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around him—a wonderful image of sted-
fastness in that tremendous chaos of uni-
versal dismay and doubt and terror.
This is the last individual and charac-
teristic manifestation of the man. The
inevitable conviction of Macbeth's crime,
and equally inevitable conviction of the
probable truth of the promised royalty of
his own children, are the only two im-
portant utterances of his that succeed,
and these are followed so immediately

by his own death that the regretful condemnation of the guilty man once the object of his affectionate admiration cannot assume the bitterer character of personal detestation, or the reluctant admission of the truth of the infernal prophecy beguile him into dangerous speculations as to the manner of its fulfilment. The noble integrity of the character is unimpaired to the last.

HOPE AND MEMORY.

Earth has each year her resurrection-day,
When the spring stirs within her, and the powers
Of life revive; the quiet autumn hours,
Ere the rough winter drives their warmth away,
Wear pleasant likeness of returning May;
Oft in the soul, where all was dry and bare,
Founts of fresh joy spring up, and heavenly air
Plays round it, while along its desert way
Blossom bright flowers of hope, and dull despair
Melts like a cloud;-and our dear Christ has said,
There is a resurrection of the dead;

Then may th' immortal spirit yet repair

The freshness and the grace that here had fled,
And in new strength and beauty flourish there.

But as a ship, when all the winds are gone,
Hangs idly in mid ocean, so the soul
Helplessly drifting hears the waters roll,

While in the heaven the breeze of hope dies down,
And memory darkens round, and from the lone

Vast sea dim shapes arise, and shadowy fears
Cling like damp mists, and the long track of years
(Where once the brightness of the morning shone)
Lies strewn with wrecks of that rich argosy
With which the bark sailed freighted to explore
The unknown deep, and distant gleaming shore,—
Keen, soaring hopes and aspirations high,
Pure thoughts, and sunny fancies, and the store
Of priceless gems from God's own treasury.

But the still depths of th' unreturning past
Have buried more than blessings, nor alone
Grief and regret blend with the wild waves' moan
Infinite yet not hopeless. In its vast
And healing waters kindly Time hath cast
Sorrows and sins, where in th' eternal tide
Heaves the full heart of God, and we confide,
Not comfortless, to Him the First and Last,
The secrets of our being.-Lo! the face
Of ocean, kissed by the descending breeze,
Breaks into smiles, and long-lost melodies
Vibrate from earth to heaven, and a fresh grace,
New-born of hope, lies on the breathing seas--
The far-off isles shine in the golden space.

-Macmillan's Magazine.

C. E. P.

Bentley's Miscellany.

A RUSSIAN FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.

FROM THE GERMAN.

THE Wospitatelnoi Dom, or Imperial Foundling and Orphan asylum, at Moscow, is a magnificent institution that lodges under its roof more than twentyfive thousand children, and a retinue of more than two thousand wardens, male and female, nurses, teachers, and other officers, that expends annually above seven million rubles, and receives from year to year more than seven thousand infants and young children, ought deservedly to be reckoned among the wonders of the world. In Russia everything but freedom assumes gigantic proportions, therefore I approached this mighty institution with reverential expectation.

We drove up to the building through a long straight avenue of lime-trees, and in half an hour stopped before the broad stone steps of the pillared entrance. In the great hall, a military looking personage, in a blue uniform, and having a sword at his side, saluted us with a formal bow, motioned my faithful and rigorous cicerone to remain behind, and, by a sign, gave me to understand that there was not a minute to loose if I desired to see the ceremony. The man had so reserved and respectable an appearance, that I took him for the director of the establishment, and I accordingly bowed low, as in duty bound; but I soon learned that he was only the chief policemaster, neither more or less than a martial beadle, the terror and bugbear of twenty thousand poor children, and possessing the power of inflicting great and important punishments. Notwithstanding this, he appeared to me to be good natured; I saw it in the kind smile with which he nodded to the children whom we met upon our way to church, and in the attention with which he listened to the numberless petitions of a string of nurses, of whom, in one room alone, there were collected upwards of five hundred. Indeed, throughout the whole extent of this immense establishment, I observed no looks betraying sorrow or unhappiness-all betokened contentment, peaceful innocence, and quiet happiness and this circumstance explained to me

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more fully than a thousand statistical notices, and all the blue or green books in the world could have done, how the asylum was organized and conducted.

Such of my readers as have, during an axious dream, walked the whole night through the endless galleries, through room after room, through court after court, will have some notion of my feelings as I followed my friendly police officer through the labyrinths of this colossal building. At length, after a journey of half an hour, the perfume of incense, the song of a thousand sweet voices, and the deep bass of the priest intoning the prayers, announced that we had reached the outer court of the church. Upon tiptoe we moved past an army of kneeling women, the nurses and overseers of the children, until we stood under the cupola.

The church was closly lined; head to head sat thousands of children, but, to my astonishment, almost entirely girls. Boys I only saw by individuals. Later on I discovered the cause of this singularity. The children in bright yellow dresses in the gallery of the church were being educated as nurses, those in green, who filled the side-aisles, were preparing for domestic service; so my companion informed me. The elder classes sat in rows opposite the altar. They wore dark blue dresses, and in their devotion did not allow an eye to leave the priest, brilliant in red and gold, who was just visible, with his long, light, falling hair in a gray cloud of incense, behind the carved door of the shrine of the altar.

I looked from row to row at the bright but rarely pretty faces, and deep pity seized me as I thought that all these thousands of children. were without homes, the greater part of them never having known a father or mother, and never the care or love of a relation, andthat but few would ever know them.

"Poor children!" said I to the policeofficer.

"Poor, it is true," he replied, "but still of good family. Note all these girls upon the foremost benches, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen years of age. They are orphans, but all of noble decent. Do you not perceive a certain grace, a certain ease in their manner and deportment? They are educated here

in full accordance with their rank. We have more than five hundred masters and mistresses for all branches of wo man's education; and the instruction is at least as good as that in the best boarding shools of St. Petersburg, if not superior."

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All at once a murmuring, like the rustling of a forest agitated by the wind, arose, beginning at either extremity of the church, then passing us to the centre of the chancel. Divine service was over, and the children were preparing for departure. Each class marched along under the guidance of masters and governesses, in divisions, regiments, battalions, companies, and corps. First the yellow, then the green, afterwards the blue, and last of all the foremost rows, these being the grown-up girls. They approached with the mechanical regularity of well-drilled troops, their eyes directed in front, no smile, no banter, no pushing, no tricks, no display of merriment, such as one finds even upon this occasion in other children. All had a remarkable tranquility and composure.

The governor of such an establishment as Wospitatelnoi Dom, with a population exceeding that of many a considerable town, stands high in the scale of the comprehensive kingdom of Russian officers, ranking with the generals. I therefore anticipated a military abruptness and sternness, but was most agreeably surprised to find in the richly accoutred personage before whom I had to appear, in order to effect a visit to the house proper, a gentleman of most winning friendliness. Rising with the greatest affability from his writing-desk, where he was basied among papers and deeds, he came towards me on my entrance into his study, and offered, after having glanced at the introduction I handed to him, to conduct me himself round the establish.ment.

He took me, in the first place, to the infants' department, a long suite of light, cheerful rooms. In each stood from forty to fifty cradles, which, with their pretty ganze hangings, might have served for royal babes. From eight hundred to a thousand infants is the average number held by the institution at one time. At the door of each room we were met by the matrons of the chamber, curtseying, NEW SERIES-VOL. VI. No. 1.

well-dressed, pleasant-looking old women; the nurses stood each by the side of their especial cradle, shouldering their charge in order to show it me. Here, too, everything was conducted with military order and precision.

The position of nurse in the Wospitatelnoi Dom is considered a fortune, and eagerly sought by the Russian peasant girls. Beauty certainly I did not discover among the hundreds of nurses who presented themselves to us. Many were short, ill-developed figures, with yellow, broad, inexpressive features, but all looked perfectly neat and clean in their red and yellow cotton dresses and the bright national head-dress. Before one cradle the governor stood still, and bent over the babe lying in it. It was a lovely little girl, full of mirth and life, who appeared to know the governor well, for she danced about with joy when he approached, and clapped her little hands."

"That is my god-child. I have taken from the font some two hundred thousand children," he remarked, as we walked on; "many of them certainly are dead, but I could still bring an army, of my namesakes alone, into the field considerable enough to terrify a small state. But come, the great moment of our day, the dinner-hour, draws near; I must not fail in attendance, and to you it will no doubt, be an interesting sight; at least, it is not an ordinary lot to assist at a table d'hôte in which the covers counted not by hundreds but by thousands, and the guests represented by all ages from six to sixteen."

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Again through gallery upon gallery, corridor upon corridor, until we reached the door of the dining-hall. A sonorous bell had just given notice of the approaching meal, and with the last peal a throng of human beings issued forth from the innumerable rooms and cells to the right and left, like a migration of nations in movement. But what order in all the commotion! The scholars came out in pairs, and formed themselves, without a moment's hesitation or confusion, into long columns, marching just as sedately and quietly towards the most important period of the day's business as they did in emerging from the church. On some of the younger faces might be read the

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excitement of expectation, but in none did the pleasure break forth in noisy expression.

It took a quarter of an hour before we succeeded in making our way through a section of the children and into the dining-room, and behind us the stream still flowed unceasingly. Dining-room, did I say? Dining-hall, rather, as vast as the largest church, but unfortunately so low roofed, that, upon entering, I felt as if oppressed by an Alpine mountain. Here were ranged interminable tables, the space between the single rows being no broader than absolute necessity demanded, yet here even everything went systematically. Of pressure and disorder there was no trace-everywhere complete discipline reigned. In a few minutes they had found a place at their appointed table.

In the centre of this ocean of tables arose a platform, whence the whole broad hall, with its multitude of children, might be seen. To this spot the governor led

me.

"Here is my place," he said, after having procured me a chair from one of the active wardens continually passing to and fro. "I dine every day in the midst of my children upon nothing more than is offered them. May I ask you to test our kitchen?"

The food left nothing to be desired. Naturally it was plain, but nourishing, and so excellently prepared, served with such propriety, that the sight produced appetite. Only the death-like silence during the whole time of the meal had something painful. Discipline was carried rather too far. "Poor, poor, children!" I involuntarily thought. "Where is your real youthful joy? Where your wild sporting and activity, which ought to be seen without these chains of education and culture?"

"Where is the dining-hall for the boys?" I asked the governor, as he took me from table to table, directing my attention to his most promising pupils. "In the church, too, I saw scarcely any but girls."

"The larger number of our boys," I received for answer, are not at present in the establishment. You must know that we have several large branch institutions and farms, and in these we house

the boys, the elder ones being principally occupied in agricultural employment. We have, besides, in all the villages in the environs of Moscow and farther inland, nurses and foster-mothers for our youngest children, of whom more than five thousand are maintained in this manner. It is understood we only entrust the children to perfectly trustworthy persons, and that we watch these closely. You must not think either that this is the only table d'hôte in the house. We have six other eating-rooms, though none so large as the one over which I preside."

I had again an opportunity of admiring the extraordinarily good understanding manifested in the intercourse of the governor and the children, and the love which they seemed to have for him. How the childrens' eyes sparkled when he smiled on them with paternal affection, here and there bestowing a word of praise, and gently patting one or other of the little girls on the cheek. For myself, the elder pupils, the young ladies of the first class, interested me most highly; their elegant appearance, the self-respect apparent in their ways and manners, were really surprising. Not one colored or showed the least embarrassment when addressed. Natural and unconstrained, they answered my questions with complete ease and quietude; of bashfulness or affectation there was no sign. Ladies of the first rank in London or Paris, in Berlin or Vienna, could not have surpassed these little Russian orphan girls in refinement of expression and innate good breeding.

"We Russians," remarked the governor, as we continued our inspection of the room, "have a peculiar talent for foreign languages. Even among my children here I have excellent linguists. Many write and speak German and French easily, besides their mother tongue. Others carry on music and drawing; many are actual artistes. We leave them in the pursuit of these higher studies free option, to choose after their own talent and inclination."

Meanwhile, the children had cleared the dishes; a pious hymn ended as it had commenced the meal, and, with the same order as that with which they entered, they defiled past us towards the

door.

Not one went without saying, with a sweet curtsey, "Good day, papa!" to the governor.

"All our children," observed my conductor, as we left the hall, "feel very happy here. Whoever has once been in Wospitatelnoi Dom, whoever has once

crossed the threshold of the house under the great stone pelican over the portals, has a right to call upon us in poverty or sickness, in care or sorrow, and to seek our help."

"Upon what funds is your institution supported, and by what means are they received?" I asked. "The St. Petersburg Foundling Hospital draws, as far as I know, its income from the duty on playing-cards and from the tax on the revenue of the Lombard money-lenders." "The Empress Maria Theodorowna, wife of Paul, is the benefactress of our asylum," answered the governor. "We also appropriate the income of the Lombard Institution, and have, moreover, been endowed by the rich family of Demidoff with considerable property and capital. Lastly, all public amusements, theatres, balls, concerts, &c., must devote ten per cent. of their profit to us, which, among the pleasure-loving Russians, yields a large sum of money. But here is our garden," he remarked, proceeding to a window in the corridor.

I looked out and beheld an enormous green lawn, and upon it a concourse like that at a fair. The children were enjoying their Sabbath liberty, walking, playing, delighting in the fresh air, under the protection of a band of governesses and masters. The place lacked all positive garden adornment; it had few shrubs or flowers, but it boasted an extent upon which an army could manoeuvre. I was struck, too, with hundreds of small wooden summer-houses, placed close one to another around this enormous grass-plot.

"In these cottages," said the governor, who read the inquiry in my look, "we quarter, during the fine period of the year, those of our little pupils for whom uninterrupted fresh air seems advisable. They are air balloons in miniature, and the children are so fond of this tent or bivouac life, that there are always more candidates for it than can be gratified. I will not take you into the school

rooms," he continued. "To-day being a holiday, they are vacant, and almost deserted. But you must take a peep into this room." And he opened another door, disclosing a large square apartment, the four walls fitted up with huge glass cupboards, filled from the top to bottom with dolls of all kinds and sizesa collection of dolls more numerous than could be found in the largest toyshop at Nuremburg.

"In this room," explained the governor, "we preserve the toys of the more juvenile of our twenty-five thousand. children. And here," he drew out a sliding partition of one of the cupboards, "you will find models of every variety of tool and implement. Upon that table you have our common animals, birds and fishes, in accurate plastic moulding; our children learn better from them than from books, and always exult when they come into this room with their class, and are allowed to choose their favorite plaything. And now come and drink tea with me in the Russian fashion; you must also be introduced to our motherthe mother of our children—the first matron, as we denominate her officially. We can chat an hour longer, and you can note down whatever you think deserving of rememberance. Put any questions you please, we are only too happy to talk of our Wospitatelnoi Dom."

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I gladly acceded to this pleasing invitation. The apartment of the mother was a very elegantly furnished room, and "the mother" herself was a stately old lady of finished manner, who did the honors with the most amiable politeness. Strictly speaking," she began, after I had seated myself in a comfortable arm-chair, while a liveried waiter brought tea, we cannot call our Wospitatelnoi Dom an orphan assylum, for we accept without inquiry, all children brought to us, provided they do not exceed a specified age. Summer and winter, day and night, the doors of the little lodge under the hall stand open. There we receive the children. Upon an average thirty are brought daily, for whom shelter and care are required. No one is obliged to inform us of the name of the mother, or of the father, likewise no one need pay a kopek for the maintenance and education of the child delivered to us.

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