a hind, one whose business is in rural labour.

It is amongst this order of men that a philosopher would look for innocent and ingenuous manners. The situation of the peasantry is such as excludes them from the devastations of luxury and licentiousness; for when the contagion has once reached the recesses of rural retirement, and corrupted the minds of habitual innocence, that nation has reached the summit of vice, and is hastening to that decay which has always been the effect of vicious indulgence. The peasantry of this country still in a great measure retain that simplicity of manners and rustic innocence which ought to be the characteristic of this order of society; and, in many parts, their condition is such as, were all its advantages sufficiently known, would create envy in the minds of those who have toiled through life, amidst the bustle of the world, in quest of that happiness which it could not confer.

O fortunatos nimium, tua si bona norint, Agricolae. — Virgil.

In other countries the peasants do not enjoy the same liberty as they do in our own, and are consequently not so happy. In all feudal governments they are abject slaves, entirely at the disposal of some petty despot. This was the case in Poland, where the native peasants were subject to the most horrid slavery, though those descended of the Germans, who settled in Poland during the reign of Boleslaus the Chaste and Casimir the Great, enjoyed very distinguished privileges. Amongst the native slaves, too, those of the crown were in a better condition than those of individuals. See POLAND.

The peasants of Russia (Mr Coxe tells us) are a hardy race of men, and of great bodily strength. Their cottages are constructed with tolerable propriety, after the manner of those in Lithuania; but they are very poorly furnished. The peasants are greedy of money, and, as the same author informs us, somewhat inclined to thieving. They afford horses to travellers, and act the part of coachmen and postilions. "In their Coxe's Travels common intercourse they are remarkably polite to each other: they take off their cap at meeting; bow low, stand, sit, stand ceremoniously and frequently, and usually exchange a few words of salutation. They accompany their ordinary discourse with much action, and innumerable gestures; and are exceedingly fervile in their explications of deference to their superiors: in accosting a person of consequence, they prostrate themselves, and even touch the ground with their heads. We were often struck at receiving this kind of eastern homage, not only from beggars, but frequently from children, and occasionally from some of the peasants themselves.

"The peasants are well clothed, comfortably lodged, and seem to enjoy plenty of wholesome food. Their rye-bread, whole wheat, at first disgusts the eye, and whose sourness the taste, of a delicate traveller, agrees very well with the appetite: as I became reconciled to it from use, I found it at all times no unpleasant morsel, and, when seasoned with hunger, it was quite delicious: they render this bread more palatable, by stuffing it with onions and groats, carrots or green corn, and seasoning it with sweet oil. The rye-bread is sometimes white, and their other articles of food are eggs, salt fish, bacon, and mushrooms; their favourite dish is a kind of hodge podge, made of salt, or sometimes fresh meat, groats, rye-flour, highly seasoned with onions and garlic, which latter ingredients are much used by the Russians. Besides, mushrooms are so exceedingly common in these regions, as to form a very essential part of their provision. I seldom entered a cottage without seeing great abundance of them; and in passing through the markets, I was often astonished at the prodigious quantity exposed for sale: their variety was no less remarkable than their number; they were of many colours, amongst which I particularly noticed white, black, brown, yellow, green, and pink. The common drink of the peasants is kvass, a fermented liquor, somewhat like sweet-wort, made by pouring warm water on rye. or barley-meal; and deemed an excellent antiscorbutic. They are extremely fond of whisky, a spirituous liquor distilled from malt, which the poorest can occasionally command, and which their inclination often leads them to use to great excess."

These people are extremely backward in the mechanic arts, though, where they have much intercourse with other nations, this does not appear, and therefore does not proceed from natural inability; indeed we have already given an instance of one peasant of Russia, who seems to possess very superior talents. See Neva.

The dress of these people is well calculated for the climate in which they live: they are particularly careful of their extremities. On their legs they wear one or two pair of thick worsted stockings; and they envelop their legs with wrappers of coarse flannel or cloth several feet in length, and over these they frequently draw a pair of boots, so large as to receive their bulky contents with ease. The lower sort of people are grossly ignorant; of which we shall give a very surprising instance in the words of Mr Coxe:

"In many families, the father marries his son while a boy of seven, eight, or nine years old, to a girl of a more advanced age, in order, as it is said, to procure an able-bodied woman for the domestic service: he cohabits with this person, now become his daughter-in-law, and frequently has several children by her. In my progress through Russia, I observed in some cottages, as it were, two mistresses of a family; one the peasant's real wife, who was old enough to be his mother; and the other, who was nominally the son's wife, but in reality the father's concubine. These incestuous marriages, sanctified by inveterate custom, and permitted by the parish-priests, were formerly more common than they are at present; but as the nation becomes more refined, and the priests somewhat more enlightened; and as they have lately been discountenanced by government, they are daily falling into disuse; and, it is to be hoped, will be no longer tolerated (a)."

The peasants of Russia, like those of Poland, are divided into those of the crown and those of individuals; the first of which are in the best condition; but all of them undergo great hardships, being subject to the despotic will of some cruel overseer. They may obtain freedom, 1. By manumission on the death of their master, or otherwise: 2. By purchase; and, lastly, By serving in the army or navy. The Empress has redressed some of the grievances of this class of her subjects. The hardiness of the peasants arises in a great measure from their mode of education and way of life, and from the violent changes and great extremes of heat and cold to which they are exposed.

"The peasants of Finland differ widely from the Russians in their look and dress: they had for the most part fair complexions, and many of them red hair: they shave their beards, wear their hair parted at the top, and hanging to a considerable length over their shoulders (b). We could not avoid remarking, that they were in general more civilized than the Russians; and that even in the smallest villages we were able to procure much better accommodations than we usually met with in the largest towns which we had hitherto visited in this empire."

The peasants of Sweden (Mr Coxe informs us) are more honest than those in Russia; in better condition, and possessing more of the conveniences of life, both with respect to food and furniture. "They are well clad in strong cloth of their own weaving. Their cottages, though built with wood, and only of one story, are comfortable and commodious. The room in which the family sleep is provided with ranges of beds in tiers (if I may so express myself), one above the other: upon the wooden tellers of the beds in which the women lie, are placed others for the reception of the men, to which they ascend by means of ladders. To a person who has just quitted Germany, and been accustomed to tolerable inns, the Swedish cottages may perhaps appear miserable hovels; to me, who had been long used to places of far inferior accommodation, they seemed almost palaces. The traveller is able to procure many conveniences, and particularly a separate room from that inhabited by the family, which could seldom be obtained in the Polish and Russian villages. During my course through those two countries, a bed was a phenomenon which seldom occurred, excepting in the large towns, and even then not always completely equipped; but the poorest huts of Sweden were never deficient in this article of comfort: an evident proof that the Swedish peasants are more civilized than those of Poland and Russia. After having witnessed the slavery of the peasants in these two countries, it was a pleasing satisfaction to find myself again among freemen, in a kingdom where there is a more equal division of property; where there is no vassalage; where the lowest order enjoy a security of their persons and property; and where the advantages resulting from this right are visible to the commonest observer."

(a) "The truth of this fact, which fell under my own observation, and which I authenticated by repeated inquiries from all ranks of people, is still further confirmed by the following passage in the Antidote to the Journey into Siberia, although the author gives another reason for those early marriages. 'The peasants and common people not only marry their sons at 14 and 15 years of age, but even at eight or nine, and that for the sake of having a workwoman the more in the person of the son's wife: By the same rule, they try to keep their daughters single as long as possible, because they don't choose to lose a workwoman. These premature marriages are of very little use to the state; for which reason, methods to get the better of this custom have been fought for, and, I hope, will soon take place: the bishops are attentive to prevent these marriages as much as possible, and have of late succeeded greatly in their endeavours. It is only the inhabitants of some of the provinces in Russia that still retain this bad custom.'"

(b) The Russians have generally dark complexions and hair: they also wear their beards, and cut their hair short. The peasants of Holland and Switzerland are all in a very tolerable condition; not subject to the undiffracted control of a hireling master, they are freemen, and enjoy in their several stations the blessings of freedom. In Bohemia, Hungary, and a great part of Germany, they are legally slaves, and suffer all the miseries attending such a condition. In Spain, Savoy, and Italy, they are little better. In France, their situation was such as to warrant the first Revolution; but by carrying matters too far, they are now infinitely worse than they were at any former period.