sense and penetration. The animation, indeed, with which he always expresses himself, his passion for superlatives, and his propensity to extremes, especially (we say it to the credit of his good nature,) on the side of praise, render it very necessary to receive his statements in general with a grain or two of allowance.

It is difficult to judge how far this enthusiastic turn of mind, which we are far from intending to condemn, has biassed our author's opinion on subjects connected with the Arts. His criticisms are expressed with an interesting warmth; and they appear to be derived from extensive knowledge and refined taste. He speaks with extasy of the antique Venus now in the Taurida Palace, which we think he rather hazards his reputation in preferring to the Medicean. For the living painters of Russia he professes little respect; amply compensating, however, for this fastidiousness, by heaping the loftiest praises on Mr. Martauze, the sculptor. Painting, from whatever cause, has evidently made but an inconsiderable progress, in Russia, compared with sculpture and architec

ture.

Our author attributes a remarkable superiority to the women of Mosco, over those of Petersburg, in point of beauty; a circumstance, which in his opinion is accounted for from the intermarriages of the noble families' of the latter capital with those of countries celebrated for symmetry of features and graceful forms.' He pays high compliments to the conjugal virtue which, to his surprise, he found to prevail even among the fashionable circles; and most courteously requites all the kindness he seems to have received from both sexes, especially at Mosco, by the warmest praises of one for elegance and sweetness of manners, and the other for generous friendship and liberal hospitality. We could have been well satisfied to exchange a little of the glare of colouring in this and some other of our author's delineations, for greater precision of drawing and accuracy of detail. He is by no means so expert in marking the distinctions of cha racter either national or personal, as in sketching the peculiar customs and habits of a people, or the visible productions of nature and art. There is hardly an atom of the philosopher in his composition; but there is much of the artist, and not a little of the knight. The sword has rarely been laid, in modern times, on the shoulder of a person apparently so full of the warm, heroic, and gallant spirit of a preus checalier.

His compliments to the comeliness of the female nobility, are not, we find, to be extended to the women of the lower order.

They are generally stunted, clumsy, round faced, small featured, and sallow complexioned. The latter defect they strive to remedy by a profusion of paint of various hues, which they daub on with as little taste as art. The wives of the lowest classes wear a short gown of blue woollen cloth, bound with divers colours, most glaringly imitating the rain-bow interlinings on their faces. The waist is usually fastened by a close row of cylindrical buttons. Their heads are ordinarily bound with a red handkerchief of the gayest pattern, terminating beneath the chin." p. 113.

The following strictures apply more particularly to the infe rior class of women at Mosco.

Their eyes are tolerable, but totally divested of expression. Their complexions are besmeared with white and red paint, and their teeth most perversely stained with black; not a muscle of their face ever moves: and in general, their usual attitude being stationary (hardly ever walking) with their hands knit together across their persons, they stand like a string of waxen figures, gazing on the passing groupes of the higher orders. From an extraordinary mode of tying their girdles they all look as women wish to be who love their lords! p. 229.

On looking at their faces, you easily discern the Tartar and Kalmuc ingraftation upon the old Muscovite stock. The visage is short, the bones of the cheeks high, the forehead projecting, and the eye small. When a tinge of the Georgians Poles and Circassians mingles with the Russian blood, the result is the most exquisite beauty. But this is generally confined to the higher ranks.' p. 230.

It would occupy too much room to extract the ample descriptions given in this work of the Russian costume. Mr. Porter's remark, that the present Russian dress is in the same style as that which prevailed in this country during the fourteenth century, cannot be admitted, we think, without considerable qualification. A like observation he applies with more reason, perhaps, to the state of domestic manners, and the relation of lord and vassal; for though the principle of the feudal system is far from being identical with that of the slavery still subsisting in Russia, yet they naturally result in the same or very similar customs Beside the host of menials, and the customs of hospitality and pomp, there are also the following curious coincidences.

Many of the nobility keep a fool or two, like the motleys of our court in the days of Elizabeth; but like in name alone; for their wit, if they ever had any, is swallowed up by indolence. Savoury sauce and rich repasts swell their bodies to the most disgusting size; and lying about in the corners of some splendid saloon, they sleep profoundly, till awaked by the command of their lord to amuse the company. Shaking their enormous bulk they rise from their trance, and supporting their unwieldy trunks against the wall, drawl out their heavy nonsense, with as much grace as the motion of a sloth in the hands of a rep tile-fancier. One glance was sufficient for me of these imbruted creatures; and, with something like pleasure, I turned from them to the less humiliating view of human nature in the dwarf.

• The race of these unfortunates, is very diminutive in Russia, and very numerous. They are generally well shaped, and their hands and feet particularly graceful. Indeed, in the proportion of their figures, we should no where discover them to be flaws in the economy of nature, were it not for the peculiarity of feature, and the size of the head, which is commonly exceedingly enlarged. Take them on the whole, they are such compact, and even pretty little beings, that no idea can be formed of them from the clumsy deformed dwarfs which are exhibited at our fairs in England.'

6

They are here the pages and the playmates of the great; and at almost all entertainments stand for hours by their lord's chair, holding his snuff-box, or awaiting his commands. There is scarcely a nobleman in this country who is not possessed of one or more of these frisks of nature; but in their selection, I cannot say the noblesse display their gallantry, as they choose none but males. Indeed, to excuse them, I must confess, that amongst all the unappropriated dwarfs I have seen, I never met with one female of that diminutive stature. I am told that these pigmy forms are very rare with women; and much to the honour of nature is the exception in their favour, as you will agree with me that the charms of the lovely sex are too valuable to be so sported. How do we pity one of these tiny men, cut off from the respectabilities of his manhood by the accident of stunted growth! What should we not then feel, to see a fairy form of the other sex shut out, by a similar misfortune, from all those varieties of happiness which belong to the tender associations of a wife and a mother? I confess my compas sion would be rather painful; and am very glad that as yet I have seen the calamity entailed on the harder sex only, who are best able to contend with its cheerlessness and discomforts.

These little beings are generally the gayest drest persons in the service of their lord; and are attired in a uniform or livery of very costly materials. In the presence of their owner their usual station is at his elbow, in the character of a page; and during his absence, they are then responsible for the cleanliness and combed-locks of their companions of the canine species.' pp. 193. 194. 195.

Among other curious customs, which constitute part of the Russian amusements, are those of mock-discharges of ordnance, and horn-music; the latter performed by a machine consisting of forty human beings, each of whom blows but a single hote; the former produced by a contrivance and for a reason thus explained.

These repeated seeming discharges of cannon were produced by an accumulation of cow's bladders distended with wind, and rapidly laid in succession on large blocks of wood, where, with the velocity of a steamengine, they were burst at once by the action of a ponderous_mould or mallet.

During the reign of the whimsical Paul, an order was issued that no cannon should ever be fired in the empire but on imperial occasions. This ukase has never been repealed; and as the higher order of nobility had always, until that period, the privilege of discharging guns on their great days, they determined not to give up the martial sound, and therefore elected the cows' bladders in their place.'

Very little is said of the condition of the boors, or livestock attached to the estates of the Russian nobility; nor indeed must the reader expect to derive any instruction, on matters of public economy or politics, from Mr. Porter. He tells us, however, that they are not in general ill-treated; by which we understand him to mean, that the drubbings, by which their exertions are prompted, seldom extend to the destruction of life or limb. He confirms the report, that this system is so abhorred by the benevolent Alexander, that he takes every opportunity of buying the estates of the nobles, and immediately giving freedom to the peasants.' It is not, however, to measures necessarily of so limited an operation, that we must look, as Mr. P. directs us, for the formation of a middle rank,' a free and independent commonalty; which, we may presume, will eventually be created by the tendency of increasing commerce and wealth to promote luxury, and transfer a part at least of his opulence from the noble to the merchant, with the assistance probably of legal provisions, which a wise policy on the part of the monarch must approve, for the purchase of liberty and civil rights by industrious boors at a moderate and determined premium. Mr. P. learnt but very little of the state of the interior country; his journies, however, between Petersburg and Mosco, afforded him sufficient opportunities to witness the degrading and brutal servitude, under which all manly feeling among the boors is prevented or repressed. His account of the appearance of the country through which he travelled, is worth extracting.

All around was a vast wintry flat and frequently not a vestige of man or of cultivation was seen, not even a solitary tree, to break the boundless expanse of snow. Indeed, no idea can be formed of the immense plains we traversed, unless you imagined yourself at sea, far, far from the sight of land. The Arabian deserts cannot be more awful to the eye, than the appearance of the scene. Such is the general aspect of this country during the rigors of winter; with now and then an exception of a large forest skirting the horizon for a considerable length of way. At intervals, as you shoot along, you see openings amongst its lofty trees, from which emerge picturesque groupes of natives and their one-horse sledges, whereon are placed the different articles of commerce, going to various parts of this empire. They travel in vast numbers, and from all quarters, seldom fewer than one hundred and fifty in a string, having a driver to every seventh horse.

"The effect of this cavalcade at a distance is very curious; and in a morning as they advance towards you, the scene is as beautiful as striking. The sun then rising, throws his rays across the snow, transforming it to the sight into a surface of diamonds. From the cold of the night, every man and horse is encrusted with these frosty particles; and the beams falling on them too, seem to cover their rude faces and rugged habits with a tissue of the most dazzling brilliants. The manes of the horses, and the

long beards of the men, from the quantity of congealed breath, have a particularly glittering effect.'

The villages and huts are described as scarcely deserving such appellations from an Englishman; and in this, as in almost every instance, we have to applaud the minuteness and accuracy of our author's delineations. Some very remarkable customs are amply detailed, which strongly characterise the state of barbarism from which the Russian character' is but just emerging. One is, the promiscuous interchange of kisses, as part of a religious ceremonial on Easter morning; at which our author is justly indignant, as well as at the universal and indispensable practice, so rapturously applauded by Sir John Carr, (See E. R. Vol. III. p. 963.) of every lady whatever bestowing this caress on the check of every man whatever who kisses her hand. Another is, that of promiscuous naked bathing in public!-which still prevails at Mosco, though prohibited at Petersburg. He also draws a very lively picture of the winter scenery and gaieties of the latter capital.

It is remarkable that one of the most favourite diversions, -that of shooting down a long and steep declivity of ice constructed by art, in a sledge, should be almost an exact resemblance of an amusement, which a late interesting work* describes as having been very popular among the primitive settlers of Albany.

We are compelled to omit many very curious descriptions and anecdotes, which seemed to demand quotation. Among these, however, we certainly do not include the chapter on the knout. The account of this punishment, which our author saw inflicted on a wretch who had murdered his mas ter, is singularly minute; and is almost too horrible to be read through. The miserable criminal, whose sentence was, to be knouted without mercy,' received 200 strokes with this tremendous scourge; long before the whole number was completed, he appeared to have lost all sensation; the last part of the punishment, (the extirpation of the nostrils) recovered him to the agonies of life, and when raised to the ground he had strength enough to walk to his cart; he died, however, the next day in passing to his exile in Siberia. The office of executioner, formerly a passport to the highest ranks of society, and discharged occasionally by the hands of regal amateurs, is now made hereditary in a particular family; on fa lure of which, says Mr. P. the corporation of butchers is to be called upon to replace the defunct, by an able-bodied beginner of a new line from aniong themselves'. The instrument itself is now regarded with so much horror, that it is reckoned infamous to touch it.

* Memoirs of an American Lady.