the chief province of the empire of Russia, deriving its name from the river Mulcova, or Molkva, on which the capital is situated. It was from this duchy that the czars of old took the title of dukes of Mytchov. The province is bounded on the north by the duchies of Twere, Roitow, Sufdai, and Wododiner; on the south by Rezan, from which it is separated by the river Occa; on the east by the principality of Cacheine, and the same river Occa parting it from Nissi-novgorod; and on the west by the duchies of Rzeva, Biela, and Smolensko. It extends about 200 miles in length, and about 100 in breadth; and is watered by the Molkva, Occa, and Cleima, which fall into the Wolga: nevertheless, the soil is not very fertile. The air, however, though sharp, is salubrious; and this consideration, with the advantage of its being situated in the midst of the best provinces in the empire, induced the czars to make it their chief residence. In the western part of Moscow is a large forest, from whence flows the celebrated river Nieper, or Borythines, which, traversing the duchy of Smolensko, winds in a serpentine course to Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland.

capital of the above province, and till the beginning of the present century the metropolis of all Russia, is situated in a spacious plain on the banks of the river Mulcova. The Russian antiquaries differ considerably in their opinions concerning the first foundation of Moscow; the following relation, Mr Coxe lays, is generally esteemed by the best authors the most probable account.

Kiof was the metropolis, when George son of Vladimir Monomakha ascended in 1154 the Russian throne. That monarch, being insulted in a progress through his dominions by a rich and powerful nobleman named Stephen Kutchko, put him to death, and confiscated his domains, which consisted of the lands now occupied by the city of Moscow and the adjacent territory. Pleased with the situation of the ground lying at the confluence of the Molkva and Neglina, he laid the foundation of a new town, which he called Molkva from the river of that name. Upon the demise of George, the new town was not neglected by his son Andrew, who transferred the seat of empire from Kiof to Vladimir; but it fell into such decay under his immediate successors, that when Daniel, son of Alexander Nevski, received, in the division of the empire, the duchy of Mulkovo as his portion, and fixed his residence upon the confluence of the Molkva and Neglina, he may be said to have newly founded the town. The spot now occupied by the Kremlin was at that time overspread with a thick wood and a morass, in the midst whereof was a small island containing a single wooden hut. Upon this part Daniel constructed churches and monasteries, and various buildings, and enclosed Moscow enclosed it with wooden fortifications; he first assumed the title of duke of Moscow; and was so attached to this situation, that when in 1394 he succeeded his brother Andrew Alexandrovich in the great duchy of Vladimir, he did not remove his court to Vladimir, but continued his residence at Moscow, which then became the capital of the Russian dominions. His successors followed his example; among whom his son Ivan considerably enlarged the new metropolis, and in 1367 his grandson Demetrius Ivanovich Doniski surrounded the Kremlin with a brick wall. These new fortifications, however, were not strong enough to prevent Tamerlane in 1382 from taking the town, after a short siege. Being soon evacuated by that defunct conqueror, it again came into the possession of the Russians; but was frequently invaded and occupied by the Tartars, who in the 14th and 15th centuries overran the greatest part of Russia, and who even maintained a garrison in Moscow until they were finally expelled by Ivan Vasilievitch I. To him Moscow is indebted for its principal splendor, and under him it became the principal and most considerable city of the Russian empire.

Moscow continued the metropolis of Russia until the beginning of the present century, when, to the great dissatisfaction of the nobility, but with great advantage probably to the state, the seat of empire was transferred to Petersburgh.

Notwithstanding the predilection which Peter conceived for Petersburgh, in which all the succeeding sovereigns excepting Peter II. have fixed their residence, Moscow, according to Mr Coxe, is still the most populous city of the Russian empire. Here the chief nobles who do not belong to the court of the emperors reside: they here support a larger number of retainers; they love to gratify their taste for a ruder and more expensive magnificence in the ancient style of feudal grandeur; and are not, as at Petersburgh, eclipsed by the superior splendor of the court.

Moscow is represented as the largest town in Europe; its circumference within the rampart, which encloses the suburbs, being exactly 39 versts or 26 miles; but it is built in so straggling and disjointed a manner, that its population in no degree corresponds to its extent. Some Russian authors state its inhabitants at 500,000 souls, a number evidently exaggerated. According to a late computation, which Mr Coxe says may be depended upon, Moscow contains within the ramparts 250,000 souls, and in the adjacent villages 50,000. The streets of Moscow are in general exceedingly long and broad: some of them are paved; others, particularly those in the suburbs, are formed with trunks of trees, or are boarded with planks like the floor of a room; wretched hovels are blended with large palaces; cottages of one story stand next to the most superb and statelike mansions. Many brick structures are covered with wooden tops; some of the wooden houses are painted; others have iron doors and roofs. Numerous churches present themselves in every quarter, built in a peculiar style of architecture; some with domes of copper, others of tin, gilt or painted green, and many roofed with wood. In a word, some parts of this vast city have the look of a sequestered desert, other quarters of a populous town; some of a contemptible village, others of a great capital.

Moscow may be considered as a town built upon the Asiatic model, but gradually becoming more and more European, and exhibiting in its present state a motley mixture of discordant architecture. It is distributed into the following divisions. 1. The Kremlin. This stands in the central and highest part of the city; is of a triangular form, and about two miles in circumference; and is surrounded by high walls of stone and brick, which were constructed in the year 1491, under the reign of Ivan Vasilievitch I. It contains the ancient palace of the czars, several churches, two convents, the patriarchal palace, the arsenal now in ruins, and one private house, which belonged to Boris Godunof before he was raised to the throne. 2. Khitaigorod, or the Chinese town, is inclosed on one side by that wall of the Kremlin which runs from the Moikva to the Neglina; and on the other side by a brick wall of inferior height. It is much larger than the Kremlin, and contains the university, the printing-house, and many other public buildings, and all the tradesmen's shops. The edifices are mostly stuccoed or white-washed, and it has the only street in Moscow in which the houses stand close to one another without any intervals between them. 3. The Bielgorod, or White Town, which runs quite round the two preceding divisions, is supposed to derive its name from a white wall with which it was formerly inclosed, and of which some remains are still to be seen. 4. Semlinoigorod, which environs all the three other quarters, takes its denomination from a circular rampart of earth with which it is encompassed. These two last mentioned divisions exhibit a grotesque group of churches, convents, palaces, brick and wooden houses, and mean hovels, in no degree superior to peasant's cottages. 5. The Sloboda, or suburbs, form a vast exterior circle round all the parts already described, and are invested with a low rampart and ditch. These suburbs contain, beside buildings of all kinds and denominations, corn fields, much open pasture, and some small lakes, which give rise to the Neglina. The river Moikva, from which the city takes its name, flows through it in a winding channel; but, excepting in spring, is only navigable for rafts. It receives the Yauza in the Semlinoigorod, and the Neglina at the western extremity of the Kremlin; the beds of both these last-mentioned rivulets are in summer little better than dry channels.

The places of divine worship at Moscow are exceedingly numerous: including chapels, they amount to above 1000; there are 484 public churches, of which 199 are of brick, and the others of wood; the former are commonly stuccoed or white-washed, the latter painted of a red colour. The most ancient churches of Moscow are generally square buildings, with a cupola and four small domes, some whereof are of copper or iron gilt; others of tin, either plain or painted green. These cupolas and domes are for the most part ornamented with crosses entwined with thin chains or wires. The church of the Holy Trinity, sometimes called the church of Jerusalem, which stands in the Khitaigorod, close to the gate leading into the Kremlin, has a kind of high steeple and nine or ten domes. Moscow. James: it was built in the reign of Ivan Vassilievich II. The inside of the churches is mostly composed of three parts: that called by the Greeks "trapeza"; by the Russians "trapeza"; the body; and the sanctuary or shrine. Over the door of each church is the portrait of the saint to whom it is dedicated, to which the common people pay their homage as they pass along by taking off their hats, crossing themselves, and occasionally touching the ground with their heads. The bells, which form no inconsiderable part of public worship in this country, as the length or shortness of their peals affects the greater or lesser sanctity of the day, are hung in belfreys detached from the church; they do not swing like our bells; but are fixed immovably to the beams, and are rung by a rope tied to the clapper and pulled sideways. Some of these bells are of a stupendous size; one in the tower of St. Ivan's church weighs 351 Russian pounds, or 127 English pounds. It has always been esteemed a meritorious act of religion to present a church with bells; and the piety of the donor has been measured by their magnitude. According to this mode of estimation, Boris Godunof, who gave a bell of 283,000 pounds to the cathedral of Moscow, was the most pious sovereign of Russia, until he was surpassed by the empress Anne, at whose expense a bell was cast weighing 432,000 pounds, and which exceeded in bigness every bell in the known world. The height of this enormous bell is 19 feet, its circumference at the bottom 21 yards 11 inches; its greatest thickness 23 inches. The beam to which this vast machine was fastened being accidentally burnt, the bell fell down, and a fragment was broken off towards the bottom, which left an aperture large enough to admit two persons abreast without stooping.

The palace, inhabited by the ancient czars, stands at the extremity of the Kremlin. Part of this palace is old, and remains in the same state in which it was built under Ivan Vassilievich I. The remainder has been successively added at different intervals without any plan, and in various styles of architecture, which has produced a motley pile of building, remarkable for nothing but the incongruity of the several structures. The top is thickly set, with numerous little gilded spires and globes; and a large portion of the front is decorated with the arms of all the provinces which compose the Russian empire. The apartments are in general exceedingly small, excepting one single room called the council-chamber, in which the ancient czars used to give audience to foreign ambassadors, and which has been repeatedly described by several English travellers who visited Moscow before the Imperial residence was transferred to Petersburgh. The room is large and vaulted, and has in the centre an enormous pillar of stone which supports the ceiling. In this palace Peter the Great came into the world, in the year 1672. In that part called the treasury are repolished the crown, jewels, and royal robes, used at the coronation of the sovereign, besides several curiosities relative to the history of the country. Of the great number of churches contained in this city, two in particular, namely, that of St Michael and that of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, are remarkable; the one for being the place where the sovereigns of Russia were formerly interred, and the other where they are crowned. These edifices, which are situated in the Kremlin, are both in the same style of architecture; and their exterior form, though modelled according to the ancient style of the country, is not absolutely elegant. In the cathedral of St Michael, which contains the tombs of the Russian sovereigns, the bodies are not, as with us, deposited in vaults, or beneath the pavement, but are entombed in raised sepulchres, mostly of brick, in the shape of a coffin, and about two feet in height. When Mr Coxe visited the cathedral, the most ancient were covered with palls of red cloth, others of red velvet, and that of Peter II. with gold tissue, bordered with silver fringe and ermine. Each tomb has at its lower extremity a small silver plate, upon which is engraved the name of the deceased sovereign, and the date of his death.

The cathedral of the assumption of the Virgin Mary, which has long been appropriated to the coronation of the Russian sovereigns, is the most splendid and magnificent in Moscow. The screen is in many parts covered with plates of solid silver and gold richly worked. From the centre of the roof hangs an enormous chandelier of maffy silver, weighing 294 pounds; it was made in England, and was a present from Morolof, prime minister and favourite of Alexey Michaelowitch. The sacred utensils and episcopal vestments are extraordinarily rich, but the taste of the workmanship is in general rude, and by no means equal to the materials. Many of the paintings which cover the inside walls are of a colossal size; some are very ancient, and were executed so early as in the latter end of the 15th century. It contains, amongst the rest, a head of the virgin, supposed to have been delineated by St Luke, and greatly celebrated in this country for its sanctity and the power of working miracles. Its face is almost black; its head is ornamented with a glory of precious stones, and its hands and body are gilded, which gives it a most grotesque appearance. It is placed in the screen, and enclosed within a large silver covering, which is only taken off on great festivals, or for the curiosity of strangers. In this cathedral are deposited the remains of the Russian patriarchs.

The place in the Khitaigorod, where the public archives are deposited, is a strong brick building, containing several vaulted apartments with iron floors. These archives, consisting of a numerous collection of state-papers, were crowded into boxes, and thrown aside like common lumber, until the present empress ordered them to be revised and arranged. In conformity to this mandate, Mr Muller has disposed them in chronological order with such perfect regularity, that any single document may be inspected with little trouble. They are enclosed in separate cabinets with glass doors; those relative to Russia are all classified according to the several provinces which they concern; and over each cabinet is inscribed the name of the province to which it is appropriated. In the same manner the manuscripts relative to foreign kingdoms are placed in separate divisions under the respective titles of Poland, Sweden, England, France, Germany, &c.

The university of Moscow, also situated in the Khitaigorod, was founded, at the instance of Count Shuvalof, by the empress Elizabeth, for 600 students; who are clothed, clothed, boarded, and instructed, at the expense of the crown. Besides this institution, there are two gymnasia or seminaries for the education of youth, endowed also by Elizabeth; in which are taught, by twenty-three philosophers, divinity, classics, philosophy, the Greek, Latin, Russian, German, French, Italian, and Tartar languages; history, geography, mathematics, architecture, fortification, artillery, algebra, drawing and painting, music, fencing, dancing, reading and writing.

Moscow is the centre of the inland commerce of Russia, and particularly connects the trade between Europe and Siberia. The only navigation to this city is formed by the Moskva, which falling into the Oka near Columna, communicates by means of that river with the Volga. But as the Moskva is only navigable in spring upon the melting of the snows, the principal merchandise is conveyed to and from Moscow upon sledges in winter. As to the retail commerce here, the whole of it is carried on in the Khitaigorod; where, according to a custom common in Russia, as well as in most kingdoms of the East, all the shops are collected together in one spot. The place is like a kind of fair, consisting of many rows of low brick buildings; the interval between them resembling alleys. These shops or booths occupy a considerable space; they do not, as with us, make part of the houses inhabited by the tradesmen, but are quite detached from their dwellings, which for the most part are at some distance in another quarter of the town. The tradesman comes to his shop in the morning, remains there all day, and returns home to his family in the afternoon. Every trade has its separate department; and they who sell the same goods have booths adjoining to each other. Furs and skins form the most considerable article of commerce in Moscow; and the shops which vend those commodities occupy several streets.

Among the curiosities of Moscow, the market for the sale of houses is not the least remarkable. It is held in a large open space in one of the suburbs; and exhibits a great variety of ready-made houses, thickly strewed upon the ground. The purchaser who wants a dwelling, repairs to this spot, mentions the number of rooms he requires, examines the different timbers, which are regularly numbered, and bargains for that which suits him. The house is sometimes paid for on the spot, and taken away by the purchaser; or sometimes the vender contracts to transport and erect it upon the place where it is designed to stand. It may appear incredible to assert, that a dwelling may be thus bought, removed, raised, and inhabited, within the space of a week; but we shall conceive it practicable by considering that these ready-made houses are in general merely collections of trunks of trees tenanted and mortised at each extremity into one another, so that nothing more is required than the labour of transporting and adjusting them. But this summary mode of building is not always peculiar to the meaner hovels; as wooden structures of very large dimensions and handsome appearance are occasionally formed in Russia with an expedition almost inconceivable to the inhabitants of other countries. A remarkable instance of this dispatch was displayed the last time the empress came to Moscow. Her majesty proposed to reside in the mansion of prince Galitzin, which is esteemed the completest edifice in this city; but as it was not sufficiently spacious for her reception, a temporary addition of wood, larger than the original house, and containing a magnificent suite of apartments, was begun and finished within the space of six weeks. This meteor-like fabric was so handsome and commodious, that the materials which were taken down at her majesty's departure, were to be reconstructed as a kind of imperial villa upon an eminence near the city. Mr Coxe mentions an admirable police in this city for preventing riots, or for stopping the concourse of people in case of fires, which are very frequent and violent in those parts, where the houses are mostly of wood, and the streets are laid with timber. At the entrance of each street there is a chevaux de frise gate, one end whereof turns upon a pivot, and the other rolls upon a wheel; near it is a sentry-box in which a man is occasionally stationed. In times of riot or fire the centinel shuts the gate, and all passage is immediately stopped.

Among the public institutions of Moscow, the most remarkable is the Foundling Hospital, endowed in 1764 by the present empress, and supported by voluntary contributions and legacies, and other charitable gifts. In order to encourage donations, her majesty grants to all benefactors some valuable privileges, and a certain degree of rank in proportion to the extent of their liberality. Among the principal contributors must be mentioned a private merchant named Dimidoff, a person of great wealth, who has expended in favour of this charity above £100,000. The hospital, which is situated in a very airy part of the town upon a gentle ascent near the river Moskva, is an immense pile of building of a quadrangular shape, part of which was only finished when Mr Coxe (whose account we are transcribing) was at Moscow. It contained, at that time, 3000 foundlings; and, when the whole is completed, will receive 8000. The children are brought to the porter's lodge, and admitted without any recommendation. The rooms are lofty and large; the dormitories, which are separate from the work rooms, are very airy, and the beds are not crowded; each foundling, even each infant, has a separate bed; the bedsteads are of iron; the sheets are changed every week, and the linen three times a-week. Through the whole rooms the greatest neatness prevails; even the nurseries being uncommonly clean, and without any unwholesome smells. No cradles are allowed, and rocking is particularly forbidden. The infants are not swaddled according to the custom of the country, but looely dressed.—The foundlings are divided into separate classes, according to their respective ages. The children remain two years in the nursery, when they are admitted into the lowest class; the boys and girls continue together until they are seven years of age, at which time they are separated. They all learn to read, write, and cast accounts. The boys are taught to knit; they occasionally card hemp, flax, and wool, and work in the different manufactures. The girls learn to knit, net, and all kinds of needle-work; they spin and weave lace; they are employed in cookery, baking, and house-work of all sorts. At the age of 14 the foundlings enter into the first class; when they have the liberty of choosing any particular branch of trade; and for this purpose there are different species of manufactures established in the hospital, of which the principal are embroidery, silk stockings, ribbands, lace, gloves, buttons, and cabinet work. A separate room is appropriated to each trade. Some boys and girls are instructed in the French and German languages, and a few boys in the Latin tongue; others learn music, drawing, and dancing. About the age of 20, the foundlings receive a sum of money, and several other advantages, which enable them to follow their trade in any part of the empire; a very considerable privilege in Russia, where the peasants are slaves, and cannot leave their village without the permission of their master.—The girls and boys eat separately. The dining rooms, which are upon the ground-floor, are large and vaulted, and differing from their work-rooms. The first class sit at table; the rest stand: the little children are attended by servants; but those of the first or second class alternately wait upon each other. Their victuals are of the most wholesome and nourishing kinds. Each foundling has a napkin, pewter plate, a knife, fork, and spoon: the napkin and table-cloth are clean three times in the week. They rise at six, dine at eleven, and sup at six. The little children have bread at seven and at four. When they are not employed in their necessary occupations, the utmost freedom is allowed, and they are encouraged to be as much in the air as possible.