Towards 1840, after the creation of the ministry of the domains of the crown under Count Kizilev, the imperial government set about the task in which Count Voronzof had failed. Men of the best character for intelligence and probity were sent to the Crimea, but their efforts were all ineffectual, and they soon retired in disgust from the useless struggle. The unfortunate Crimea was again surrendered to the unlimited power and endless knaveries of the captain ispravniks, and of the worthy subaltern agents of the local administration.

What are the destinies ultimately reserved for the Mussulman population of the Crimea,[83] now numbering barely 100,000 souls?[84] We are strongly inclined to anticipate its total extinction at a more or less remote date. The tribes are rapidly degenerating; the moral and physical forces of the nation are daily declining; the territorial wealth of the Tatars has been destroyed, sold, or divided; the native families distinguished for their past history or for their fortunes have disappeared; the population, instead of increasing, diminishes. There remains, therefore, no element of vitality to revive the effete remains of a power that made Russia tremble during so many centuries, and that even menaced for a while the political existence of all Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[77] These colonies now consist of nine villages, with a population of 1800 souls.

[78] Trade of the Sea of Azof, in 1838 and 1839.

IMPORTS.EXPORTS.
1838.
Rubles.		1839.
Rubles.		1838.
Rubles.		1839.
Rubles.
TaganrokGoods5,887,9015,334,3697,666,94313,813,323
Cash1,414,5962,885,279
MarcoupolGoods3009873,422,1076,276,882
Cash640,6601,515,525
Rostof onGoods 3,205,4066,078,037
the DonCash
BordianskGoods 2,971,4264,107,638
Cash768,722825,113
Total 8,712,17910,561,27317,265,88230,275,880

[79] De La Mottraye, who visited the Crimea in 1711, speaks of a Soudak wine the flavour of which he compares with Burgundy. At that period the wines of the northern valleys sold at 2-1/2 centimes the bottle. In Peyssonel's time, in 1762, the Soudak wines fetched from 32 to 38 centimes the bottle; those of Belbek 22 to 25, and those of Katch, of which De La Mottraye speaks, 13 to 15. The Ukraine Cossacks and the Zaporogues consumed the greatest portion of these wines; about 1210 hectolitres annually according to Peyssonel. In 1784, at the time of the Russian occupation, the price of Soudak wine was 5 to 6 centimes the litre; it rose to 65 centimes in 1793, during the war with Turkey.—(See Pallas, Voyage dans la Russie Méridionale.)

[80] Previously to Count Voronzof, M. Rouvier, who introduced the breed of merino sheep into Russia, had planted vines from Malaga on the hill sides of Laspi, at the western extremity of the chain; but his example had not many imitators.

[81] Aidaniel is north-east of Ialta, a little town, the chief station for steamboats.

[82] Of roads perfectly practicable for wheeled vehicles there exist in the Crimea: 1. The road leading from Simpheropol to Sevastopol, skirting the northern slope of the Tauric chain; its length is thirty-nine English miles; 2. That from Simpheropol to Ialta, crossing the mountains at the foot of the Tchatir Dagh, forty-nine miles; 3. That from Ialta to Balaclava, proceeding along the southern coast as far as Foros, where it passes on to the northern side of the mountains; its length is forty miles between Ialta and Foros; the second portion was in course of construction in 1840. This line of road seems to us extremely ill-contrived. It has been carried along the very foot of the jura-limestone cliffs, for the purpose of avoiding expense in crossing the ravines; and thus it is completely exterior to the vine-growing and cultivable district, and every proprietor who desires to use it must make a private road at his own expense, in order to reach the elevated level of the highway. We say nothing of the roads in the plains, the construction of which, just as in the interior of Russia, consists merely in tracing the breadth and direction by a ditch on either side.