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 battle 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 subject 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 common intercourse they are remarkably polite to each other: they take off their cap at meeting; bow ceremoniously and frequently, and usually exchange a salute. They accompany their ordinary discourse with much action, and innumerable gestures; and are exceedingly fertile in their expressions 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, whose blackness 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:

Vol. XVI. Part I.

(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 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 overlord. They may obtain freedom, 1. By manumission on the death of their master, or otherwife; 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 looks and dress: they have for the most part fair complexions, and many of them red hair: they have 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 testers 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 holes; 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 would 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 those 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."

The peasants of Holland and Switzerland are all in a very tolerable condition; not subject to the undisputed control of a hiring 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.