Page 1399 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

as the nobility, but as an element of the district council, to
extract all the powers of self-government that could
possibly be derived from them. In the wealthy Kashinsky
province, which always took the lead of other provinces in

everything, there was now such a preponderance of forces
that this policy, once carried through properly there,
might serve as a model for other provinces for all Russia.
And hence the whole question was of the greatest
importance. It was proposed to elect as marshal in place of
Snetkov either Sviazhsky, or, better still, Nevyedovsky, a
former university professor, a man of remarkable
intelligence and a great friend of Sergey Ivanovitch.
The meeting was opened by the governor, who made a
speech to the nobles, urging them to elect the public
functionaries, not from regard for persons, but for the
service and welfare of their fatherland, and hoping that the
honorable nobility of the Kashinsky province would, as at
all former elections, hold their duty as sacred, and
vindicate the exalted confidence of the monarch.
When he had finished with his speech, the governor
walked out of the hall, and the noblemen noisily and
eagerly—some even enthusiastically —followed him and
thronged round him while he put on his fur coat and
conversed amicably with the marshal of the province.

1398 of 1759