished his speech, the governor left the hall, and the noblemen, tumultuously and eagerly, and some of them even enthusiastically, followed him, and surrounded him while he was putting on his shuba, and talking in a friendly way with the government marshal.
- ↑ Dvorianstvo.
