About the fifth century, a horde of those nations that roved at large on the banks of the Dnieper and the Volkhof, established themselves in that part of the region bordering on the Dnieper, where is now situated the government of Kief or Kiow. These people were called Slavi, or Slavenians, and had advanced eastward from the shores of the Danube. They appear to have laid the first foundation of the Russian monarchy, and to have built Kief, where they fixed their capital. It is probable that about the same time another tribe of Slavi had settled still farther to the east, in the province of Novgorod, where they built the city still known by that name, as their metropolis. Of the government and transactions of these people we have no regular accounts till the conclusion of the ninth century. It appears, however, from a work of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetta on the administration of the empire, that in his time the city of Novgorod was a place of great importance, and carried on an extensive commerce, both with Constantinople and the countries bordering on the Baltic. The government of the Novgorodians appears to have been republican, but the people were probably rather merchants than warriors. We find them involved in frequent disputes with the neighbouring nations, from whose ravages they suffered considerable losses.

If we may credit the Russian historians, the Slavi that had settled about Kief and Novgorod must have extended the boundaries of their territory northwards as far as the shores of the Baltic. We find that they were much harassed by a piratical nation who dwelt on the coasts of that sea, and were denominated Varages or Varagians, and who made frequent descents on the Russian coasts, and ravaged the country. It is not improbable that these Varagians formed a part of the Scandinavian nations who, under the names of Danes and Saxons, successively made themselves masters of England. They were occasionally employed by the weaker neighbouring states as mercenary auxiliaries, and in this capacity they were once called to the assistance of the Novgorodians. The auxiliaries, after having overcome the enemies whom they were invited to combat, began to think of availing themselves of the advantages which their bravery had given them over their employers. From allies and servants they soon became the masters of the Slavi; and finding the country about Novgorod superior to that which they had left, they resolved to take up their residence in their new quarters.

Their leader Ruric built, near the Volkhof, a town whose site is now called Old Ladoga. Here he established the seat of his government. The event appears to have taken place about the year 860; and from this period we may date the commencement of the Russian monarchy. Ruric was assisted by two other chiefs of the Varages, Sinus and Truvor, who are supposed to have been his brothers, and with whom he divided the territory of which he had possessed himself. Of these, Sinus took up his residence at Bielo Ozero, or the White Lake; while Truvor kept his court at Isborsk, or, according to some, at Twertzog, in the district of Pleskow. The three chiefs having thus divided among them the territories of the Novgorodians, continued to reign in amity with each other for several years.

The Slavi, however, did not immediately submit to the dominion of their new masters. They flew to arms, and chose for their leader Vadim, who by his feats in war had acquired the honourable appellation of the valiant. A fierce engagement took place between the Novgorodians and the Varages, which ended in favour of the latter, and the brave Vadim, with several other chiefs of the Novgorodians, lost their lives in the attempt to free their country from its ambitious guests. This new success emboldened Ruric to extend his territories, and to change the seat of government from the insignificant town of Ladoga, to the spacious and opulent city of Novgorod. Soon after, by the death of his partners in sovereignty, he became sole monarch of the conquered territory, where he reigned without further molestation for seventeen years, and became the progenitor of a long line of descendants, who held the throne without interruption for several centuries. He appears to have been zealous for the strict administration of justice in his dominions, and issued his command to all the boyars, or nobles, who held territories under him, in order to see it exercised in an exact and uniform manner. Ruric assumed the title of grand prince. His dominions extended over the present governments of Riga, Revel, Polotsk, Pscov, Vyborg, St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Smolensk, Olonetz, Archangel, Vladimir, Yaroslav, Kostroma, and Vologda.

As Ruric left only one son, Igor, who was still a minor at his father's death, Oleg, a kinsman of the deceased monarch, took upon him the administration of affairs. Either from the natural restlessness of the Varages, or from the spirit of rebellion manifested by the Novgorodians, which indicated the necessity of employing his people on some active enterprise, the new ruler did not long remain idle. He appears very early to have projected the extension of his territories, by annexing to them the settlement which the Slavi had formed about Kief, against which he soon undertook a formidable expedition. Collecting a numerous army, composed of Slavi, Varages, and Tschudes (a Finnish tribe dwelling in districts embraced in the modern governments of Pscov and Revel), he carried with him the young prince Igor, and opened the campaign with the capture of Lubitch, and of Smolensk the capital of the Krivitsches.

Having advanced near the walls of Kief, he did not think advisable to hazard an open attack. He therefore had recourse to artifice, and leaving behind him the greater part of his troops, he concealed the remainder in the barks that had brought them down the Dnieper from Smolensk. He himself, disguising his name and quality, passed for a merchant sent by Oleg and his ward Igor on business of importance to Constantinople; and he despatched officers to Oakhold and Dir, the two chieftains of the Kievens, requesting permission to pass through their territory into Greece, and inviting them to visit him as friends and fellow-citizens, pretending that indisposition prevented him from paying his respects to them in person. The princes, free from mistrust, accepted Oleg's invitation, and scarcely thought it necessary to take with them their ordinary attendants. They were soon undeceived; for when they arrived at the regent's encampment, they were quickly surrounded by the Varagian soldiers, who sprung from their place of concealment in the barks. Oleg taking Igor in his arms, and casting on the sovereigns of Kief a fierce and threatening look, exclaimed, "You are neither princes nor of the race of princes; behold the son of Ruric." These words, which formed the signal that had been agreed on, were no sooner uttered, than his soldiers rushed on the two princes, and laid them prostrate at the feet of their master. The inhabitants of Kief, thrown into consternation by this bold and treacherous act, made no resistance, but opened the gates of their city to their invader; and thus the two Slavonian states were united under one head.

Having thus made himself master of the key to the eastern empire, Oleg prepared to carry into effect his ambitious designs against Constantinople. Leaving Igor at Kief, he himself embarked on the Dnieper with eighty-thousand warriors, on board of not fewer than two thousand vessels. Their passage down the river met with no obstruction, till they came to that part where its course is embarrassed for nearly fifteen leagues by seven rocks; and here began a series of perils, labours, and fatigues, which none but barbarians could have overcome. They were obliged to unload their barks, and convey them over the rocks; and, in particular, at the fourth rock, they carried their baggage for above six thousand paces, exposed to the perpetual risk of attack from the neighbouring nations with whom they were at war, while thus hampered and encumbered. Having at length reached the mouth of the Dnieper, Oleg drew together his scattered vessels to be repaired, and waited for a favourable wind to carry him across the Black Sea to the mouth of the Dnieper. Here the vessels were again refitted, and hence the expedition, coasting along the shores of the Euxine, soon arrived at the Strait of Constantinople.

The inhabitants of the imperial city, on discovering the approach of the barbarians, had drawn a massy chain across the harbour, thus hoping to prevent their landing. In this hope, however, they were deceived. The invaders drew ashore their barks, fitted wheels to their flat bottoms, and converted them into carriages, which by the help of sails they forced along the roads that led to the city, and thus arrived under the walls of Constantinople. In their route they ravaged the whole country, and pillaged and demolished the houses; loaded the inhabitants with irons, and committed other enormities which generally attend the incursions of a barbarous enemy. The weak Leo, who then swayed the sceptre of the Grecian empire, instead of making a manly resistance, is said to have attempted carrying off his enemy by poison; but this not succeeding, he was obliged to purchase from the conqueror an ignominious peace. Oleg on his return made his entrance into Kief laden with the wealth acquired by his victory; and the people, dazzled with such splendid objects, imagined their prince to be endowed with supernatural powers, and looked up to him with a reverence approaching to adoration.

Soon after his return to his own dominions, the Russian monarch despatched deputies to Constantinople with the articles of a treaty, which he required the Greek emperor to sign. This treaty, which is preserved in the Chronicles of Nestor, is extremely curious; and we learn from it many important particulars respecting the internal policy of the Russians at the beginning of the tenth century. Several articles of it show that the Russian laws laid great stress on oaths; that they pronounced the sentence of death against the murderer, instead of inflicting on him only a pecuniary fine, and thus allowing the rich to commit assassination with impunity; that the punishment of offences did not extend to the entire confiscation of goods, and hence the widow and orphan did not suffer for a crime of which they were innocent; that robbery, which attacks only property, was punished by the privation of property; that the citizens, secure in their possessions, were under no apprehension that the sovereign would seize on their heritage, and might even dispose of their effects in favour of friends.

Oleg maintained the sovereign power for thirty-three years; nor does it appear that Igor, even after he attained the age of majority, had any share in the administration, till the death of his guardian, in 913, left him in full possession of the throne.

Igor had reached his fortieth year before he entered upon the government. He soon discovered marks of the same warlike spirit which had actuated his predecessor. Among the nations that had been subjugated by Oleg, several, on the accession of the new sovereign, attempted to regain their independence; the Drevilians, who dwelt on the banks of the Uscha, in the present district of Vrutsch, being the first to revolt. They were, however, soon quelled, and punished by the imposition of an increased tribute.

Igor had next to contend with more formidable enemies. The Petchenegans, a nation hitherto unknown, quitted their settlements on the Yaik and the Volga, and made incursions into the Russian territory. These people appear to have been at least as powerful and warlike as the Varages; and Igor, finding himself unable to cope with them, concluded a treaty of alliance. About five years afterwards, disputes arose between the new allies, and both had recourse to arms. It appears that the Russians were finally victorious, and the Petchenegans were for some time disabled from giving further molestation.

The Russian monarchs, in imitation of his guardian, soon turned his attention towards the Grecian empire, where depredations might apparently be made with impunity. He equipped an immense armament, consisting, if we may credit the improbable tale of the Russian annals, of ten thousand barks, each carrying forty men, thus forming an army of four hundred thousand warriors. He set sail for Constantinople, without any previous declaration of war, and without any ostensible motive for thus infringing the treaty which had been concluded some years before between Oleg and Leo. In his route he overrun and ravaged the provinces of Paphlagonia, Pontus, and Bithynia, plundering the towns, and butchering the inhabitants. For some time the barbarians met with no opposition, as the imperial troops were engaged in distant provinces; but the government of the empire was now in very different hands from those which had held it during the former invasion. The Grecian forces were well appointed, and commanded by two generals of approved ability and courage. These were Theophanes and Phocas, of whom the former commanded the fleet, and the latter the army. The Russians had soon cause to repent their temerity. Theophanes attacked them on board their ships, within sight of the Pharos, and throwing among them the unquenchable Grecian fire, with the effects of which they were wholly unacquainted, produced such confusion, that many plunged into the sea in order to avoid the flames that threatened and pursued them. Their vessels were dispersed, shattered, or burned, and great numbers of their crews perished. The remainder reached the shores of Bithynia; but before they could recover from their consternation, they were met by Phocas, who fell upon them with his troops, and made prodigious slaughter. So great were the losses sustained by Igor in this unfortunate expedition, that he carried back with him scarcely a third of his army. This second naval expedition of the Russians against Constantinople took place in 941.

Though discouraged by the ill success which had attended his first invasion of the Grecian empire, Igor was too much stimulated by the desire of plunder, not to risk a second attempt. Three years afterwards, he collected new forces, took into pay many of the Petchenegans, and again set out for Greece; but before he had advanced beyond the Tauric Chersonesus, the emperor Romanus, informed of his approach, and not choosing to hazard the result of an engagement, sent deputies to the Russian leader, offering to pay him the same tribute which had been given to his predecessor. With this offer Igor complied, and once more retired with his army.

Igor was now far advanced in years; but the insatiable rapacity of his officers, ever craving for fresh spoils from vanquished nations, impelled him to turn his arms against the Drevilians, for the purpose of obtaining from them an increase of their yearly tribute. In this unjust attack he was at first successful, and returned loaded with the contributions which he had levied from that people; but having dismissed great part of his troops with the spoils of the vanquished, and marching with the remainder too far into the country, he fell into an ambuscade, which the Drevlians, now grown desperate, had formed on his approach, in the neighbourhood of Iskorosch. The Russians were soon overpowered, and Igor being made prisoner, was put to death.

Before the death of Igor, Igor had married a princess of a bold and daring spirit, named Olga, by whom he had one son, Sviatoslav; but as this boy was very young at the death of his father, the queen-mother Olga assumed the reins of government. Her first care was to take signal vengeance upon the unhappy Drevlians, for having bravely defended themselves against the encroachments of foreign enemies. This tribe, satisfied with the death of their oppressor, appeared desirous of renewing their amicable intercourse with the Russians, and their chief, Male, is even said to have made an offer of his hand to Igor's widow. Olga, with that deep cunning and concealed malice that so often mark the character of the despotic leader of a barbarous people, pretended to listen to their overtures, and received the deputies of Male, but immediately ordered them to be privately put to death. In the mean time she invited a larger deputation from the Drevlian chief, which she treated in the same inhuman manner, taking care that no tidings of either murder should be carried to the Drevlians. She then set out, as if on an amicable visit, to conclude the new alliance, and having proclaimed a solemn entertainment, to which she invited some hundreds of the principal inhabitants of the Drevlian towns, she caused them to be treacherously assassinated. But this was only the first step to the more dreadful vengeance which she had resolved to inflict on this deluded people. She laid waste the whole country of the Drevlians, and in particular the town near which Igor had lost his life. For a long time she could not master the place, as the inhabitants, dreading the horrible fate that awaited them, from the revengeful spirit of Olga, defended themselves with the utmost valour and success. At length, being assured of clemency, upon condition of sending to their besieger all the pigeons of the town, they submitted; but the queen causing lighted matches to be fastened to the tails of the pigeons, set them at liberty. The birds flew to their usual places of residence in the town, which were speedily in a conflagration. The wretched inhabitants endeavouring to escape the flames, fell into the hands of the Russian soldiers, planted around the town for that purpose, by whom they were put to the sword.

This was the only warlike transaction, if it deserves that name, which took place during the regency of Olga. Though not uncommon in the annals of a barbarous people, it would have been sufficient to hand down her name with detestation to posterity, had she not, in the opinion of her panegyrists, atoned for the enormity by attempting to introduce into her dominions the Christian religion.

Hitherto the Slavi, and the Scandinavian nations who had taken possession of their territories, were Pagans; and their religious ceremonies, like those of all the surrounding nations, were marked by an absurd and cruel superstition. Their deities seem to have been borrowed, partly from the Greeks and Romans, and partly from the Scythians; but were characterised by peculiar names, and represented by idols of complex workmanship and grotesque appearance. Thus, the god Perune, or Perkune, who was the chief among the Slavonian deities, was personated by an idol whose head was of silver, its ears and mustachios of massy gold, its legs of iron, and its trunk of hard incorruptible wood. It was decorated with rubies and carbuncles, and held in its hand a stone carved, being the symbol of lightning. The sacred fire burned continually before it; and if the priests suffered this to be extinguished, they were doomed to perish in the flames, as enemies of the god. Sacrifices of their flocks to this supreme deity were regarded as trifling. His altar smoked with the blood of captives, and even the children of his worshippers were sometimes immolated to appease his wrath or propitiate his favour.

It is uncertain at what time the light of Christianity began to beam on the nations that occupied the banks of the Dnieper, nor are we acquainted with the circumstances that led to the conversion of the queen-regent. We find, however, that about the middle of the tenth century, she undertook a journey to Constantinople for the express purpose of being initiated into the religion of Jesus. Constantine Porphyrogeneta, who then sat on the imperial throne, received the royal convert with the greatest honour and respect; he himself conducted her to the baptismal font, and, in the character of her sponsor, gave to her the name of Helen. Her example, however, had little influence on her son, or the nation at large. The Russians do not seem to have been very ardent in their religious observances, nor particularly attached to the opinions of their forefathers; but the nature of Christianity, and the character of its disciples, were not in their eyes sufficiently striking or alluring to produce any change in their religious system. Olga's son, Sviatoslav, either from his contempt for the unworthy character of the Greek Christians, or through fear of the ridicule to which his conversion might subject him from his young companions, disregarded all his mother's solicitations. He did not, however, prevent the people from receiving baptism, and a few proselytes were made. Though the character of Olga, even after her conversion to Christianity, was by no means such as to entitle her to the rank which she afterwards attained among the Russian saints, it appears that she had given her son many wise and prudent instructions respecting the government of his future empire. She travelled with him round the country; superintended the erection of bridges and the making of roads, for the benefit of trade and commerce; built several towns and villages, and founded such landable institutions, as sufficiently evince her talents for governing a nation. She died about the year 969, at a very advanced age.

It is probable that Olga retired from the administration of affairs soon after her conversion to Christianity; for we find Sviatoslav in full possession of the government long before his mother's death. This prince has been considered as one of the Russian heroes; and if a thirst for blood, a contempt of danger, and a disregard of the luxuries and conveniences of life, be admitted as the characteristics of a hero, he deserves the appellation. His habits rendered him the idol of his army. He took up his habitation in the camp, where he led a life exactly similar to that of the meanest soldier.

His first expedition was against the Kozares, a people who had come from the shores of the Caspian and the sides of the Caucasus, and had established themselves along the eastern coast of the Black Sea. They had rendered tributary both the Kievians, and the Viateches, a Slavonian nation that dwelt on the banks of the Oka and the Volga. Sviatoslav, desirous of transferring to himself the tribute which the Kozares derived from the latter people, marched against them, and appears to have succeeded in his design. He defeated them in a pitched battle, and took by storm their capital city, Sarkel or Belgorod. It is said by some historians that he even annihilated the nation; and certain it is, that from that time no mention is made of the Kozares.

The martial fame of Sviatoslav had extended to Constantinople; and the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, who was then harassed by the Ungrians, assisted by his treacherous Greek allies the Bulgarians, applied for succours to the Russian chieftain. A subsidiary treaty was entered into between them, and Sviatoslav hastened southward with a numerous army. He quickly made himself master of most of the Bulgarian towns along the Danube, and was so elated with his success that he determined to remove the centre of his government from Kief to the city of Pereiaslavatz, now Yamboly, situated upon the shores of that river. He was soon obliged, however, to postpone the completion of this design, on receiving intelligence that his old enemies the Petchenegans had assembled in great numbers, ravaged the Kievan territory, and laid siege to the capital, within the walls of which were shut up his mother and his sons. He hastened to the relief of his family, but before he reached home, the Petchenegans had been induced to raise the siege by an artifice of the Kievan general. Sviatoslav on his arrival pursued the enemy, defeated them, and obliged them to sue for peace.

He now resumed his design of establishing himself on the banks of the Danube, and divided his hereditary dominions among his children. He gave Kief to Yaropolk, the Drevlian territory to Oleg, and on Vladimir, a natural son, born to him by one of the attendants of Olga, he bestowed the government of Novgorod. On his return to Bulgaria, indeed, he found that his affairs had assumed a very different aspect; for the Bulgarians, taking advantage of his absence with his troops, had recovered most of their towns, and seemed well prepared to resist the encroachments of a foreign power. Sviatoslav, however, soon regained all that he had lost.

During these transactions the Emperor Nicephorus had been assassinated, and John Zimises, his murderer, had succeeded to the imperial diadem. The new emperor sent ambassadors to the Russian monarch, requiring him to comply with the stipulations of his treaty with Nicephorus, and evacuate Bulgaria, which he had agreed to occupy as an ally, but not as a master. Sviatoslav refused to give up his newly-acquired possessions, and prepared to decide the contest by force of arms. The particulars of this campaign, and the numbers of the contending armies, are very differently related by the Russian annalists, and the historians of the Grecian empire; the former stating that Sviatoslav had not more than ten thousand men, and yet was victorious over the troops of Zimises; while the Grecian historians affirm that the Russians amounted to three hundred thousand, but were defeated, and compelled to abandon Bulgaria. As far as respects the issue of the war, the Grecian writers are probably correct; for it is certain that Sviatoslav retreated towards Russia with the shattered remains of his army. He did not, however, live to reach the capital; for having, contrary to the advice of his most experienced officers, attempted to return to Kief by the dangerous navigation of the Dnieper, he was intercepted by the Petchenegans near the cataracts of that river. After remaining upon the defensive during winter, exposed to all the horrors of famine and disease, he, on the return of spring, attempted to force his way through the ranks of the enemy; but his troops were defeated, and himself killed in the battle.

Yaropolk, the sovereign of Kief, may be considered as the successor of Sviatoslav upon the Russian throne; but his reign was short and turbulent. A war took place between him and his brother Oleg, on account of a base assassination committed by the latter upon the son of his father's friend and privy councillor Svenald. Oleg was defeated and slain, and the other brother, Vladimir, dreading the increased power and ambitious disposition of Yaropolk, abandoned his dominions, which were quickly seized on by the Kievan prince. Vladimir had retired among the Varagians, from whom he soon procured such succours as enabled him to make effectual head against the usurper. While his natural courage was thus increased, his enmity against Yaropolk received an additional spur from an affront inflicted on him by a lady whom he had sought in marriage, but who, despising the meanness of his birth, as being the son of a slave, had rejected his proposals, and offered her hand to Yaropolk. The vindictive Vladimir, on being informed of this insult, attacked the possessions of the lady's father, put both him and his two sons to the sword, and obliged the princess to accept his hand, yet reeking with her parent's blood. He now advanced towards Kief, where Yaropolk was by no means prepared to oppose him. The Kievan prince had indeed been lulled into security by the treacherous report of one of his voivodes, who was in the interest of Vladimir, and who not only prevented Yaropolk from taking effectual measures for his safety, but found means to raise suspicions in his breast against the inhabitants of his capital, which he thus induced him to abandon. The Kievians, left without a leader, opened their gates to Vladimir; and the wretched Yaropolk, still misled by the treachery of his adviser, determined to throw himself on the mercy of his brother. It is probable that this would have availed him little, as Vladimir seems to have determined on his death; but before he could reach the arms of his revengeful brother, Yaropolk was assassinated by some of his Varagian followers.

By this murder the conqueror acquired the undivided possession of his father's territories, and maintained the sovereignty during a long reign, respected at home, and feared abroad. Indeed, had not the commencement of his reign been stained with the blood of his father-in-law and his brother, we might place him among the most distinguished monarchs of the age in which he lived, as he not only extended and enriched his empire, but was the means of establishing in his dominions, upon a firm and lasting basis, the Christian religion, which, though introduced by Olga, appears hitherto to have made but a very trifling progress.

The commencement of Vladimir's reign formed but a reign of continuation of those enormities which had conducted him to the throne. He began with removing Blude, the treacherous voivode by whom his brother had been betrayed into his power, and to whom he had promised the highest honours and dignities. Accordingly, for three days he suffered Blude to live in all the splendour of a prince. At the end of that period he thus addressed him: "I have fulfilled my promise; I have treated thee as my friend; the honours thou hast received exceed thy most sanguine wishes. Today, as the judge of crimes and the executor of justice, I condemn the traitor, and punish the assassin of his prince." Having uttered these words, he caused Blude to be put to death. He displayed still more the perfidiousness of his character in his behaviour towards the Varagians, who had assisted in placing him on the throne of his ancestors; for on their requesting permission to go and seek their fortune in Greece, he granted their request, but privately advertised the emperor of their approach, and caused them to be arrested and secured.

Vladimir engaged in numerous wars, and subjected several of the neighbouring states to his dominion. He seized on part of the Polish territories, and compelled the Bulgarians who dwelt in the districts that now form the government of Kazan to do him homage. He subjected the Petchenegans and Khazares, who lay in the immediate neighbourhood of the Kievan state; he reduced to his authority Halitsch and Vladimir, countries which are now called Galicia and Lubomiria; he conquered Lithuania as far as Memel, and took possession of a great part of the modern Livonia.

His conduct after these successes by no means prognosticated his future zeal for the Christian religion. None of its devotees the Russian monarchs appears to have been more devout in the adoration of their heathen deities. It was usual for him to return thanks to the gods for the success which they had granted to his arms, and to show his gratitude by offering on their altars a part of the prisoners he had taken in war. Upon one occasion his piety extended so far, that he resolved on selecting one of his own subjects as the object of his sacrifice, thinking that he should thus more worthily testify his gratitude for the signal favours he had received from heaven. His choice fell upon a young Varagian. gian, who was the son of a Christian, and had been brought up in the new faith. The unhappy father refused the demanded victim. The enraged people, deeming their prince and their religion insulted, assailed the house, and having burst open the doors, butchered both the father and the son, folded in mutual embraces.

Yet this furious Pagan and bloody warrior afterwards became a most zealous Christian, and a shining example of charity and benevolence to his subjects. The circumstances that led to these important changes are, as well as the martial achievements of this favourite prince, related with great minuteness by the Russian annalists, and give this part of their chronicles the air rather of a historical romance than a narrative of facts. We are told that the fame of Vladimir's military exploits had rendered him so formidable to the neighbouring nations, that each courted his alliance, and strove to render this more lasting by engaging him in the ties of the same religion with themselves. In particular, the Grecian emperors sent to him a philosopher, whose exhortations, though they did not at first induce Vladimir to embrace the Greek religion, at least succeeded in giving him a favourable opinion of it; so that the philosopher was entertained with respect, and returned home loaded with presents. We are also told, that, determined to act in the most impartial manner with respect to the several religions which he had been invited to embrace, the prince despatched persons remarkable for their wisdom and sagacity to visit the surrounding nations, inspect the religious tenets and ceremonies that distinguished them, and communicate to him the result of their observations. On the return of these deputies, the report of those who had visited the churches of Constantinople, and witnessed the imposing splendour of religious adoration, and the gorgeous decorations of the Greek priests in the superb basilica of St Sophia, proved so satisfactory to Vladimir, that he determined on embracing the Christian religion according to the observances of the Greek church. But though he resolved on baptism, he was too proud to seek from the Greek emperor a priest by whom the solemn ordinance might be performed. He assembled an army selected from all the nations of which his empire was composed, and marching to Taurida, laid siege to Theodosia, which is the modern Kaffa. On sitting down before the walls of this place, he is said to have offered up the following characteristic prayer: "O God, grant me thy help to take this town, that I may carry from it Christians and priests to instruct me and my people, and convey the true religion into my dominions." His prayer was at length granted; for, rather by stratagem than by force, he made himself master of the town, and, through it, of the whole of the Crimea. He might now have received baptism; but his desire of being initiated in the Christian faith seems to have been excited more by ambition than by true devotion. His ruling passion promised to be amply gratified by an alliance with the Grecian emperors, as he would thus acquire some legal claim on the territories which they possessed. He therefore demanded in marriage Anna, the sister of Basilus and Constantine, who jointly held the imperial dignity; threatening, that if they refused his proffered alliance, he would lay siege to Constantinople. After some deliberation, the emperors complied, on condition that Vladimir and his people should become Christians; and these conditions being accepted, the Russian monarch was baptized, took the name of Basilus, received the Grecian princess, and, as the reward of his victories, carried off several popes and archimandrites, together with sacred vessels and church books, images of saints, and consecrated relics.

Whatever might have been the considerations that swayed Vladimir in his conversion to the Christian faith, it is certain that his new religion had the happiest influence on his subsequent life and conduct. He not only abjured idolatry himself, and destroyed the idols which he had caused to be raised in his dominions, but he used every exertion to persuade and compel his subjects to follow his example. Before his conversion he is said to have possessed five wives and eight hundred concubines; but after he became a Christian, he maintained an unshaken fidelity towards the imperial princess. As a Pagan he had been lavish of human blood; but after he had adopted the religion of Jesus, he could scarcely be prevailed on to sentence to death a single highway robber. His former delight had been in storming towns and gaining battles; but he now found his greatest pleasure in building churches, and endowing seminaries of education. He encouraged the raising of new cities and towns; peopled the waste districts of his country with the prisoners whom he had taken in war; and not only conducted himself as a sovereign who consulted the welfare of his dominions, but displayed many benevolent and amiable qualities that highly endeared him to his subjects. By thus showing that Christianity had made him both a milder and a wiser prince, he insured from his people a respect for the new religion, whilst the striking example of the sovereign and his nobles could not fail to influence the minds of the inferior orders. Having one day issued a proclamation, ordering all the inhabitants of Kief to repair next morning to the banks of the river to be baptized, the people cheerfully obeyed the order; observing, that if it were not good to be baptized, the prince and the boyars would never submit to the ceremony.

The establishment of Christianity in the Russian dominions forms one of the most prominent features in the reign of Vladimir, and gives him a much juster claim to the title of Great, which has been bestowed on him by historians, than all his numerous victories. We have therefore dwelt on it with the greater minuteness. Indeed the latter transactions of his reign afford but little interest. His last days were embittered by domestic vexations. His wife and one of his favourite sons died long before him; while another of his sons, Yaroslaf, on whom he had bestowed the government of Novgorod, refused to acknowledge him as his liege lord, and applied to the Varagians for assistance against his father. The aged Vladimir, compelled to march against a rebellious son, died of grief upon the road, after a long and glorious reign of thirty-five years.

Notwithstanding the unfavourable circumstances we have noticed, the improvement which Russia owed to this prince was great and permanent. With the Christian religion he of the Russian empire; and almost entirely new-modelled the language of his country, by engraving on it the more refined dialect of the Greeks, and adopting, in a great measure, the letters of their alphabet.

The dominions of Russia, which at first consisted of two principalities, that of Novgorod, bordering on the Baltic, and that of Kief, occupying no very large space on the eastern bank of the Dnieper, were, by the victories of Vladimir, extended westward along the shores of the Baltic into Lithuania and Poland; southward along the shores of the Euxine, so as to include the Crimea and great part of the Bulgarian territories; whilst to the east it extended to the Oka, the Don, and the Volga. He still maintained the seat of government at Kief, of which he was styled grand prince, whilst the other districts were either tributary to that principality, or held of it as their superior.

Before his death, Vladimir had divided his extensive territories amongst his twelve sons, reserving to himself and of his immediate heir the grand principality of Kief. The consequences of this ill-judged distribution were disunion, contention, and almost perpetual warfare amongst the brothers. The most respectable, and in the end the most powerful of these, was Yaroslaf, or, as he is commonly called, Jarislas, prince of Novgorod. This prince, finding that Sviatopolk, who had raised himself to the sovereignty of Kief after his father's death, attempted by assassination, or force of arms, to take possession of the neighbouring principalities, determined to resist him in his encroachments. Collecting an army of Novgorodians, he, in 1016, drove Sviatopolk from Kief, and forced him to seek asylum with his father-in-law, Boleslas, duke of Poland. Boleslas, easily persuaded to engage in the cause of his son-in-law, accompanied Sviatopolk into Russia with an army, retook Kief, and obliged the Novgorodian prince to retire with precipitation. Whilst he was endeavouring to collect fresh forces to renew the war with Boleslas and Sviatopolk, the latter, by the treachery and perfidy with which he treated his Polish allies, contributed to his own downfall. He caused great numbers of the Poles to be secretly massacred, a transaction by which Boleslas was so incensed, that he plundered Kief, made himself master of several places on the Russian frontiers, and then left his perfidious son-in-law to shift for himself. Sviatopolk now sought assistance from the Petchenegans, and with an army of these auxiliaries offered battle to Yaroslaf, not far from the place where he had, four years before, caused one of his brothers to be murdered. The contest was long and bloody, but terminated in favour of Yaroslaf. Sviatopolk was put to flight, and died soon afterwards.

By this victory Yaroslaf acquired possession of the greater part of his father's dominions, and testified his gratitude for the assistance given him by the Novgorodians, by the attention which he paid to the particular improvement of that state. He drew up for it a code of laws, which are still known by the appellation of the municipal law of Novgorod. He also exerted himself for the welfare of other towns, and of the country at large.

Yaroslaf did not neglect the advancement of the Christian religion. He established a metropolitan in Kief, and thus gave to the Russian clergy a head, who might watch over the morals of the inferior pastors, and provide for the general dissemination of the Christian doctrine. He collected several books on the Greek religion, and caused many of them to be translated into the Russian language.

This monarch is supposed to have died in 1054, and to have reigned thirty-five years. He followed the example of his father, in dividing his territories amongst his sons, though he endeavoured to prevent the dissensions which he himself had witnessed from such a partition, by exhorting them on his deathbed to the most intimate concord, and endeavouring to convince them that they would be respected by their subjects, and feared by their enemies, only whilst they continued to act with unanimity.

We know little of the proceedings of Yaroslaf's successors, except that Isiaslaf, his eldest son, who until 1078 reigned as grand prince of Kief, had frequent disputes with his brothers, in which he was assisted by the Poles, and supported by the influence of the Roman pontiff.

From the death of Isiaslaf to the beginning of the thirteenth century, the history of Russia comprises little else than a continued series of intestine commotions and petty wars with the neighbouring states. The same system of dismemberment was continued by the succeeding princes, and was attended with the same result. There were during this period not fewer than seventeen independent principalities, though these were at length reduced to seven, viz. those of Kief, Novgorod, Smolensk, Vladimir, Tver, Halitch, and Moskva or Moscow. Of these, Kief and Novgorod long continued to be the most powerful, though they could not always maintain their superiority over the others; and towards the latter end of the period which we have mentioned, the district of Vladimir erected itself into a grand principality, and became at least as powerful as Kief and Novgorod.

During the intestine broils that attended the dismemberment of the Russian monarchy, the ambition of its neighbours, with the folly of the contending princes, who solicited foreign aid against their rivals, contributed to diminish the strength and resources of the empire. In particular, the Poles and the Hungarians availed themselves of these circumstances. By ravaging the towns and villages, carrying off the captives into slavery, and making a prey of whatever appeared most useful, they quickly recompensed themselves for their assistance. The Poles seem to have been the most successful in their depredations, and to have fully revenged themselves for their former humiliation.

A state of anarchy and confusion, such as we have described, held out a strong temptation to powerful states in the vicinity. In the neighbourhood of the Sea of Aral, not far from the confines of Vladimir and Kief, the wandering hordes of Mongols, or Mongol Tartars, had taken up their residence. They were perhaps descended from the ancient Scythians, and long dwelt on the confines of China. Hence they gradually marched westward, and about the year 1223 arrived on the shores of the Sea of Aral, under the conduct of Tuschi, son of the famous Tschinghis Khan, chief of the Mogul empire. From the Aral, Tuschi conducted his horde along the shores of the Caspian Sea, and gradually approached the Dnieper. In his course he attacked and overcame the Tscherkasses, or Circassians, who on his approach had joined with the Polovtzes to resist the terrible enemy. The defeated Polovtzes gave notice to their neighbours the Russians, of the approaching storm, and invited them to form a common cause against the enemy. In the mean time the Tartars had sent ambassadors to the Russians, hoping to prevent their alliance with the Polovtzes, and thus the more easily to subdue the disunited nations. For this time, however, the Russians were true to their own interest. In concert with the Polovtzes they assembled an army, and prepared to resist the incursions of the Tartars. Both parties

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1 In the supremacy of these three great principalities, we may trace the division of European Russia into Great, Little, and White Russia; a distinction which long maintained its ground, and in later times gave to the sovereign of this empire the title of monarch or emperor of all the Russias. Great Russia comprehended the principality of Novgorod, and extended northward to the White Sea, eastward to the river Dvina, and the entrance of the Petchora into the Ural Mountains; whilst to the south it bordered on the district of Vladimir, as far as the Volga and the mouth of the Medveditzia, and to the west on Lithuania and Prussia, including the tributary tribes on the Baltic, as far as Memel. Its capital was Novgorod. Little Russia extended on the north along the river Ager to White Russia, on the east above the Donetz and the Oka to the Polovtzes and the Petchenegans; whilst to the south it stretched as far as the Tauric Chersonese, or the Crimea, and to the west along the bank of the Dnieper. This was the principality of Kief, and in that city was the seat of government. The principality of Vladimir received the name of White Russia. It extended northward along the Volga, to the southern boundary of Great Russia; to the east it bordered on the possessions of the Ugres, and the territory of the Mordvines, stretching down the Volga to the mouth of the Oka; and to the south it extended along the Oka to the principality of Riazan, and the Bulgarian territory. The metropolis of this division was at first Shuja, and afterwards in succession Rostof, Suzdal, and Vladimir, till at length the seat of government was transferred to Moscow.

The principality of Novgorod appears, during this interval, to have been the most respect able for its commercial intercourse with the neighbouring nations, and for the independent spirit of its internal government. This, though nominally monarchical, seems to have possessed much of a republican character. The princes were evidently dependent on the people, and some ludicrous instances of this dependence are related by the old historians. One of the grand princes had so much displeased his people, that they refused to pay him their usual obedience. As the prince seems to have been aware of the little influence which he possessed in the state, he employed the metropolitan of the principality to negotiate a reconciliation. This prelate, accordingly, by a letter addressed to the Novgorodians, interceded for the sovereign, and pledged himself as surety for his good behaviour. met near the small river Kalka, which flows into the Sea of Azof, and a furious engagement took place, ending in the complete overthrow of the Russians and their allies.

About thirteen years after this defeat, another horde of Tartars, headed by Baaty Khan, the grandson of Tschinghis Khan, penetrated into Russia, after having attacked and defeated their neighbours the Bulgarians. The invaders soon spread far and wide the terror of their name. Wherever they came, the whole face of nature was laid waste; towns and villages were destroyed by fire; all the men capable of bearing arms were put to the sword, and the children, women, and old men, carried into captivity. If the inhabitants of the towns to which they approached offered a compromise, the faithless barbarians affected to receive their submission, but immediately broke the agreement, and treated those who surrendered to their mercy with as much rigour as those who had endeavoured to defend themselves and had been overcome. If the inhabitants of the open towns and villages came out to meet them, and to receive them as conquerors and friends, death, torture, or the most ignominious bondage, was the reward of their spontaneous submission.

The first state which the Tartars attacked was Riazan, the prince of which applied for assistance to Yury, commonly called by historians George Vsevolodovitch, grand prince of Vladimir. He sent them a few auxiliaries, but these either came too late, or their number was too small. The principality of Riazan fell; and its fall was succeeded by that of Pereiaslavl, Rostof, Susdal, and several others. Like a furious torrent rushing down the mountain side, and irresistibly bearing with it all that impedes its progress, these barbarous hordes poured rapidly along, sweeping all before them in one common devastation. They now approached the principality of Vladimir, and no army appeared to resist them upon the frontiers. They advanced unimpeded to the capital, which, left to its fate by the grand prince, had nothing to expect but the same cruel treatment which the neighbouring cities had received. Yury, with unpardonable negligence, was celebrating a marriage feast, when he ought to have been employed in collecting the means of defence against the enemy, of whose approach to his borders he had received timely intimation. The city of Vladimir, which contained the princess and two of her sons, was left to the protection of a chieftain totally unqualified for its defence; and the inhabitants seemed to share in the pusillanimity of their governor. Instead of annoying the enemy by occasional excursions, and preparing the means of defending the walls against a sudden attack, they gave themselves up to terror and despair; and as they conceived death to be inevitable, they prepared for it, by taking the habits of monks and nuns, in order to insure to themselves a blissful departure. A prey to fear and despondency, the city soon fell into the hands of the Tartars. They one morning scaled the walls, and meeting with little opposition, quickly made themselves masters of the place, when they cast aside every feeling of humanity, and, like beasts of prey, glutted their appetite for blood amongst the wretched inhabitants. The grand princess, and other ladies of distinction, dreading the brutality of the relentless conquerors, had taken refuge in the choir of a church, an asylum which all the assurances of the Tartars that they should suffer no injury could not prevail on them to abandon. It was therefore set on fire by the barbarians, who feasted their ears with the shrieks and groans of the women as the flames surrounded them.

Yury, incensed almost to desperation at the fate of his capital, and the horrible death of his wife and children, was determined to take signal vengeance on the assailants. He assembled all the forces which he could draw together; and though his army was greatly inferior in number to the Tartars, he marched against the enemy, and attacked them with the most determined valour. The struggle was short but bloody. The Tartars were victorious, and the body of Yury was found amongst the slain.

This appears to have been the only vigorous stand made by the Russian princes. The Tartars pushed forward with rapidity, and successively overpowered the principalities of Novgorod and Kief. In the latter city they found immense booty; but this circumstance did not prevent them from repeating here the same bloody scenes which they had acted in the other capitals. The governor was preserved from the cruelties that had been inflicted upon the inhabitants, by the courage he had displayed in defence of the city; and his noble demeanour, when he fell into the hands of the conqueror, acquiring the esteem and affection of that chief, enabled him to obtain a temporary repose to his country.

The Tartars had now established themselves in the Russian territories, and their khan or chief, though he did not of himself assume the nominal sovereignty, reigned as paramount lord, and placed on the throne any of the native princes whom he found most obsequious to his will, or who had ingratiated themselves by the magnificence of their presents. Till the middle of the fourteenth century, the throne was successively occupied by Yaroslaf II., Alexander Yaroslavitch called Saint Alexander Neffsky, Yaroslaf Yaroslavitch, Vasili Yaroslavitch, Dimitri Alexandrovitch, Andrei, Danilii, both brothers of Dimitri, Mikaila Yaroslavitch, Yury Danilovitch, Alexander Mikailovitch, Ivan Danilovitch, Simeon Ivanovitch, and Ivan Ivanovitch.

During these several reigns, the miseries of a foreign yoke were aggravated by all the calamities of intestine discord and war; whilst the knights of Livonia, or Brothers of the Short Sword, as they are sometimes called, kind of the Polish military order of religious, on one side, and the Poles on the other, catching at the opportunity, and attacking Russia, took several of its towns, and even some considerable countries. The Tartars and Russians, whose interests were in this case the same, often united to oppose their common enemy; but they were generally worsted. The Livonians took Pleskow, and the Poles made themselves masters of Black Russia, the Ukraine, Podolin, and the city of Kief. Casimir the Great, one of their kings, carried his conquests still farther. He asserted his pretensions to a part of Russia, in right of his relation to Boleslas, duke of Kalitz, who died without issue, and forcibly possessed himself of the duchies of Perzesmylia, Kalitz, and Luckow, with the districts of Sanock, Lubakow, and Trehowla; of all which countries he made a province of Poland.

The newly-conquered Russians were ill disposed to endure the government of the Poles, whose laws and customs were more contrary to their own than those of the Tartars had been. They joined the latter to rid themselves of the yoke, and assembled an army numerous enough to overwhelm all Poland, but destitute of valour and discipline. Casimir, undaunted by this deluge of barbarians, presented himself at the head of a few troops on the borders of the Vistula, and obliged his enemies to retire.

About the year 1362 Dimitri Ivanovitch received the sovereignty from the Tartar chief, and established the seat of his government at Moscow. This prince possessed considerable ambition, and contrived to inspire the other Russian princes with so much respect for his person and government, that they consented to hold their principalities as fiefs under Dimitri. This increased the consequence of the Russian prince, and excited the jealousy of Mamai the Tartar khan, who determined to take measures for maintaining his superiority. He began by demanding an increase of tribute; but when Dimitri demurred to this new encroachment, the khan not only insisted on his demand, but required the grand prince to appear before him in person. This requisition Dimitri thought proper to refuse, and prepared to support his refusal by force of arms. The terror with which the Tartars had inspired the inhabitants of Russia had now considerably subsided, whilst the hatred which the Russians bore these haughty masters was kept alive by the barbarism of their manners and the difference of their religion. The Christian ministers, justly dreading that the Tartars, in their furious progress, might extirpate Christianity, contributed all in their power to confirm the spirit of revolt amongst the people; and they promised the crown of martyrdom to such as should fall in battle against the infidels. Thus the contest into which the grand prince determined to enter in support of his authority became in some measure a holy war, undertaken in defence of the national religion. This combination of favourable circumstances operated so strongly in favour of Dimitri, and the princes that had confederated with him, that they soon collected an army of two hundred thousand men. With this force the grand prince left Moscow, and marched towards the Don, on the southern bank of which the Tartars were encamped. Arrived at this river, he left it to the choice of his troops, either to cross the river and encounter the enemy on the other side, or to await the attack where they were. The general voice declared for passing over to the assault. He accordingly transported his battalions across the river, that he might cut off all hope of escaping by retreat. The fight now commenced, and though the numbers of the enemy far exceeded their own, the Russians defended themselves valiantly against the furious onset of the Tartars; but as these barbarians were continually relieved by fresh reinforcements, they appeared to be gaining ground. Indeed, nothing but the impossibility of retreating across the river, and the firm persuasion that death would immediately transport them to the mansions of eternal bliss, restrained the Russians from a general flight. At the moment when the day seemed entirely lost, a detachment of the grand prince's army which had been stationed in reserve, and had remained out of the view of the enemy, came up with unabated force, fell on the rear of the Tartars, and threw them into such terror and confusion that they fled with Mamai at their head, leaving the Russians masters of the field.

This glorious victory, which took place in 1380, was attended with numerous advantages to the Russian cause. In particular, it taught the native princes that the Tartars were not unconquerable; and that nothing was wanting to relieve them from the galling yoke under which they had long groaned, but mutual union, courage, and prudence. The Tartars appear to have been so much humbled by this defeat, that for a time they left the Russians to enjoy in peace their recovered liberty. This forbearance, however, was not of long duration. Before the death of Dimitri, returning with increased numbers, they laid siege to Moscow, which, after an obstinate defence, was at length induced to surrender, and Russia once more submitted to her old masters.

Dimitri died in the year 1389, and was succeeded by his son Vasili Dimitrievitch. In the reign of this prince a new incursion of the Tartars took place, under the great Timur or Tamerlane, who, after having subdued all the neighbouring Tartar hordes, extended his conquests to the Russian territories, took Moscow by assault, and carried off immense plunder.

The grand principality of Vladimir, or, as it may now be called, of Moscow, had, at the end of the fourteenth century, attained its greatest height, whilst that of Kief had proportionally declined. This latter principality was, at the time of which we are now writing, under the dominion of the Poles, having been seized on in 1320 by Gedemin, duke of Lithuania.

The later part of the fifteenth century forms a splendid epoch in the Russian history. At this time, viz. from 1462 to 1505, reigned Ivan Vasiliivitch, or, as he is commonly called, John Basilovitch. This able prince, by his invincible spirit and refined policy, became both the conqueror and deliverer of his country, and laid the first foundation of its future grandeur. Observing with indignation the narrow limits of his power at his accession to the throne, after the death of his father Vasili the Blind, he began immediately to resolve within himself upon the means of enlarging his dominions. He demanded and obtained in marriage Maria, sister of Michael duke of Twer, whom he soon afterwards deposed, on pretence of revenging the injuries done to his father, and added this duchy to his own territories of Moscow. Maria, by whom he had a son, who died before him, did not live long; and upon her death he married Sophia, daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, who had been driven from Constantinople, and forced to seek shelter at Rome, where the pope portioned this princess, in hopes of thus procuring great advantage to the Catholic religion; but his expectations were frustrated, Sophia being obliged to conform to the Greek church after her arrival in Russia.

The Russians certainly owed to this alliance their deliverance from the Tartar yoke. Shocked at the servile homage exacted by these proud victors, when she saw her husband going to meet their ambassadors at some distance from the city, and standing to hear what they had to say, whilst they were at dinner, Sophia told him that she was surprised to find she had married a servant to the Tartars. Nettled at the reproach, Ivan feigned himself ill when the next deputation from the Tartars arrived, and by means of this stratagem avoided a repetition of the humiliating ceremonial. Another circumstance equally displeasing to the princess was, that the Tartars possessed by agreement, within the walls of the palace at Moscow, houses in which their ministers resided; a stipulation which they had made at once to show their power and watch the actions of the grand prince. To rid her husband and herself of these unpleasant neighbours, Sophia sent a formal embassy to the khan, to inform him, that as she had been favoured with a vision from above, commanding her to build a temple in the place where then stood the houses of the Tartar ministers, her mind could not be at ease till she had fulfilled the divine command; she therefore desired his leave to pull them down, and give his people others. The khan consented. The houses within the Kremlin were demolished, and no new ones being provided, the Tartar residents were obliged to leave Moscow; an affront which their prince was not able to revenge, as he was then engaged in a war with the Poles.

Ivan, taking advantage of this circumstance, and having gradually increased his forces, now openly proclaimed all cases subjection to the Tartars, attacked their territories, and against made himself master of Kazan. Here he was solemnly crowned with a diadem which is said to be the same that is still used in the coronation of the Russian sovereigns. This took place about the year 1470, and led to a complete emancipation of Russia from the Tartar dominion. Ivan afterwards carried his arms against the neighbouring states, Asiatic Bulgaria, and great part of Lapland, soon submitted to him; and the great Novgorod, a city then so famous that the Russians were accustomed to intimate their idea of its importance by the proverbial expression, Who can resist God and the great Novgorod? was reduced by his generals after a seven years' siege, and yielded immense treasure. After he quitted the city, which had been awed by his presence, the discontent excited at his violent measures broke out into acts of mutiny, upon which he, in 1485, carried off fifty of the principal families, and distributed them through several of the Russian towns. He afterwards removed some thousands of the most considerable inhabitants, and substituted for them more loyal subjects from other places. By these proceedings the flourishing commerce of this city received a considerable shock, and it suffered still more by the imprisonment of all the German merchants, and the confiscation of their effects, with the abolition of the old municipal franchises. Indeed from this period Novgorod never recovered its former splendour.

After his reduction of this city, Ivan invaded the territories of Livonia and Esthonia; in consequence, as we are told, of an affront offered to him by the inhabitants of Revel. Here, however, he met with a stout resistance, and does not seem to have made much progress. Towards the conclusion of his reign, the Kazanian Tartars, who, though humbled, had continued to inhabit that district, made a hard struggle to shake off the Russian yoke that had been imposed on them; but Ivan had established his authority too firmly for them to accomplish their purpose during his life. He died in 1505, and was succeeded by his son Vasili IVanovich, commonly called Basilus III.

The Tartars of Kazan were still suffered to maintain a show of independency, by electing their own khans; but a Russian noble, under the denomination of voivode, was associated with the khan in the government, and took care that the administration should be conducted in such a manner as to secure the interests of his master. About fourteen years after the death of Ivan, however, the Tartars resolved to overturn so humiliating an administration. They murdered the Russian voivode, expelled their nominal khan, and united themselves with their brethren of the Crimea. With their assistance they assembled a mighty force, entered the Russian dominions, and carried their arms even to the gates of Moscow. The grand prince Vasili found himself at that time unable to resist the barbarians; and therefore purchased an exemption from general pillage by great presents, and a promise of renewed allegiance. The Tartars retired, but carried off immense booty, and nearly three hundred thousand prisoners, the greater part of whom they sent to Theodosia in the Crimea, and sold to the Turks. This humiliation of Vasili did not, however, long continue; and he was soon enabled to make head against the Tartars, and to recover possession of the city Kazan, and of Pscove, a city which had been built by the Princess Olga, and was the great rival of Novgorod in wealth and commercial importance. Under this prince all the principalities of Russia were once more united, and they have remained ever since under the dominion of one sovereign.

It was under the son and successor of Vasili, Ivan IV., or, as he is styled by the Russian historians, Ivan Vasili-vitch II., that Russia completely emancipated herself from her subjection to the Tartars, and acquired a vast accession of territory, which extended her empire into the northeast of Asia, and rendered her for the first time superior in extent to any state that had appeared since the Roman empire. Vasili died in 1538, having reigned twenty-eight years, and lived fifty-five. His son Ivan was only three years old when he succeeded to the throne; and during his minority the state became a prey to anarchy and confusion. But when he attained his seventeenth year, he was able to assume the reins of government without opposition; and, from the important transactions in which he immediately engaged, he must have been possessed of considerable resources.

In taking into his own hands the administration of the state, Ivan displayed so much prudence and manly fortitude as soon raised him very high in the estimation of his subjects. At the same time he showed marks of a tyrannical disposition and irritability of temper, which made him rather feared than admired by his friends, whilst they rendered him an object of terror to his neighbours and his enemies. He saw himself surrounded on all sides by contending factions, and to suppress these was the first object of his care. In the choice of means for effecting this, he does not seem to have been very scrupulous, provided they tended to the accomplishment of his end; and in punishing the offences of those who opposed his purpose, his violence of temper not unfrequently led him to confound the innocent with the guilty. He was successful, however, in his great design; and having secured the domestic tranquillity of his dominions, he had leisure to direct his attention to the more remote but not less predominant objects of his ambition. He resolved to attempt liberating his country for ever from the dominion of the Tartars; and he succeeded. In the year 1551 he marched an army in the depth of winter into the district of Kazan, and laid siege to the capital, checking by severe punishments the murmurs of his troops, who loudly and openly expressed their dislike to this expedition.

Before entering seriously on the siege of Kazan, he built several forts on the frontiers of the Tartar territories, by which he hoped to awe these barbarians, and to prevent their capital from disturbing the peace of his dominions. He then invested Kazan, and, in the year 1552, made himself master of it by the new, and, to the Tartars, unheard-of method of springing a mine below the walls. The inhabitants that escaped slaughter were offered mercy on condition that they should embrace the Christian faith. By this important conquest, the dominion of the Tartars, who had oppressed the Russians for more than three centuries, was completely and permanently overthrown.

About two years later Ivan extended his conquests eastward to the shores of the Caspian, and took possession of the territory that lay on the right bank of the Volga, round Russian city of Astracan, which was also inhabited by the Tartar hordes.

Ivan, as well as his grandfather, had found it necessary to chastise the inhabitants of Novgorod. But, in the year 1570, this city, being suspected of forming a plot for delivering itself and the surrounding territory into the hands of the king of Poland, felt still more severely the effects of his vengeance. All who had been in any degree implicated in the conspiracy, to the number of twenty-five thousand, suffered by the hands of the executioner. The city of Pscove was threatened with a similar proscription; but Ivan, on their voluntary submission, contented himself with the execution of a few monks, and the confiscation of the property of the most opulent inhabitants. It is not surprising that acts like these should have given to this prince the names of terrible and tyrant, by which historians have occasionally distinguished him; though it is not a little extraordinary that he should have retained so much interest in the affections of his subjects, that when, to try their attachment, he, in 1575, abdicated the government, and retained only the title of Prince of Moscow, the majority of the nation loudly expressed their wish for him to resume the administration of affairs. We can account for this only by considering the measures which he had adopted for the improvement and the civilization of his people. These were of such a nature as in a great measure to obliterate the remembrance of his cruelty and oppression. He promulgated a new code of laws, composed partly of such ancient statutes as were still in force, and were capable of improvement, and partly of new regulations, which he either contrived himself, or adopted from the neighbouring states. He found it necessary, however, to render many of these laws extremely severe; though their execution was most frequently exemplified in the persons of his nobles, whose proud obstinacy seemed unconquerable by more lenient measures.

Ivan cultivated an intercourse with several of the European states, especially with Germany. In 1547, he sent an splendid embassy to the Emperor Charles V., requesting him to permit a number of German artists, mechanics, and literary men, to establish themselves in Russia. Charles readily complied with his request, and several hundred volunteers were collected and assembled at Lubeck, whence they were to proceed through Livonia to Moscow. The Lubeck- ers; however, afraid lest the improvement of the Russians in arts and manufactures might render them independent of their neighbours, and diminish the commercial intercourse that had long subsisted between their city and the principal towns of Russia, arrested the Germans on their route; and, in concert with the merchants of Revel and Riga, sent a petition to Charles, requesting him to recall the permission he had granted. In consequence of these measures, many of the German artists returned home; but several of them escaped the vigilance of the Lubeckers, and reached Moscow by a circuitous journey. Ivan endeavoured to revenge himself on the Livonians by invading their country, which was strenuously defended by the Teutonic knights; and these champions, finding at last that they were unable to maintain their ground, put the territory under the protection of Poland.

The Swedes also received a share of the Livonian territories; and this circumstance gave rise to a war between them and the Russians. Ivan invaded Finland; but that country was bravely defended by William of Furstenberg, grand-master of the Livonian knights, with the assistance of the troops of Gustavus Vasa; and it does not appear that Ivan gained much in this expedition, though we are told that the Livonian grand-master ended his life in a Russian prison.

In 1553, an event happened which first led to an intercourse between Russia and England. Some Englishmen, who were at that time on a voyage of discovery, landed on the shores of the White Sea, where soon after was built the port of Archangel. They were hospitably received by the natives; and intimation of the circumstance being conveyed to Ivan, he sent for the strangers, and was so much pleased with their abilities and deportment, that he resolved to give every encouragement to the English commerce, and thus open a new channel of intercourse with a highly polished nation, by which his subjects might obtain fresh incitements to activity and industry. He expressed the highest esteem for Queen Elizabeth, and requested by his ambassador, that if the ingratitude of his subjects should ever compel him to quit Russia (a circumstance by no means improbable), she would grant him an asylum in her dominions. It was in consequence of this accidental communication between the Russians and the English that England first engaged in a trade to Russia, and promoted this new commerce by the establishment of a company of Russian merchants in London.

About twenty years after Astracan had been annexed to the Russian empire, a new acquisition of territory accrued to it from the conquests of a private adventurer, in the unknown regions of Siberia. The steps that led to the acquisition of this immense tract of the Asiatic continent are thus related by Tooke.

"The grand prince, Ivan III., had already sent out a body of men, who penetrated across the Ingrian Mountains, and traversed all the districts as far as the river Oby. But, amidst the urgent affairs of government, the discoveries they made insensibly fell into oblivion. Some years afterwards, a merchant named Stroganof, who was proprietor of some salt-works on the confines of Siberia, was curious to gain a farther knowledge of that country, which was likewise inhabited by Tartars, whose khan resided in the capital Sibir. Perceiving, among the persons who came to him on affairs of trade, men who belonged to no nation with which he was acquainted, he put several inquiries to them concerning the place whence they came, and once sent a few of his people with them back to their country. These people brought with them, at their return from the regions they had now explored, and which proved to be this very Siberia, a great quantity of valuable furs, and thus opened to their master a new road to wealth. However, not so covetous as to wish to keep this treasure to himself, he sent information of it to the court, and the attention of government was once more directed to this country. But the conquest of it, and its conjunction with Russia, was reserved for an adventurer named Timoseyef Yermak. This Yermak, at the head of a gang of Don Kozaks, had made it his practice to rob and plunder the caravans and passengers that occasionally frequented the roads, as well as the inhabitants, wherever he came, and was so fortunate as to escape the search of the Russian troops that had been sent out against him and his band, which consisted of not fewer than six thousand men. On their flight, he and his people accidentally came to the dwelling of Stroganof, where, hearing much talk about Siberia, and being persons who had nothing to lose, and therefore might put all to the hazard, they soon formed a plan to penetrate farther into that country, and there seek at once their safety and their fortune. After numerous struggles and conflicts with the natives, which greatly reduced their numbers, they at length conquered the capital, and shortly after the whole country. Yermak now presented the fruit of his toilsome and perilous victories to his Czar, Ivan, in hopes of obtaining thereby a pardon of his former depredations, which was granted him accordingly; and by the building of several towns, and the constructing a number of forts, the possession of this country was soon permanently secured. The less and the greater Kabardye were also added to Russia in the reign of Ivan. This Czar, however, not only enlarged the circumference of his empire, partly by force of arms and partly by accident, but he resolved to reform his people, to render them more polished, more skilful, and more industrious; but this he found to be the most arduous enterprise he could possibly have undertaken. The insuperable impediments which threw themselves in the way of the execution of this grand work, were the principal incitements to those frequent acts of cruelty and despotism which have covered his memory with so deep a stain."

Towards the close of Ivan's reign, a prodigious army of Tartars entered Russia, with a design to subdue the whole country. But Zerebrinoff, the Czar's general, having attacked them in a defile, put them to flight with considerable slaughter. They then retired towards the mouth of the Volga, where they expected a considerable reinforcement; but being closely pursued by the Russians, and the Tartars in alliance with them, they were again defeated, and forced to fly towards Azof, where their army was almost annihilated.

From this time the empire of Russia became so formidable that none of the neighbouring nations could hope to make a total conquest of it. The Poles and Swedes indeed continued to be very formidable enemies; and, by the instigation of the former, the Crim Tartars, in 1571, again invaded the country with an army of seventy thousand men, which totally defeated the Russians in a battle fought within eighteen miles of the city of Moscow. The Czar retired with his most valuable effects to a well-fortified cloister; upon which the Tartars entered the city, plundered it, and set fire to several churches. A violent storm which happened at the same time soon spread the flames all over the city, which was entirely reduced to ashes in six hours. The fire likewise communicated itself to a powder magazine at some distance from the city; an accident by which upwards of fifty

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1 Previous to the reign of Vasili, the predecessor of the monarch whose transactions we are now relating, the Russian sovereigns held the title of Velikii Kniaz, which has been translated Grand Duke, though it more properly denotes Grand Prince; and by this latter appellation we have accordingly distinguished the preceding monarchs. Vasili, near the conclusion of his reign, adopted the title of Czar or Emperor; but this title was not fully established till the successes and increasing power of his son Ivan enabled the latter to confirm it both at home and abroad; and since his time it has been universally acknowledged. rods of the city wall, with all the buildings upon it, were destroyed; and, according to the historians, upwards of a hundred and twenty thousand citizens were burned or buried in the ruins. The castle, however, which was strongly fortified, could not be taken; and the Tartars, hearing that a formidable army was coming against them under the command of Magnus duke of Holstein, whom Ivan had made king of Livonia, thought proper to retire. The war, nevertheless, continued with the Poles and Swedes; and the Czar being defeated by the latter after some trifling success, was reduced to the necessity of suing for peace; but the negotiations being broken off, the war was renewed with the greatest vigour. The Livonians, the Poles, and the Swedes, having united in a league against the Russians, gained great advantages over them; and in 1579, Stephen Batory, who was then raised to the throne of Poland, levied an army expressly with a design of invading Russia, and of regaining all that Poland had formerly claimed, which, indeed, was little less than the whole empire. Ivan found his undisciplined multitudes unable to cope with the regular forces of his enemies; their conquests were so rapid that he was soon obliged to sue for peace, which, however, was not granted; and it is possible that the number of enemies which now attacked Russia might have overcome the empire entirely, had not the allies grown jealous of each other. The consequence of this was, that in 1582 a peace was concluded with the Poles, in which the Swedes were not comprehended. However, the Swedes, finding themselves unable to effect any thing of moment after the desertion of their allies, were obliged to conclude a truce; shortly after which, the Czar, having been worsted in an engagement with the Tartars, died in the year 1584.

The eldest son of the late Czar, Feodor (or, as he is commonly called, Theodore) Ivanovitch, was by no means fitted for the government of an empire so extensive, and a people so rude and turbulent, as had devolved to him by the death of his father. Ivan had seen the incapacity of his son, and had endeavoured to obviate its effects by appointing three of his principal nobles as administrators of the empire; whilst to a fourth he committed the charge of his younger son Dmitri or Demetrius. This expedient, however, failed of success; and, partly from the mutual jealousy of the administrators, partly from the envy which their exaltation had excited in the other nobles, the affairs of the empire soon fell into confusion. The weak Feodor had married a sister of Boris Gudunof, a man of great ambition, immense riches, and tolerable abilities. He had long directed his wishes towards the imperial dignity, and began to prepare the way for its attainment by removing Dmitri. This young prince suddenly disappeared; and there is every reason to believe that he was assassinated by the order of Boris. Feodor did not long survive his brother, but died in 1598, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by his brother-in-law. We are told that the Czarina, Irene, was so much convinced of this, that, retiring to a convent, she never afterwards held any communication with her brother.

With Feodor ended the family of Ruric, a dynasty which had enjoyed the supreme power in Russia ever since the establishment of the principality by the Varangian chief, that is, during a period of above seven hundred years. On the death of Feodor, as there was no hereditary successor to the vacant throne, the nobles assembled to elect a new Czar; and the artful Boris having, through the interest of the patriarch, procured a majority in his favour, was declared the object of their choice. He pretended unwillingness to accept the crown, declaring that he had resolved to live and die in a monastery; but when the patriarch, at the head of the principal nobles, and attended by a great concourse of people, bearing before them the cross, and the effigies of several saints, repaired to the convent, where the artful usurper had taken up his residence, he was at length prevailed on History to accompany them to the palace of the Czars, and suffer himself to be crowned.

Boris is one instance amongst many of a sovereign who became beneficial to his subjects, though he had procured the throne by unjustifiable means. If we give implicit credit to the historians of those times, he was a murderer and a usurper, though he had the voice of the people in his favour; but by whatever means he had attained the imperial power, he seems to have employed it in advancing the interest of the nation, and in improving the circumstances of his people. He was extremely active in his endeavours to extend the commerce, and improve the arts and manufactures, of the Russian empire; and for this purpose he invited many foreigners into his dominions. Whilst he exerted himself in securing the tranquillity of the country, and defending its frontiers against the incursions of his neighbours, he made himself respected abroad, and received ambassadors from almost all the powers of Europe.

Soon after the commencement of his reign, the city of Moscow was desolated by one of the most dreadful famines recorded in history. Thousands of people lay dead in the famine streets and roads; and in many houses the fattest of Moscow. Parents are said to have eaten their children, and children their parents; and we are told by one writer of the time that he saw a woman bite several pieces out of her child's arm as she was carrying it along. Another relates, that four women having desired a peasant to come to one of their houses, on pretence of paying him for some wood, killed and devoured both him and his horse. This dreadful calamity lasted three years, notwithstanding all the exertions of Boris to provide for the necessities of the inhabitants.

During these distresses of the capital, the power of Boris Invasion was threatened with annihilation by an adventurer who of the pre-suddenly started up, and pretended to be the young prince, tender Dimitri, whom all believed to have been assassinated, or, as Boris had given out, to have died of a malignant fever. This adventurer was a monk named Otrepief. He retired from Russia into Poland, where he had the dexterity to ingratiate himself with some of the principal nobles, and to persuade them that he was really the lawful heir to the crown of Russia. The better to insure to himself the support of the Poles, he learned their language, and professed a great regard for the Catholic religion. By this last artifice he both gained the attachment of the Catholic Poles, and acquired the friendship of the Roman pontiff, whose blessing and patronage in his great undertaking he further secured, by promising that, as soon as he should have established himself on the throne, he would make every exertion to bring the Russians within the pale of the Catholic church. To the external graces of a fine person, the pretended Dimitri added the charms of irresistible eloquence; and by these accomplishments the Polish voivode of Sandomir was so much captivated that he not only espoused his cause, but promised to give him his daughter in marriage as soon as he should be placed on the throne of his fathers. This respectable man exerted himself so warmly in behalf of his intended son-in-law, that he brought over even the king of Poland to his party. The Kozaks of the Don, who were oppressed by Boris, hoping to gain at least a temporary advantage by the disturbance excited in favour of the adventurer, eagerly embraced the opportunity of declaring in his favour. The news soon penetrated into Russia; and although Boris did all in his power to destroy the illusion, by prohibiting all intercourse between his subjects and the Poles, and by appealing to the evidence of the murdered prince's mother in proof of his death, the cause of the pretender continued to gain ground. Many circumstances concurred to interest the Russian people in favour of Otrepief. The courtiers of the usurper, who had long been jealous of his elevation, pretended to believe his assertions; whilst those who were persuaded that the young prince had been murdered by order of the present Czar, regarded this event as a judgment from heaven. The greater part of the nation appear to have been persuaded that the pretender was the real Dmitri; and as they believed that he had been miraculously preserved, they piously resolved to concur with the hand of Providence in assisting him to recover his just rights. Thus, before he had set foot in Russia, a numerous party was formed in his behalf. He soon made his appearance on the frontiers with a regiment of Polish troops, and a body of Cossacks. Boris sent an army to oppose him; but though the number of these troops greatly exceeded the small force of the invaders, the latter were so animated by the eloquence of their leader, and the intrepidness and personal bravery which he displayed in the field of battle, that, after a bloody conflict, the army of Boris was defeated, and the pretended Dmitri remained master of the field.

This victory served still further to strengthen the belief that Dmitri was favoured by heaven, and consequently could not be an impostor. To confirm the good opinion which he had evidently acquired, the victor treated his prisoners with great kindness; caused the dead to be decently interred; and gave strict injunctions to his troops to behave with humanity in the towns through which he passed. This gentle behaviour, when contrasted with the horrible excesses committed by the soldiers of Boris, wherever the people appeared to show any inclination towards the cause of the invader, gained Dmitri more adherents than even the persuasion that he was the lawful sovereign of the country. Unluckily for Boris, likewise, the superstition of the Russians was about this time directed against him, by the appearance of a comet, and by the more than usual occurrences of the aurora borealis, phenomena which were immediately regarded as manifest demonstrations that the Almighty was pouring out his phials of wrath on the devoted country. Boris, unable to resist the torrent of public opinion in favour of his rival, is said to have taken poison, and thus hastened that fate which he foresaw awaited him if he should fall into the hands of his enemies.

The death of Boris took place in the year 1605; and though the principal nobility at Moscow placed his son Feodor on the throne, the party of Dmitri was now so strong, that Feodor was deposed and sent to prison with his mother and sister, within six weeks after his accession.

The successful monk had now attained the summit of his ambitions hopes, and made his entry into Moscow with the utmost magnificence. Not deeming himself secure, however, whilst the son of Boris remained alive, he is said to have caused him to be strangled, together with one of his sisters. The new Czar, though he evidently possessed great abilities, seems to have been deficient in point of prudence. Instead of conciliating the favour of his subjects, he openly displayed his predilection for the Poles, conferring on them high posts and dignities, and even conniving at the extravagance and enormities which they committed. This impolitic conduct, together with his partiality for the Catholic religion; his marked indifference towards the public worship of the national church, and his want of reverence for the Greek clergy; his marrying a Polish lady; his affection of Polish manners; his inordinate voluptuousness, and the contempt with which he treated the principal nobility; so exasperated the Russians, that discontent and insurrections arose in every quarter of the empire. The populace of the capital were at length roused to fury, by a rumour that a timber fort which he had caused to be constructed before Moscow, was intended to serve as an engine of destruction, and that at a martial spectacle which the Czar was preparing for the entertainment of his bride, the Poles, and other foreigners that composed his body guard, were from this building to cast firebrands into the city, and then slaughter the inhabitants. The people were still further incensed by the clergy, who declaimed against Dmitri as a heretic, and by Schuiskoy, a nobleman who had been condemned to death by the Czar, but had afterwards been pardoned. This nobleman put himself at the head of the enraged mob, and led them to attack the palace. They entered it by assault, put to the sword all the Poles whom they found within its walls, and afterwards extended their massacre to such as were discovered in other parts of the city. Dmitri himself, in attempting to escape, was overtaken by his pursuers, and thrust through with a spear; and his dead body, being brought back into the city, lay for three days before the palace, exposed to every outrage that malice could invent or rage inflict. His father-in-law and his wife escaped with their lives, but were detained as prisoners, and the Czarina was confined at Yaroslaf.

Schuiskoy, who had pretended to be actuated by no other motives than those of the purest patriotism, now aspirated to the vacant throne, and had sufficient interest to carry his election. His reign was short and uninteresting, and indeed from this time till the accession of the house of Romanof in 1613, the affairs of Russia have little to gratify our curiosity. Schuiskoy's reign was disturbed by the pretensions of two fictitious Dimitris, who successively started up, and declared themselves to be either the late Czar, or the prince whom he had personated; and his neighbours the Swedes and Poles, taking advantage of the internal dissensions in the empire, made many successful incursions into Russia, set fire to Moscow, and massacred above a hundred thousand of the people. The Russians, dissatisfied with the reigning prince, treated with several of the neighbouring potentates for the disposal of the imperial crown. They offered it to Vladislaf, or Uladislas, son of Sigismund, king of Poland, on condition that he should adopt the Greek persuasion; but as he rejected this preliminary, they turned their eyes first on a son of Charles IX., of Sweden, and then on a young native Russian, Mikhail Fedorovitch, of the house of Romanof, a family which was distantly related to their ancient Czars, and of which the head was then metropolitan of Rostof, and as such held in great estimation. The influence of the clergy, who exerted themselves for Mikhail, both by personal intrigues and by the dissemination of pretended revelations from heaven, silenced the supporters of the other claimants; and after a long series of confusion and disaster, there ascended the Russian throne a new family, whose descendants have raised the empire to a state of grandeur and importance unequalled in any former period.

Having traced Russia through the obscurer stages of its history, we are now to witness its sudden elevation amongst the powers of Europe, and to accompany it in its hasty strides towards that importance which it has lately assumed. But before we enter on the transactions that have enriched the pages of the Russian annals since the accession of the house of Romanof, it may not be uninteresting to take a general view of the state of the empire at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

At this period the government of Russia may be considered as a pure aristocracy, since the supreme power rested in the hands of the nobles and the superior clergy. In particular, the boyars, or chief officers of the army, who were also the privy counsellors of the prince, possessed a very considerable share of authority. The election of the late princes Boris, Dmitri, and Schuiskoy, had been conducted principally by them, in concert with the inhabitants of Moscow, where was then held the seat of government. The common people, especially those of the inferior towns, though nominally free, had no share in the government or in the election of the chief ruler. The boors, or those peasants who dwelt on the noblemen's estates, were almost completely slaves, and transferable with the land on which they dwelt. An attempt to annul this barbarous vassalage had been made, both by Boris and by Schusikov; but, from the opposition of the nobles, it was abandoned.

The laws then in force consisted partly of the municipal laws drawn up for the state of Novgorod by Yaroslaf, and partly of an amended code, called Sudebnik, promulgated by Ivan Vasilivitch II. By this Sudebnik the administration of the laws was made uniform throughout the empire, and particular magistrates were appointed in the several towns and districts, all subject to the czar as their chief. The Sudebnik consisted of ninety-seven articles, all containing civil laws; as the penal statutes are only briefly mentioned in some articles, so as to appear either connected with the civil, or as serving to illustrate them. The criminal laws were contained in a separate code, called Gulenka Gramota, which is now lost, but is referred to in the civil code. In neither of these codes is there any mention of ecclesiastical affairs; but these were regulated by a set of canons drawn up in 1542, under the inspection of Ivan Vasilivitch, in a grand council held at Moscow. In the civil statutes of the Sudebnik, theft was punished in the first instance by restitution; or, if the thief were unable to restore the property stolen, he became the slave of the injured party till by his labour he had made sufficient compensation. Of murder nothing is said, except where the person slain was a lord or master, when the murderer was to be punished with death. There is no mention of torture, except in cases of theft.

Before the accession of the house of Romanof, the commercial intercourse which the cities of Novgorod and Pscov, formerly held with the Hanse Towns, had entirely ceased; but this was in some degree compensated by the newly established trade between Russia and England, the centre of which was Archangel. This trade had been lately increased by the products derived from the acquisition of Siberia, in exchange for which the English principally supplied the Russians with broad cloth. In 1568, an English counting-house was established at Moscow, and about the same time the Russian Company was incorporated. Previously to the fifteenth century, the trade of the Russians had been carried on merely by barter; but during that century the coinage of money commenced at Novgorod and Pscov; and from this time their commerce was placed on an equal footing with that of the other European nations.

Except in the article of commerce, the Russians were deplorably behind the rest of Europe; and though attempts had been made by Ivan I., Ivan Vasilivitch II., and Boris, to cultivate their manners and to improve the state of their arts and manufactures, these attempts had failed of success.

At the accession of Mikhail, who was crowned in June 1613, 1613, the Swedes and Poles were in possession of several parts of the empire; and to dislodge these intruders was the first object of the new czar. Aware of the difficulty of contending at once with both these formidable enemies, he began by negotiating a treaty of peace with Sweden. This was not effected without considerable sacrifices. Mikhail agreed to give up Ingria and Karelia, and to evacuate Estonia and Livonia. Thus freed from his most dangerous enemy, he prepared to oppose the Poles, of whom a numerous body had entered Russia, to support the claims of their king's son Vladislaf. Mikhail proceeded, however, in a very wary manner, and instead of opposing the invaders in the open field, he entangled them by ambuscades, or allured them into districts already desolated, where they suffered so much from cold and hunger, that in 1619 they agreed to a cessation of hostilities for fourteen years and a half, on condition that the Russians should cede to Poland the government of Smolensk.

Thus freed from external enemies on terms which, though not very honourable, were the best that the posture of his affairs admitted, Mikhail applied himself to arranging the internal economy of his empire. He began by placing his father at the head of the church, by conferring on him the dignity of patriarch, which had become vacant. The councils of this venerable man were of great advantage to the emperor, and contributed to preserve that peace and tranquillity by which his reign was in general distinguished.

His next step was to form treaties of alliance with the principal commercial states of Europe. He accordingly sent ambassadors into England, Denmark, Holland, and the German empire; and Russia, which had hitherto been considered rather as an Asiatic than a European power, became so respectable in the eyes of her northern neighbours, that they vied with each other in their eagerness for establishing with her commercial relations.

Mikhail also commenced those improvements of the laws which we shall presently see more fully executed by his son and successor; but the tide of party ran so high, that he could effect only a very imperfect reformation. He was also obliged to put his frontiers in a state of defence, by providing for the expiration of the truce with Poland, which now drew nigh; and as no permanent peace had been established, both parties began to prepare for a renewal of hostilities. Indeed the armistice was broken by the Russians, who, on the death of Sigismund, king of Poland, appeared before Smolensk, justifying the infringement of the treaty, on the pretence that it was concluded with Sigismund, and not

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1 Tecke furnishes the following characteristic features of the state of Russia in the sixteenth century.

The houses were in general of timber, and badly constructed, except that in Moscow and other great towns there were a few built of brick.

That contempt for the female sex which is invariably a characteristic of defective civilization, was conspicuous among the Russians. The women were kept in a state of perfect bondage, and it was thought a great instance of liberality if a stranger were permitted to see them. They were scarcely ever allowed to quit the house, even for the purpose of going to church, though attendance on divine worship was considered of the highest importance.

The men of the middle ranks always repaired about noon to the market, where they transacted business, conversed about public affairs, and attended the courts of judicature to hear the causes that were going forward. In agreements and bargains the highest assentation was, "If I keep not my word, may it turn to my infamy;" a custom extremely honourable to the nation, as they held the disgrace of having forfeited their word to be the deepest degradation.

If the wife was so dependent on her husband, the child was still more dependent on his father; for parents were allowed to sell their children. Masters and servants entered into a mutual contract respecting the terms of their connection, and a written copy of this agreement was deposited in the borough court, where, if either party broke the contract, the other might bring his complaint.

Sinsuits were still allowed to be the last resort in deciding causes; and to this the judge resorted in cases which he knew not otherwise how to determine. But duels out of court were strictly prohibited; and when these took place, and either party fell, the survivor was regarded as a murderer, and punished accordingly. Personal vengeance was forbidden, under the strictest penalty.

The nobles were universally soldiers, and were obliged to appear when summoned, to assist the prince in his wars. Till the end of the sixteenth century the boor was not bound to any particular master. He tilled the ground of a nobleman for a certain time on stated conditions. Thus he either received part of the harvest or of the cattle, a portion of wood, hay, &c.; or he worked five days for the master, and on the sixth was at liberty to till a piece of ground set apart for his use. At the expiration of the term agreed on, either party might give up the contract; the boor might remove to another master, and the master dismiss the boor that did not suit him. with his successors. Nothing of consequence, however, was then executed; and the Russian commander, after having lain there in perfect indolence, with an army of fifty thousand men, for two years, at length raised the siege. Mikhail attempted to engage the Swedes in an alliance with him against Poland; but failing in this negotiation, he concluded a new treaty, which continued unbroken till his death. This event happened in 1645.

Mikhail was succeeded by his son Alexei; but as the young prince was only fifteen years of age at the time of his father's death, a nobleman named Morosof had been appointed his governor and regent of the empire. This man possessed all the ambition of Boris, without his prudence and address; and in attempting to raise himself and his adherents to the highest posts in the state, he incurred the hatred of all ranks of the people. Though, by properly organizing the army, he provided for the defence of the empire against external enemies, he shamefully neglected internal policy, and connived at the most flagrant enormities in the administration of justice. These abuses went so far that the populace once stopped the czar as he was returning from church to his palace, calling aloud for righteous judges. Although Alexei promised to make strict inquiry into the nature and extent of their grievances, and to inflict deserved punishment on the guilty, the people had not the patience to await this tardy process, and proceeded to plunder the houses of those nobles who were most obnoxious to them. They were at length pacified, however, on condition that the author of their oppression should be brought to condign punishment. One of the most nefarious judges was executed; and the principal magistrate of Moscow was killed in a tumult. The life of Morosof was spared at the earnest entreaty of the czar, who engaged for his future good behaviour.

Similar disturbances had broken out at Novgorod and Pskov; but they were happily terminated, chiefly through the exertions of the metropolitan Nicon, a man of low birth, who, by his reputation for extraordinary piety and holiness, had raised himself to the patriarchal dignity, and was high in favour with Alexei. The pacific conduct of the neighbouring states did not long continue, though indeed we may attribute the renewal of hostilities to the ambition of the czar.

The war with Poland was occasioned by Alexei's supporting the Kozaks, a military horde, who had left the northern shores of the Dnieper, and retired further to the south. Here they had established a military democracy, and during the dominion of the Tartars in Russia had been subject to the khan of those tribes; but after the expulsion or subjugation of the Tartars, the Kozaks had put themselves under the guardianship of Poland, to which kingdom they formerly belonged. As the Polish clergy, however, attempted to impose on them the Greek faith, they threw off their allegiance to the king of Poland, and claimed the patronage of Russia. Alexei, who seems to have sought a pretext for a rupture with that state, gladly received them as his subjects, hoping, by their assistance, to recover the territories which had been ceded to Poland by his father. He began by negotiation, and sent an embassy to the king of Poland, complaining of some Polish publications, in which reflections had been cast on the honour of his father, and demanding that, by way of compensation, the Russian territories formerly ceded should be restored. The king of Poland of course refused so arrogant a demand, and both parties prepared for war. The Russians, assisted by the Kozaks, were so successful in this contest, that the king of Sweden became jealous of Alexei's good fortune, and apprehensive of an attack. He therefore determined to take a very active part in the war, especially as the Lithuanians, who were extremely averse to the Russian dominion, had sought his protection. The war with Sweden commenced in 1656, and lasted for two years, without any important advantage being gained by either party. A truce was concluded in 1658 for three years, and at the termination of this period a solid peace was established. In the meantime the war with Poland continued, but was at length terminated by an armistice, which was prolonged from time to time during the remainder of Alexei's life.

The reign of this monarch is as remarkable for turbulence as that of his predecessor had been for tranquillity. No sooner was peace established with the neighbouring states than fresh commotions shook the empire from within. The Don Kozaks, who now formed a part of the Russian population, felt themselves aggrieved by the rigour with which one of their officers had been treated, and, placing at their head Radzin, the brother of the deceased, broke out into open rebellion. Allured by the spirit of licentiousness and the hopes of plunder, vast numbers, both of Kozaks and inferior Russians, flocked to the standard of Radzin, and formed an army of nearly two hundred thousand men. This force, however, ill armed and quite undisciplined, was formidable merely from its numbers. Radzin himself seems to have placed no reliance on the courage or fidelity of his followers, and eagerly embraced the first opportunity of procuring a pardon by submission. Having been deceived into a belief that this pardon would be granted on his surrendering himself to the mercy of the czar, he set out for Moscow, accompanied by his brother; but when he had arrived within a short distance of the capital, whither notice had been sent of his approach, he was met by a cart containing a gallows, on which he was immediately hanged. His followers, who had assembled at Astracan, were surrounded by the czar's troops, taken prisoners, and twelve thousand of them hung on the gibbets in the highways.

The authority which Alexei had obtained over the Don-Cossack Kozaks excited the jealousy of the Sublime Porte, which justly dreaded the extension of the Russian territory on the side of the Crimea, a peninsula at that time belonging to Turkey. After a successful attempt on the frontiers of Poland, a Turkish army entered the Ukraine, and the Russians made preparations to oppose them. Alexei endeavoured to form a confederacy against the infidels among the Christian potentates of Europe; but the age of crusading chivalry was over, and the czar was obliged to make head against the Turks, with no assistance but that of the king of Poland. The Turkish arms were for some years victorious, especially on the side of Poland; but at length a check was given to their successes by the Polish general Sobieski, who afterwards ascended the throne of that kingdom. Hostilities between the Turks and Russians were not, however, terminated during the reign of Alexei, and the czar left to his successor the prosecution of the war.

The reign of Alexei is most remarkable for the improvements introduced by him into the Russian laws. Before his time the Emannyuy Ukhasei, or personal orders of the sovereign, were almost the only laws of the country. These edicts were as various as the opinions, prejudices, and passions of men; and before the days of Alexei they produced endless contentions. To remedy this evil, he made a selection, from all the edicts of his predecessors, of such as had been current for a hundred years, presuming that these either were founded in natural justice, or during so long a currency had formed the minds of the people to consider them as just. This digest, which he declared to be the common law of Russia, and which is prefaced by a sort of institute, is known by the title of the Uloshenye or Selection. It was long the standard law-book, all edicts prior thereto being declared to be obsolete. He soon made his new code, however, more bulky than even the Selection; and the additions of his successors are beyond enumeration. This was undoubtedly a great and useful work; but Alexei performed another still greater. Though there were many courts of judicature in this widely-extended empire, the emperor was always lord paramount, and could take a cause from any court immediately before himself. But as several of the old nobles had the remains of principalities in their families, and held their own courts, the sovereign or his ministers, at a distance up the country, frequently found it difficult to bring a culprit out of one of these hereditary feudal jurisdictions, and to try him by the laws of the empire. This was a very dangerous limitation of imperial power, and the more so that some families claimed even a right of repentence. A fortunate opportunity soon offered of settling the dispute, and Alexei embraced it with great ability.

Some families on the old frontiers were taxed with their defence, for which they were obliged to maintain regiments; and as they were but scantily indemnified by the state, it sometimes required the exertion of authority to make them keep up their levies. When, by the conquest of Kazan, the frontiers were far extended, these nobles found the regiments no longer burdensome, because, by the help of false musterers, the formerly scanty allowance much more than reimbursed them for the expense of the establishment. The consequence was, that disputes arose among them about the right of guarding certain districts, and lawsuits were necessary to settle their respective claims. These were tedious and intricate. The emperor ordered all the family archives to be brought to Moscow, and all documents on both sides to be collected. A time was fixed for the examination; a fine wooden court-house was built; every paper was lodged under a guard; and the day was appointed when the court should be opened and the claims heard. But on that morning the house, with all its contents, was in two hours consumed by fire. The emperor then said, "Gentlemen, henceforward your rank, your privileges, and your courts, are the nation's, and the nation will guard itself. Your archives are unfortunately lost, but those of the nation remain. I am the keeper, and it is my duty to administer justice for all and to all. Your rank is not private, but national, attached to the services you are actually performing. Henceforward Colonel Buturlin (a private gentleman) ranks before Captain Viazemsky (an old prince)."

The Russians owe more to this prince than some of their historians seem willing to acknowledge; and there appears to be no doubt that several of the improvements attributed to Peter the Great were at least projected by his father. Under Alexei a considerable trade was opened with China, from which country silks, and other rich stuffs, were brought into Russia, and exchanged for the Siberian furs. The exportation of Russian products to other countries was also increased; and we are assured that Alexei had even projected the formation of a navy, and would have executed the design, had he not been perpetually occupied in foreign wars and domestic troubles.

Alexei died in 1676, leaving three sons and six daughters. Two of the sons, Feodor and Ivan, were by a first marriage; the third, Peter, by a second. The two former, particularly Ivan, were of a delicate constitution, and some attempts were made by the relations of Peter to set them aside. These attempts, however, proved unsuccessful, and Feodor became the successor of Alexei.

The reign of this prince was short, and distinguished rather for the happiness which the nation then experienced, than for the importance of the transactions which took place. He continued the war with the Turks for four years after his father's death, and at length brought it to an honourable conclusion, by a truce for twenty years, after the Turks had acknowledged the Russian right of sovereignty over the Kazaks. Feodor died in 1682, but before his death nominated his half-brother Peter his successor.

The succession of Peter, though appointed by their favourite czar Feodor, was by no means pleasing to the majority of the Russian nobles, and it was particularly opposed by Galitzin, the prime minister of the late czar. This able man had espoused the interest of Sophia, the sister of the Prince Feodor and Ivan, a young woman of eminent abilities and the most insinuating address. Sophia, upon pretence of asserting the claims of her brother Ivan, who, though of a feeble body and weak intellect, was considered as the lawful heir of the crown, had really formed a design of securing the succession to herself; and with that view, had not only insinuated herself into the confidence and good graces of Galitzin, but had brought over to her interests the Strelitzes, who were the body-guard of the czars, and at this time were about fourteen thousand in number. These licentious soldiers assembled for the purpose, as was pretended, of placing on the throne Prince Ivan, whom they proclaimed czar by acclamation. During three days they roved about the city of Moscow, committing the greatest excesses, and putting to death several of the chief officers of state who were suspected of being hostile to the designs of Sophia. Their employer did not, however, entirely gain her point; for as the new czar entertained a sincere affection for his half-brother Peter, he insisted that this prince should share with him the imperial dignity. This was at length agreed to; and on the 6th of May 1682, Ivan and Peter were solemnly crowned joint emperors of all the Russias, while the Princess Sophia was nominated their copartner in the government.

From the imbecility of Ivan and the youth of Peter, who was now only ten years of age, the whole power of the government rested with Sophia and her minister Galitzin, although till the year 1687 the names of Ivan and Peter only were annexed to the imperial decrees. Scarcely had Sophia established her authority when she was threatened with deposition, from an alarming insurrection of the Strelitzes. This was excited by their commander Prince Kovanski, who had demanded of Sophia that she should marry one of her sisters to his son, but had met with a mortifying refusal. In consequence of this insurrection, which threw the whole city of Moscow into terror and consternation, Sophia and the two young czars took refuge in a monastery about twelve leagues from the capital; and before the Strelitzes could follow them thither, a considerable body of soldiers, principally foreigners, was assembled in their defence. Kovanski was taken prisoner, and instantly beheaded; and though his followers at first threatened dreadful vengeance on his executioners, they soon found themselves obliged to submit. From every regiment was selected the tenth man, who was to suffer as an atonement for the rest; but this cruel punishment was remitted, and only the most guilty among the ringleaders suffered death.

The quelling of these disturbances gave leisure to the friends of Peter to pursue the plans which they had formed for subverting the authority of Sophia; and about this time of Peter a favourable opportunity offered, in consequence of a rupture with Turkey. The Porte was now engaged in a war round with Poland and the German empire, and both these latter powers had solicited the assistance of Russia against the common enemy. Sophia and her party were averse to the alliance; but as there were in the council many secret friends of Peter, these had sufficient influence to persuade the majority that a Turkish war would be of advantage to the state. They even prevailed on Galitzin to put himself at the head of the army, and thus removed their principal opponent. It is difficult to conceive how a man, so able in the cabinet as Galitzin, could have suffered his vanity so far to get the better of his good sense, as to accept a military command, for which he certainly had no talents. Assembling an army of nearly three hundred thousand men, he marched towards the confines of Turkey, and there consumed two campaigns in marches and countermarches, and lost nearly forty thousand men, partly in unsuccessful skirmishes with the enemy, but chiefly from disease.

While Galitzin was thus trifling away his time in the south, Peter, who already began to give proofs of those great talents which afterwards enabled him to act so conspicuous a part in the theatre of the north, was strengthening his party among the Russian nobles. His ordinary residence was at a village not far from Moscow, and here he had assembled round him a considerable number of young men of rank and influence, whom he called his play-mates. Among these were two foreigners, Lefort a Genevese, and Gordon a Scotchman, who afterwards signalized themselves in his service. These young men had formed a sort of military company, of which Lefort was captain; and the young czar, beginning with the situation of drummer, gradually rose through every subordinate office. Under this appearance of a military game, Peter was secretly establishing himself in the affections of his young companions, and effectually lulled the suspicions of Sophia, till it was too late for her to oppose his machinations.

About the middle of the year 1689, Peter, who had now attained his seventeenth year, determined to make an effort to deprive Sophia of all share in the government, and to secure to himself the undivided sovereignty. On occasion of a solemn religious meeting that was held, Sophia had claimed the principal place, as regent of the empire; but this claim was strenuously opposed by Peter, who, rather than fill a subordinate situation, quitted the place of assembly, and, with his friends and adherents, withdrew to the monastery of the Holy Trinity, which had formerly sheltered him and his companions from the fury of the Strelitzes. This was the signal for an open rupture. Sophia, finding that she could not openly oppose the party of the czar, attempted to procure his assassination; but as her design was discovered, she thought proper to solicit an accommodation. This was agreed to, on condition that she should give up all claim to the regency, and retire to a nunnery. The commander of the Strelitzes, her agent in the assassination of Peter, was beheaded, and the minister Galitzin sent into banishment to Archangel.

Peter now saw himself in undisputed possession of the imperial throne; for though Ivan was still nominally czar, he had voluntarily resigned all share in the administration of affairs, and retired to a life of obscurity. The first object to which the czar directed his attention was the establishment of a regular and well-disciplined military force. He had learned by experience how little dependence was to be placed on the Strelitzes; and these regiments he determined to disband. He commissioned Lefort and Gordon to levy new regiments, which, in their whole constitution, dress, and military exercises, should be formed on the model of other European troops. He next resolved to carry into execution the design which had been formed by his father, of constructing a navy. For this purpose he first took a journey to Archangel, where he employed himself in examining the operations of the shipwrights, and occasionally taking a part in their labours; but as he learned that the art of ship-building was practised in greater perfection in Holland, and some other maritime countries of Europe, he sent thither several young Russians to be initiated into the best methods of constructing ships of war.

The war with Turkey still languished, but Peter was resolved to prosecute it with vigour, hoping to get possession of the town of Azof; and thus open a passage to the Black Sea. He placed Gordon, Lefort, and two of his nobles, at the head of the forces destined for this expedition, and himself attended the army as a private volunteer. The success of the first campaign was but trifling; and Peter learned that his deficiency of artillery and his want of transports prevented him from making an effectual attack on Azof. These difficulties, however, were soon surmounted. He procured a supply of artillery and engineers from the emperor and the Dutch, and found means to provide a number of transports. With these auxiliaries he opened the second campaign, defeated the Turks on the Sea of Azof, and made himself master of the town. Peter was so elated with these successes, that on his return from the seat of war he marched his troops into Moscow in a triumphal procession, in which Lefort as admiral of the transports, and Schein as commander of the land forces, bore the most conspicuous parts, while Peter himself was lost without distinction in the crowd of subaltern officers.

He now resolved to form a fleet in the Black Sea; but as his own revenues were insufficient for this purpose, he issued a ukase, commanding the patriarch and other dignified clergy, the nobility, and the merchants, to contribute a part of their income towards fitting out a certain number of ships. This proclamation was extremely unpopular, and, together with the numerous innovations which Peter was every day introducing, especially his sending the young nobles to visit foreign countries, and his own avowed intention of making the tour of Europe, contributed to raise against him a formidable party. The vigilance and prudence of the czar, however, extricated him from the dangers with which he was threatened, and enabled him to carry into execution his proposed journey.

In returning to his own dominions, Peter passed through Rawa, where Augustus king of Poland then was. The czar had determined, in conjunction with Augustus and the king of Denmark, to take advantage of the youth and inexperience of Charles XII, who had just succeeded to the Swedish throne; and in this interview with Augustus, he made the Swedish arrangements for the part which each was to take in the war. Augustus was to receive Livonia as his part of the spoil, while Frederick king of Denmark had his eye on Holstein, and Peter had formed designs on Ingria, formerly a province of the Russian empire.

In the middle of the year 1700, Charles had left his capital to oppose these united enemies. He soon compelled by the king of Denmark to give up his designs on Holstein, Sweden, and sign a treaty of peace; and being thus at liberty to turn his arms against the other members of the confederacy, he resolved first to lead his army against the king of Poland; but on his way he received intelligence that the czar had laid siege to Narva with an army which some authorities calculate at a hundred thousand men. On this he immediately embarked for Carlscrona, though it was then the depth of winter, and the Baltic was scarcely navigable; and soon landed at Pernau in Livonia with part of his forces, having ordered the rest to Revel. His army did not exceed twenty thousand men, but it was composed of the best soldiers in Europe, while that of the Russians was little better than an undisciplined multitude. Every possible obstruction, however, had been thrown in the way of the Swedes. Thirty thousand Russians were posted in a defile on the road, and this corps was sustained by another body of twenty thousand drawn up some leagues nearer Narva. Peter himself had set out to hasten the march of a reinforcement of forty thousand men, with whom he intended to attack the Swedes in flank and rear; but the celerity and valour of Charles baffled every attempt to oppose him. He set out with four thousand foot and an equal number of cavalry, leaving the rest of the army to follow at their leisure. With this small body he attacked and defeated the Russian armies successively, and pushed his way to Peter's camp, for the attack of which he gave immediate orders. This camp was fortified by lines of circumvallation and contravallation, by redoubts, and by a line of a hundred and fifty brass cannon placed in front; and it was defended by an army of eighty thousand men; yet so violent was the attack of the Swedes, that in three hours the intrenchments were carried, and Charles, with only four thousand men, that composed the wing which he commanded, pursued the flying enemy, amounting to fifty thousand, to the river Narva. Here the bridge broke down with the weight of the fugitives, and the river was filled with their bodies. Great numbers returned in despair to their camp, where they defended themselves for a short time, but were at last obliged to surrender. In this battle, thirty thousand were killed in the intrenchments and the pursuit, or drowned in the river; twenty thousand surrendered at discretion, and were dismissed unarmed, while the rest were totally dispersed. A hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, twenty-eight mortars, a hundred and fifty-one pairs of colours, twenty standards, and all the Russian baggage, fell into the hands of the Swedes; and the Duke de Croy, the Prince of Georgia, and seven other generals, were made prisoners. Charles behaved with the greatest generosity to the conquered. Being informed that the tradesmen of Narva had refused credit to the officers whom he detained prisoners, he sent a thousand ducats to the Duke de Croy, and to every other officer a proportional sum.

Peter was advancing with forty thousand men to surround the Swedes, when he received intelligence of the dreadful defeat at Narva. He was greatly grieved; but comforting himself with the hopes that the Swedes would in time teach the Russians to beat them, he returned to his own dominions, where he applied himself with the utmost diligence to the raising of another army. He evacuated all the provinces which he had invaded, and for a time abandoned all his great projects, thus leaving Charles at liberty to prosecute the war against Poland.

As Augustus had expected an attack, he endeavoured to draw the czar into a close alliance with him. The two monarchs had an interview at Birzen, where it was agreed that Augustus should lend the czar fifty thousand German soldiers, to be paid by Russia; that the czar should send an equal number of his troops to be trained up to the art of war in Poland; and that he should pay the king three millions of rix-dollars in the space of two years. Of this treaty Charles had notice, and, by means of his minister Count Piper, entirely frustrated the scheme.

After the battle of Narva, Charles became confident and negligent, while the activity of Peter increased with his losses. He supplied his want of artillery by melting down the bells of the churches, and constructed numerous small vessels on the lake of Ladoga to oppose the entrance of the Swedes into his dominions. He took every advantage of Charles's negligence, and engaged in frequent skirmishes, in which, though often beaten, he was sometimes victorious. He contrived to make himself master of the river Neva, and captured Nyenschantz, a fortress at the mouth of that river. Here he laid the foundation of that city which he had long projected, and which was to become the metropolis of his empire. At length, in 1704, he became master of Ingria, and appointed his favourite Prince Menzikoff to be viceroy of that province, with strict orders to make the building of the new city his principal business. Here edifices were already rising in every quarter, and navigation and commerce were increasing in vigour and extent.

In the mean time Augustus king of Poland, though treating with Charles for the surrender of his dominions, was obliged to keep up the appearance of war, which he had neither ability nor inclination to conduct. He had been lately joined by Prince Menzikoff with thirty thousand Russians; and this obliged him, contrary to his inclination, to hazard an engagement with Meyerfeldt, who commanded ten thousand men, one half of whom were Swedes. As at this time no disparity of numbers whatever was reckoned an equivalent to the valour of the Swedes, Meyerfeldt did not decline the combat, though the army of the enemy was four times as numerous as his own. With his own countrymen he defeated the enemy's first line, and was on the point of defeating the second, when Stanislas, with the Poles and Lithuanians, gave way. Meyerfeldt then perceived that the battle was lost; but he fought desperately, that he might avoid the disgrace of a defeat. At last, however, he was oppressed by numbers, and forced to surrender; suffering the Swedes for the first time to be conquered by their enemies. The whole army were taken prisoners excepting Major-general Krassau, who having repeatedly rallied a body of horse formed into a brigade, at last broke through the enemy, and escaped to Posnania. Augustus had scarcely sung Te Deum for this victory, when his plenipotentiary returned from Saxony with the articles of the treaty, by which he was to renounce all claim to the crown of Poland in favour of his rival Stanislas. The king hesitated and scrupled, but at last signed them; after which he set out for Saxony, glad at any expense to be freed from such an enemy as the king of Sweden, and from such allies as the Russians.

The czar Peter was no sooner informed of this extraordinary treaty, than he learned also the cruel fate of his plenipotentiary Patkul, a Livonian emigrant, whom Charles claiming as a subject, seized and executed. Peter immediately sent letters to every court in Christendom, complaining of this breach of the law of nations. He entreated the emperor, the queen of Britain, and the states-general, to revenge this insult on humanity. He stigmatized the compliance of Augustus with the opprobrious name of pusillanimity; and exhorted them not to guarantee a treaty so unjust, but to despise the menaces of the Swedish bully. So well, however, was the prowess of the king of Sweden known, that none of the allies thought proper to irritate him, by refusing to guarantee any treaty which he thought proper to accept. At first, Peter thought of revenging Patkul's death by massacring the Swedish prisoners at Moscow; but from this he was deterred, by remembering that Charles had many more Russian prisoners than he himself had of Swedes. In the year 1707, however, he entered Poland at the head of sixty thousand men, and, assembling a diet, solemnly deposed Stanislas, with the same ceremonies which had been used with regard to Augustus. The appearance of a Swedish army under King Stanislas and General Lewenhaupt put a stop to this invasion, and the czar retired into Lithuania, giving out as the cause of his retreat, that the country could not supply him with the provisions and forage necessary for so great an army.

During these transactions Charles had taken up his residence in Saxony, where he gave laws to the court of Vienna, visited Austria, and in a manner intimidated all Europe. At last, satiated with the glory of having dethroned one king, set up another, and struck all Europe with terror and admiration, he began to evacuate Saxony in pursuit of his great plan, the dethroning the czar Peter, and conquering the vast empire of Russia. While the army was on full march in the neighbourhood of Dresden, he took the extraordinary resolution of visiting King Augustus with no more than five attendants. Although he had no reason to imagine that Augustus either did or could entertain any friendship for him, he was not uneasy at the consequences of thus putting himself entirely in his power. He reached the palace door of Augustus before it was known that he was in the city; and he entered the elector's chamber in his boots before the latter had time to recover from his surprise. He breakfasted with him in a friendly manner, and then expressed a desire of viewing the fortifications. While he was walking round them, a Livonian, who had formerly been condemned in Sweden, and served in the troops of Saxony, thought he could never have a more favourable opportunity of obtaining pardon. He therefore begged of King Augustus to intercede for him, being fully assured that his majesty could not refuse so small a favour to a prince in whose power he then was. Augustus accordingly made the request; but Charles refused it in such a manner that he did not think proper to ask it a second time. Having passed some hours in this extraordinary visit, he returned to his army, after having embraced and taken leave of the king he had deposed.

The armies of Sweden, in Saxony, Poland, and Finland, now exceeded seventy thousand men; while the available force of Russia amounted to about a hundred thousand. Peter, who had his army dispersed in small parties, instantly assembled it on receiving notice of the king of Sweden's march, was making all possible preparations for a vigorous resistance, and was on the point of attacking Stanislas, when the approach of Charles struck his whole army with terror. In the month of January 1708, Charles passed the Niemen, and entered the south gate of Grodno just as Peter was quitting the place by the north gate. Charles at this time had advanced some distance before the army, at the head of six hundred horse.

The czar having received intelligence of his situation, sent back a detachment of two thousand men to attack him; but these were entirely defeated, and thus Charles became possessed of the whole province of Lithuania. The king pursued his flying enemies in the midst of ice and snow, over mountains, rivers, and morasses, and through obstacles which appeared to be insurmountable. These difficulties, however, he had foreseen, and had prepared to meet them. As he knew that the country could not furnish provisions sufficient for the subsistence of his army, he had provided a large quantity of biscuit, and on this his troops chiefly subsisted, till they came to the banks of the Beresina, in view of Borisov. Here the czar was posted, and Charles intended to give him battle, after which he could the more easily penetrate into Russia. Peter, however, did not think proper to come to an action, but retreated towards the Dnieper, whither he was pursued by Charles, as soon as he had refreshed his army. The Russians had destroyed the roads and desolated the country, yet the Swedish army advanced with great celerity, and in their march defeated twenty thousand Russians, though intrenched to the very teeth. This victory, from the circumstances in which it was gained, was one of the most glorious that ever Charles had achieved. The memory of it was preserved by a medal struck in Sweden with this inscription: *Sylvae, paludes, aggeres, hostes, victi.*

When the Russians had repassed the Dnieper, the czar, finding himself pursued by an enemy with whom he could not cope, resolved to make proposals for an accommodation. Charles made only this arrogant reply, "I will treat with the czar at Moscow;" a taunt which was received by Peter with the coolness of a hero. "My brother Charles," said he, "affects to play the Alexander, but he shall not find in me a Darius." He still, however, continued his retreat, and Charles pursued so closely that daily skirmishes took place between his advanced guard and the rear of the Russians. In these actions the Swedes had generally the advantage, though their petty victories cost them dear, by contributing to weaken their force in a country where it could not be recruited. The two armies came so close to each other at Smolensk, that an engagement took place between a body of Russians composed of ten thousand cavalry and six thousand Kalmuks, and the Swedish vanguard, composed of only six regiments, but commanded by the king in person. Here the Russians were again defeated; but Charles, having been separated from the main body of his detachment, was exposed to great danger. With one regiment only he fought with such fury as to drive the enemy before him, when they thought themselves sure of making him prisoner.

By the 3d of October 1708, Charles had approached within a hundred leagues of Moscow; but Peter had rendered the roads completely impassable, and had destroyed the villages on every side, so as to cut off every possibility of subsistence to the enemy, while the season was far advanced, and the severity of winter was approaching. In these circumstances, the king, at length sensible that he had committed a perilous mistake, endeavoured to retrieve it by a step which proved yet more calamitous. He resolved, before attacking the Russian capital, to achieve the conquest of the Ukraine, where Mazepa, a Polish gentleman, was general and chief of the Kozaks. Mazepa having been affronted by the czar, readily entered into a treaty with Charles, whom he promised to assist with thirty thousand men, great quantities of provisions and ammunition, and with all his treasures, which were falsely stated to be immense. The Swedish army advanced towards the river Dniester, where they had to encounter the greatest difficulties; a forest above forty leagues in extent, filled with rocks, mountains, and morasses. To complete their misfortunes, they were led thirty leagues out of the right way; all the artillery was sunk in bogs and marshes; the provision of the soldiers, which consisted of biscuit, was exhausted; and the whole army were spent and emaciated when they arrived at the Dniester. Here they expected to have met Mazepa with his reinforcement; but instead of that, they perceived the opposite banks of the river covered with a hostile army, and the passage itself rendered almost impracticable. Charles, however, was still undaunted; he let his soldiers by ropes down the steep banks; they crossed the river either by swimming, or on rafts hastily put together, drove the Russians from their post, and continued their march. Mazepa soon after appeared, having with him about six thousand men, the broken remains of the army he had promised. The Russians had got intelligence of his designs, defeated and dispersed his adherents, laid his town in ashes, and taken all the stores collected for the Swedish army. However, he still hoped to be useful by his intelligence in an unknown country; and the Kozaks, out of revenge, crowded daily to the camp with provisions.

Greater misfortunes still awaited the Swedes. When Charles entered the Ukraine, he had sent orders to General Lewenhaupt to meet him with fifteen thousand men, six thousand of whom were Swedes, and a large convoy of provisions. Against this detachment Peter now beat his whole force, and marched against him with an army of sixty-five thousand men. Lewenhaupt had received intelligence that the Russian army consisted of only twenty-four thousand, a force to which he thought six thousand Swedes superior, and therefore disdained to intrench himself. A furious contest ensued, in which the Russians were defeated with the loss of fifteen thousand men. Now, however, affairs began to take another turn. The Swedes, elated with victory, prosecuted their march into the interior; but, from the ignorance or treachery of their guides, they were led into a marshy country, where the roads were made impassable by felled trees and deep ditches. Here they were attacked by the czar with his whole army. Lewenhaupt had sent a detachment to dispute the passage of a body of Russians over a morass; but finding his detachment likely to be overpowered, he marched to support them with all his infantry. Another desperate battle ensued. The Russians were once more thrown into disorder, and were just on the point of being totally defeated, when Peter gave orders to the Kozaks and Kalmuks to fire upon all that fled; "Even kill me," said he, "if I should be so cowardly as to turn my back." The battle was now renewed with great vigour; but notwithstanding the czar's positive orders, and his own example, the day would have been lost, had not General Bauer arrived with a strong reinforcement of fresh Russian troops. The engagement was once more renewed, and continued without intermission till night. The Swedes then took possession of an advantageous post, but were next morning attacked by the Russians. Lewenhaupt had formed a sort of rampart with his waggons, but was obliged to set fire to them to prevent their falling into the hands of the Russians, while he retreated under cover of the smoke. The czar's troops, however, arrived in time to save five hundred of these waggons, filled with provisions destined for the distressed Swedes. A strong detachment was sent to pursue Lewenhaupt; but so terrible did he now appear, that the Russian general offered him an honourable capitulation. This was rejected with disdain, and a fresh engagement took place, in which the Swedes, now reduced to four thousand, again defeated their enemies, and killed five thousand on the spot. After this Lewenhaupt was allowed to pursue his retreat without molestation, though deprived of all his cannon and provisions. Prince Menzikoff was indeed detached with a body of forces to harass him on his march; but the Swedes were now so formidable, even in their extremity, that Menzikoff dared not to attack them, so that Lewenhaupt with his four thousand men arrived safe in the camp of Charles, after having destroyed nearly thirty thousand of the Russians.

This may be said to have been the last successful effort of Swedish valour against the troops of Peter. The difficulties which Charles's army had now to undergo exceeded what human nature could support; yet still they hoped by constancy and courage to subdue them. In the severest winter known for a long time, even in Russia, they made long marches, clothed like savages in the skins of wild beasts. All the draught-horses perished; thousands of soldiers dropt down dead through cold and hunger; and by the month of February 1709 the whole army was reduced to eighteen thousand. Amidst numberless difficulties these penetrated to Pultava, a town on the eastern frontier of the Ukraine, where the czar had laid up magazines, of which Charles resolved to obtain possession. Mazepa advised the king to invest the place, in consequence of his having correspondence with some of the inhabitants, by whose means he hoped it would be surrendered. He was, however, deceived. The besieged made an obstinate defence; the Swedes were repulsed in every assault, and eight thousand of them were defeated, and almost entirely cut off, in an engagement with a party of Russians. To complete his misfortunes, Charles received a shot in his heel from a carbine, which shattered the bone. For six hours afterwards, he continued calmly on horseback, giving orders, till he fainted with the loss of blood; after which he was carried into his tent.

For some days the czar, with an army of seventy thousand men, had lain at a small distance, harassing the Swedish camp, and cutting off the convoys of provision; but now intelligence was received that he was advancing as if with a design of attacking the lines. In this situation, Charles, wounded, distressed, and almost surrounded by enemies, is said to have, for the first time, assembled a grand council of war, the result of which was, that it was determined to march out and attack the Russians. Voltaire, however, asserts that the king did not relax one iota of his wonted obstinacy and arbitrary temper; but that, on the 7th of July, he sent for General Renschildt, and told him, without any emotion, to prepare for attacking the enemy next morning.

The 8th of July 1709 is remarkable for the battle which decided the fate of Sweden. Charles, having left eight thousand men in the camp to defend the works and repel the salutes of the besieged, began by break of day to march against his enemies with the rest of the army, consisting of twenty-six thousand men, of whom eighteen thousand were Kozaks. The Russians were drawn up in two lines behind their intrenchments, the horse in front, and the foot in the rear, with chasms to suffer the horse to fall back in case of necessity. General Slippenbach was despatched to attack the cavalry, which he did with such impetuosity that they were broken in an instant. They, however, rallied behind the infantry, and returned to the charge with so much vigour, that the Swedes were disordered in their turn, and Slippenbach was made prisoner. Charles was now carried in his litter to the scene of confusion. His troops, re-animated by the presence of their leader, returned to the charge, and the battle became doubtful, when a blunder of General Creuk, who had been despatched by Charles to take the enemy in flank, and a successful manoeuvre of Prince Menzikoff, decided the fortune of the day in favour of the Russians. Creuk's detachment was defeated, and Menzikoff, who had been sent by Peter with a strong body to post himself between the Swedes and Pultava, so as to cut off the communication of the enemy with their camp, and fall upon their rear, executed his orders with so much success as to intercept a corps de reserve of three thousand men. Charles had ranged his remaining troops in two lines, with the infantry in the centre, and the horse on the two wings. They had already twice rallied, and were now again attacked on all sides with the utmost fury. Charles in his litter, with a drawn sword in one hand, and a pistol in the other, seemed to be everywhere present; but new misfortunes awaited him. A cannon-ball killed both horses in the litter; and scarcely were these replaced by a fresh pair, when a second ball struck the litter in pieces, and overturned the king. The Swedish soldiers, believing him killed, fell back in consternation. The first line was completely broken, and the second fled. Charles, though disabled, did every thing in his power to restore order; but the Russians, emboldened by success, pressed so hard on the flying foe, that it was impossible to rally them. Renschildt and several other general officers were taken prisoners, and Charles himself would have shared the same fate, had not Count Poniatowski, father of the future favourite of Catherine II., with five hundred horse, surrounded the royal person, and with desperate fury cut his way through ten regiments of the Russians. With this small guard the king arrived on the banks of the Dnieper, and was followed by Lewenhaupt with four thousand foot and all the remaining cavalry. The Russians took possession of the Swedish camp, where they found a prodigious sum in specie; while Prince Menzikoff pursued the flying Swedes, and, as they were in want of boats to cross the Dnieper, obliged them to surrender at discretion. Charles escaped with the utmost difficulty, but at length reached Oetchakof, on the frontiers of Turkey.

By this decisive victory, Peter remained in quiet possession of his new acquisitions on the Baltic, and was enabled to carry on, without molestation, the improvements which he had projected at the mouth of the Neva. His haughty rival, so long and so justly dreaded, was now completely humbled, and his ally the king of Poland was again established on his throne. During the eight years that had elapsed from the battle of Narva to that of Pultava, the Russian troops had acquired the discipline and steadiness of veterans, and had at length learned to beat their former conquerors. If Peter had decreed triumphal processions for his trifling successes at Azof, it is not surprising that he should commemorate by similar pageants a victory so glorious and so important as that of Pultava. He made his triumphal entry into Moscow for the third time, and the public rejoicings on this occasion far exceeded all that had before been witnessed in the Russian empire.

The vanquished Charles had, in the mean time, found a valuable friend in the monarch in whose territories he had taken refuge. Achmet II., who then filled the Ottoman throne, had beheld with admiration the warlike achievements of the Swedish hero; and, alarmed at the late successes of his rival, determined to afford Charles the most effectual aid. In 1711, the Turkish emperor assembled an immense army, and was preparing to invade the Russian territories, when the czar, having intimation of his design, and expecting powerful support from Cantemir, hospodar of Moldavia, a vassal of the Porte, resolved to anticipate the Turks, and to make an inroad into Moldavia. Forgetting his usual prudence and circumspection, Peter crossed the Dnieper, and advanced by rapid marches as far as Yassy or Jassy, the capital of that province, which is situated on the river Pruth; but his temerity had nearly cost him his liberty, if not his life. The particulars of his dangerous situation, with the manner in which he was extricated from it by the prudent counsel of his consort Catherine, and the treaty of the Pruth, which was the result of that counsel, have been already related under the head of Catherine I.

By this treaty, in which the interests of Charles had been almost abandoned, Peter saw himself delivered from a dangerous enemy, and returned to his capital to prosecute those plans for the internal improvement of his empire which justly entitled him to the appellation of Great. Before we enumerate these improvements, however, we must bring the Swedish war to a conclusion. The death of Charles, in 1718, had left the Swedish government dangerously weakened, by the continual drain of men and money occasioned by his mad enterprises, and little able to carry on a war with a monarch so powerful as Peter. At length, therefore, in 1721, this ruinous contest, which had continued ever since the commencement of the century, was brought to a conclusion by the treaty of Nystadt, by which the Swedes were obliged to cede to Russia, Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, a part of Karelia, the territory of Vyborg, the isle of Oesel, and all the other islands in the Baltic, from Courland to Vyborg; for which concessions they received back Finland, that had been conquered by Peter, together with two millions of dollars, and the liberty of exporting duty free, from Riga, Revel, and Arensburg, corn to the annual amount of fifty thousand roubles. In consequence of this great accession to the Russian empire, Peter received from his senate the title of Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, and the ancient title of czar fell into disuse.

The improvements introduced by Peter into the internal policy of the empire must be acknowledged to have been numerous and important. He organized anew the legislative assembly of the state; he greatly ameliorated the administration of justice; he new-modelled the national army; he entirely created the Russian navy; he rendered the ecclesiastical government milder and less intolerant; he zealously patronized the arts and sciences; he erected an observatory at St Petersburg; and by publicly proclaiming the approach of an eclipse, and the precise time at which it was to take place, taught his subjects no longer to consider such a phenomenon as an omen of disaster, or an awful menace of divine judgment. He enlarged the commerce of his empire, and gave every encouragement to trade and manufactures. He formed canals, repaired the roads, instituted regular posts, and laid down regulations for a uniformity of weights and measures. Lastly, he in some measure civilized his subjects, though it is evident that he could not civilize himself.

Various have been the estimates formed of the character of Peter by those who have detailed the events of his reign. It is certain that to him the Russian empire is indebted for much of that splendour with which it now shines among the powers of Europe. As a monarch, therefore, he is entitled to our admiration; but as a private individual we must consider him as an object of detestation and abhorrence. His tyranny and his cruelty admit of no excuse; and if we were to suppose, that in sacrificing the heir of his crown he emulated the patriotism of the elder Brutus, we must remember that the same hand which signed the death-warrant of his son, could with pleasure execute the sentence of the law, or rather of his own caprice, and, in the moments of dissipation and revelry, could make the axe of justice an instrument of diabolical vengeance or of cool brutality.

Peter was succeeded by his consort Catherine, in whose favour he had, some years before his death, altered the order of succession. As the character of this princess, and the transactions of her short reign, have been fully detailed under her life, we shall here only notice in the most cursory manner the events that took place. From the commencement of her reign, Catherine conducted herself with the greatest benignity and gentleness, and thus secured the love and veneration of her subjects, which she had acquired during the life of the emperor. She reduced the annual capitulation tax; ordered the numerous gibbets which Peter had erected in various parts of the country to be cut down; and caused the bodies of those who had fallen victims to his tyranny to be decently interred. She recalled the greater part of those whom Peter had exiled to Siberia; paid the troops their arrears; and restored to the Kozaks those privileges and immunities of which they had been deprived during the late reign, while she continued in office most of the servants of Peter, both civil and military. In her reign the boundaries of the empire were extended by the submission of a Georgian prince, and the voluntary homage of the Kubinskian Tartars. She died on the 17th of May 1727, having reigned about two years. She had settled the crown on Peter the son of the Czarovitch Alexei, who succeeded, by the title of Peter II.

Peter was only twelve years of age when he ascended the imperial throne, and his reign was short and uninteresting. He was guided chiefly by Prince Menzikoff, whose daughter Catherine had decreed him to marry. This ambitious man, who, from the mean condition of a pye-boy, had risen to the first offices of the state, and had, during the late reign, principally conducted the administration of the government, was now, however, drawing towards the end of his career. The number of his enemies had greatly increased, and their attempts to work his downfall at last succeeded. A young nobleman of the family of the Dolgoruki, who was one of Peter's chief companions, was excited by his relations, and the other enemies of Menzikoff, to instil into the mind of the young prince feelings hostile to that minister. In this commission he succeeded so well, that Menzikoff and his whole family, not excepting the young empress, were banished to Siberia, and the Dolgoruks took into their hands the management of affairs. These artful counsellors, instead of cultivating the naturally good abilities of Peter, encouraged him to waste his time and exhaust his strength in hunting and other athletic exercises, for which his tender years were by no means calculated. It is supposed that the debility consequent on such fatigue increased the natural danger of the small-pox, with which he was attacked in January 1730, and from which he never recovered.

Notwithstanding the absolute power with which Peter I. and the Empress Catherine had settled by will the throne to the throne, the Russian senate and nobility, upon the death of Peter II., ventured to set aside the order of succession which those sovereigns had established. The male issue of Peter was now extinct; and the Duke of Holstein, the son to Peter's eldest daughter, was by the destination of the late empress entitled to the crown; but the Russians, for political reasons, filled the throne with Anne duchess of Courland, second daughter to Ivan, the eldest brother of Peter, though her eldest sister, the Duchess of Mecklenburg, was still alive. Anne's reign was extremely prosperous; and though she accepted the crown under limitations which some thought derogatory to her dignity, yet she broke them all, asserted the prerogative of her ancestors, and punished the aspiring Dolgoruki family, who had imposed those restrictions, with a view, as it is said, that they themselves might govern. She raised her favourite Biron to the duchy of Courland; and was obliged to give way to many severe executions on his account. Few transactions of any importance took place during the reign of Anne. She followed the example of her great predecessor Peter, by interposing in the affairs of Poland, where she She entered into a treaty with the shah of Persia, by which she agreed to give up all title to the territories that had been seized by Peter I. on the shores of the Caspian, in consideration of certain privileges to be granted to the Russian merchants.

In 1735, a rupture took place between Russia and Turkey, occasioned partly by the mutual jealousies that had subsisted between these powers ever since the treaty on the Pruth, and partly by the depredations of the Tartars of the Crimea, then under the dominion of the Porte. A Russian army entered the Crimea, ravaged part of the country, and killed a considerable number of Tartars; but having ventured too far, without a sufficient supply of provisions, it was obliged to retreat, after sustaining a loss of nearly ten thousand men. This ill success did not discourage the court of St Petersburg; and in the following year another armament was sent into the Ukraine, under the command of Marshal Munnich, while another army under Lacy proceeded against Azof. Both these generals met with considerable success; the Tartars were defeated, and the fort of Azof once more submitted to the Russian arms. A third campaign took place in 1737, and the Russians were now assisted by a body of Austrian troops. Munnich laid siege to Otchakof, which soon surrendered, while Lacy desolated the Crimea.

No material advantages were, however, gained upon either side; and disputes arose between the Austrian and Russian generals. At length, in 1739, Marshal Munnich, having crossed the Bog at the head of a considerable army, defeated the Turks in a pitched battle near Stavtushan; made himself master of Yassy, the capital of Moldavia; and before the end of the campaign reduced the whole of that province under his subjection. These successes of the Russian arms induced the Porte to propose terms of accommodation; and in the end of 1739 a treaty was concluded, by which Russia again gave up Azof and Moldavia, and, to compensate the loss of above a hundred thousand men, and vast sums of money, gained nothing but permission to build a fortress on the Don.

Upon the death of Anne, which took place in 1740, Ivan, the son of her niece the Princess of Mecklenburg, was, by her will, entitled to the succession; but as he was no more than two years old, Biren was appointed to be administrator of the empire during his minority. This nomination was disagreeable to the emperor's father and mother, and unpopular among the Russians. Count Munnich was employed by the princess to arrest Biren, who was tried and condemned to die, but was sent into exile to Siberia.

The administration of the Princess Anne of Mecklenburg and her husband was upon many accounts disagreeable, not only to the Russians, but to other powers of Europe; and the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great by Catherine, formed such a party, that in one night's time she was proclaimed empress of the Russians, and the Princess of Mecklenburg, her husband, and son, were made prisoners. The fate of this unhappy family was peculiarly severe. All but Ivan were sent into banishment, to an island at the mouth of the Dvina, in the White Sea, where the Princess Anne died in childbirth in the year 1747. Ivan's father survived till 1775, and at last ended his miserable career in prison. The young emperor Ivan was for some time shut up in a monastery at Oranienburg, when, on attempting to escape, he was removed to the castle of Schlusselburg, where he was cruelly put to death.

The chief instrument in rousing the ambition of Elizabeth, and procuring her elevation to the throne, was her physician and favourite Lestocq, who, partly by his insinuating address, and partly by the assistance of French gold, brought over to Elizabeth's interest most of the royal guards. During the short regency of Anne of Mecklenburg, a new war had commenced between Russia and Sweden; and this war was carried on with considerable acrimony and some success by Elizabeth. The Russian forces took possession of Abo, and made themselves masters of nearly all Finland. But at length, in 1743, in consequence of the negotiations that were carrying on regarding the succession to the Swedish crown, a peace was concluded between the two powers, on the condition that Elizabeth should restore the greater part of Finland.

Soon after her accession, Elizabeth determined to nominate her successor to the imperial throne, and had fixed Peter duke her eyes on Charles Peter Ulric, son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, by Anne, daughter of Peter the Great. This prince was accordingly invited into Russia, persuaded to become a member of the Greek church, and proclaimed Duke of Grand Duke of Russia, and heir of the empire. The ceremony of his baptism was performed on the 18th of November 1742, when he received the name of Peter Feodorovitch. He was at this time only fourteen years of age; but before he had attained his sixteenth year, his aunt had destined him a consort in the person of Sophia Augusta Frederica, daughter of Christian Augustus prince of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. This princess, on entering the Greek church, took the name of Catherine which she afterwards bore on the throne.

Having thus settled the order of succession, Elizabeth began to take an active part in the politics of Europe. The engagement of Charles VI., emperor of Germany, had left his seven daughters, Maria Theresa queen of Hungary, at the mercy of the enterprising king of Prussia, till a formidable party was organized in her behalf. To this confederacy the empress of Russia acceded, and in 1747 sent a considerable body of troops into Germany, to the assistance of the empress-queen. The events of this long and bloody contest have been fully detailed in the article Prussia, comprehending the greater part of those transactions in the reign of Elizabeth that do not particularly regard the internal policy of the empire. The more private transactions of the court of St Petersburg, as far as they are connected with the intrigues of her niece Catherine and the follies of the Grand Duke Peter, have also been related in our life of Catherine II. Elizabeth died on the 5th of January 1762, the victim of disease brought on by intemperance. With her character as a private woman we have little business here. Her merits as a sovereign are fairly estimated in the following sketch of her character by Tooke.

"Elizabeth, as empress, governed but little of herself; Character being properly her ministers and favourites who dictated of Elizabeth her regulations and decrees. Of this number, besides Besuchef, was also Razumofsky, to whom, it has been said, the empress was even privately married. At the beginning of her reign, it is true, she went a few times to the sitting of the senate; but the matters transacted there were by much too serious for her mind; and, accordingly, she very soon left off that practice altogether, contenting herself by confirming with her signature the resolutions of that assembly, and the determinations of her minister, or the conference, which supplied the place of the council.

"Her character in general was mild, as was evident from the tears it cost her whenever she received accounts from Prussia even of victories gained by her own army, on account of the human blood by which they must necessarily have been purchased. Yet even this delicate sensibility did not restrain her from prosecuting the war into which she had entered from a species of revenge, and for the purpose of humbling the king of Prussia, and, even on her deathbed, from exhorting the persons who surrounded her to the most vigorous continuation of it. It also proceeded from this sensibility, that immediately on her accession to the government she made the vow never to put her signature to a sentence of death. A resolution which she faith- fully kept, though it cannot be averred to have been for the benefit of the empire; since, in consequence of it, the number of malefactors who deserved to die was every day increasing, insomuch that even the clergy requested the empress to retract her vow, at the same time urging proofs that they could release her from it. All the arguments they could use, however, were of no avail to move the conscientious monarch; she would not give effect to any sentence of death, although the commanders in the army particularly would have been glad that her conscience had yielded a little on that point. They declared that the soldiers were not to be restrained from their excesses by the severest corporal punishments they could employ; whereas such was their dread of a solemn execution, that a few examples of that nature would have effectually kept them in awe.

Commerce and literature, arts, manufactures, handicrafts, and the other means of livelihood, which had been fostered by the former sovereigns, continued their course under Elizabeth with increasing prosperity. The country products were obtained and wrought up in greater quantities, and several branches of profit were more zealously carried on. The sum appointed for the support of the Academy of Sciences founded by Peter I. at St Petersburg, was considerably augmented by Elizabeth; and she moreover established, in 1758, the academy still subsisting for the arts of painting and sculpture, in which a number of young persons are brought up as painters, engravers, statuaries, architects, &c. At Moscow she endowed a university and two gymnasia.

The Empress Elizabeth herself having a good voice, music, which Anne had already much encouraged, found under her administration a perpetual accession of disciples and admirers; so that even numbers of persons of distinction at St Petersburg became excellent performers. The art of acting plays was now also more general among the Russians. Formerly none but French or Italian pieces were performed on the stage of St Petersburg, whereas now Sumarokof obtained celebrity as a dramatic poet in his native language, and, in 1756, Elizabeth laid the foundation of a Russian theatre in her residence. Architecture likewise found a great admirer and patroness in her, St Petersburg and its vicinity being indebted to her for great embellishments and numerous structures.

The magnificence which had prevailed under Anne at the court of St Petersburg was not diminished during her reign, and the court establishment therefore amounted to extraordinary sums. Elizabeth, indeed, in this respect did not imitate her great father; and accordingly in the Seven Years' War the want of a well-stored treasury was already very sensibly felt.

The population of the empire was considerably increased under her reign; and so early as 1752, according to the statement in an account published by an official person, it was augmented by one fifth.

Elizabeth continued the practice of her predecessors in encouraging foreigners to come to settle in her empire. Emigrant Servians cultivated a considerable tract of land, till then almost entirely uninhabited, on the borders of Turkey, where they built the town of Elizabethgorod, and multiplied so fast, that in the year 1764 a particular district was formed of these improvements, under the name of New Servia. Only the Jews Elizabeth was no less resolute not to tolerate than her father had been; insomuch that, so early in her reign as 1743, they were ordered to quit the country on pain of death.

The army was augmented under Elizabeth, but certainly not improved. There were now no longer at the head of it such men as the foreigners Munnich, Keith, or Loevendal, who, besides their personal courage and intrepidity, possessed the soundest principles of the art of war; and, what is of no less consequence in a commander, kept up a strict discipline, and took care that the laws of subordination were punctually observed. The excessive license which the regiments of guards, particularly the life company of the Preobajskoy guards, presumed to exercise, under the very eyes of the empress in St Petersburg, afforded no good example to the rest of the army; and Elizabeth, in appointing those soldiers of that life company who had been most guilty of flagrant disorders, and the basest conduct, to be officers in the marching regiments, gives us no very high idea of what was required in an officer, but rather serves easily to explain whence it arose that such frequent complaints were made of insubordination. A great number of excellent regulations that had been introduced into the army, and always enforced by foreigners, especially by Munnich, were suffered by the Russian generals to fall into total disuse. The bad effects of this negligence were very soon perceived; and it was undoubtedly a circumstance highly favourable to the Russian troops, that for several years successively in the war which we have had occasion so often to mention, they had to engage with such a master in the military art as the king of Prussia, and by their conflicts with him, as well as by their connection with the Austrians, and in the sequel with the Prussian soldiery, had an opportunity of learning so many things, and of forming themselves into regular combatants.

Elizabeth tarnished her reign, however, by the institution of a political court of inquisition, under the name of a secret state chancery, empowered to examine into and punish all such charges as related to the expression of any kind of displeasure against the measures of government. This, as is usual in such cases, opened a door to the vilest practices. The lowest and most profligate of mankind were now employed as spies and informers, and were rewarded for their denunciations and calumnies against the most virtuous characters, if these happened by a look, a shrug of the shoulders, or a few harmless words, to signify their disapprobation of the proceedings of the sovereign.

The grand duke ascended the throne by the name of Peter III. This prince's conduct has been variously represented. He entered on the government possessed of an enthusiastic admiration of the virtues of the king of Prussia, with whom he immediately made peace, and whose principles and practice he seems to have adopted as patterns for his imitation. He might have surmounted the effects even of these peculiarities, unpopular as they then were in Russia; but it is said that he aimed at reforms in his dominions which Peter the Great durst not attempt; and that he even ventured to cut off the beards of his clergy. He was certainly a weak man, who had no opinions of his own, but childishly adopted the sentiments of any person who took the trouble to teach him. His chief amusement was buffoonery; and he would sit for hours looking with pleasure at a merry-andrew singing drunken and vulgar songs. He was a stranger to the country, its inhabitants, and their manners; and suffered himself to be persuaded by those about him, that the Russians were fools and beasts unworthy of his attention, except to make them, by means of the Prussian discipline, good fighting machines. These opinions regulated his whole conduct, and prepared the way for that revolution which faults of a different kind tended to hasten.

Becoming attached to a lady of the noble family of Vo-His imper- rontzoff, he disgusted his wife, who was then a beautiful wo- man in the prime of life, of great natural talents and great acquired accomplishments; whilst the lady whom he pre- ferred to her was but one degree above an idiot. The Princess Dashkoff, the favourite's sister, who was married to a man whose genius was not superior to that of the emperor, being dame d'honneur and lady of the bed-chamber, had of course much of the empress's company. Similarity of situations knit these two illustrious personages in the closest friendship. The princess, being a zealous admirer of the French économistes, could make her conversation both amusing and instructive. She retailed all her statistical knowledge; and finding the empress a willing hearer, she spoke of her in every company as a prodigy of knowledge, judgment, and philanthropy. Whilst the emperor, by his buffoonery and attachment to foreign manners, was daily incurring more and more the hatred of his subjects, the popularity of his wife was rapidly increasing; and some persons about the court expressed their regret that so much knowledge of government, such love of humanity, and such ardent wishes for the prosperity of Russia, should only furnish conversations with Catharina Romanovna (the Princess Dashkoff). The empress and her favourite did not let these expressions pass unobserved, but continued their studies in concert; and whilst the former was employed on her famous code of laws for a great empire, the latter always reported progress, till the middling circles of Moscow and St Petersburg began to speak familiarly of the blessings which they might enjoy if these speculations could be realized.

Meanwhile Peter III. was giving fresh cause of discontent. He had recalled from Siberia Count Munnich, who was indeed a sensible, brave, and worthy man; but Munnich, as he was smarting under the effects of Russian despotism, and had grounds of resentment against most of the great families, did not much discourage the emperor's unpopular conduct, trying only to moderate it and give it a system. Peter, however, was impatient. He publicly ridiculed the exercise and evolutions of the Russian troops; and hastily adopting the Prussian discipline, without digesting and fitting it for the constitution of his own forces, he completely ruined himself by disguising the army.

In the midst of these imprudences, indeed, Peter was sometimes disturbed by the advice of virtuous counsellors. But these remonstrances produced only a temporary gleam of reformation, and he soon relapsed into his accustomed sensuality. What he lost in popularity was gained by the emissaries of Catherine. Four regiments of guards, amounting to eight thousand men, were speedily brought over by the three brothers Orlof, who had contrived to ingratiate themselves with their officers. The people at large were in a state of indifference, out of which they were partially roused by the following means. A little manuscript was handed about, containing principles of legislation for Russia, founded on natural rights, and on the claims of the different classes of people, which, insensibly formed, became so familiar as to appear natural. In that performance was proposed a convention of deputies from all the classes, and from every part of the empire, to converse, but without authority, on the subjects of which it treated, and to inform the senate of the result of their deliberations. It passed for the work of her majesty, and was much admired.

While Catherine was thus high in the public esteem and affection, the emperor took the alarm at her popularity, and in a few days came to the resolution of confining her for life, and then of marrying his favourite. The servants of that lady betrayed her to her sister, who imparted the intelligence to the empress. Catherine saw her danger, and instantly formed her resolution. She must either tamely submit to perpetual imprisonment, or perhaps a cruel and ignominious death, or contrive to hurl her husband from his throne. No other alternative was left her, and the consequence was what was undoubtedly expected. The proper steps were taken. Folly fell before abilities and address, and in three days the revolution was accomplished.

When the emperor saw that all was lost, he attempted to enter Cronstadt from Oranienbaum, a town on the Gulf of Finland, thirty versts, or nearly twenty-six miles, from St Petersburg. The sentinels at the harbour presented their muskets at the barge; and though they were not loaded, and the men had no cartridges, he drew back. Munnich received him again, and exhorted him to mount his horse and head his guards, swearing to live and die with him. He said, "No, I see it cannot be done without shedding much of the blood of my brave Holsteiners. I am not worthy of the sacrifice."

Six days had already elapsed since the revolution, and that great event had been apparently terminated without any violence that might leave odious impressions upon the mind of the public. Peter had been removed from Petershof to a pleasant retreat called Ropcscha, about thirty miles from St Petersburg; and here he supposed he should be detained but a short time previous to his being sent into Germany. He therefore transmitted a message to Catherine, desiring permission to have for his attendant a favourite negro, and that she would send him a dog, of which he was very fond, together with his violin, a bible, and a few romances; telling her that, disgusted with the wickedness of mankind, he was resolved henceforth to devote himself to a philosophical life. However reasonable these requests, not one of them was granted, and his plans of wisdom were turned into ridicule.

In the mean time the soldiers were amazed at what they had done. They could not conceive by what fascination they had been hurried so far as to dethrone the grandson of Peter the Great, in order to give his crown to a German woman. The majority, without plan or consciousness of what they were doing, had been mechanically led on by the movements of others; and each individual now reflecting on his baseness, after the pleasure of disposing of a crown had vanished, was filled only with remorse. The sailors, who had never been engaged in the insurrection, openly reproached the guards in the tippling-houses with having sold their emperor for beer. One night a band of soldiers attached to the empress took the alarm, from an idle fear, and exclaimed that their mother was in danger, and that she must be awakened, that they might see her. During the next night there was a fresh commotion more serious than the former. So long as the life of the emperor left a pretext for inquietude, it was thought that no tranquillity was to be expected.

On the sixth day of the emperor's imprisonment at Ropcscha, Alexei Orlof, accompanied by an officer named Teploff, came to him with the news of his speedy deliverance, and asked permission to dine with him. According to the custom of that country, wine glasses and brandy were brought previous to dinner; and while the officer amused the czar with some trifling discourse, his chief filled the glasses, and poured a poisonous mixture into that which he intended for the prince. The czar, without any distrust, swallowed the potion, on which he immediately experienced the most severe pains; and on his being offered a second glass, on pretence of its giving him relief, he refused it, with reproaches against him that offered it. He called aloud for milk, but the two monsters offered him poison again, and pressed him to take it. A French valet-de-chambre, greatly attached to him, now ran in. Peter threw himself into his arms, saying in a faint tone of voice, "It was not enough, then, to prevent me from reigning in Sweden, and to deprive me of the crown of Russia. I must also be put to death."

The valet-de-chambre presumed to intercede for his master; but the two miscreants forced this dangerous witness out of the room, and continued their ill treatment of the czar. In the midst of this tumult the younger of the Princes Baratinsky came in, and joined the two former. Orlof, who had already thrown down the emperor, was pressing upon his breast with both his knees, and firmly gripping his throat with his hand. The unhappy monarch now struggling with that strength which arises from despair, the two other assassins threw a napkin round his neck, and put an end to his life by suffocation. It is not known with certainty what share the empress had in this event; but it is affirmed that on the very day on which it happened, while the empress was beginning her dinner with much gaiety, an officer, supposed to be one of the assassins, precipitately entered the apartment with his hair dishevelled, his face covered with sweat and dust, his clothes torn, and his countenance agitated with horror and dismay. On entering, his eyes, sparkling and confused, met those of the empress. She arose in silence, and went into a closet, whither he followed her. A few moments afterwards she sent for Count Panin, the former governor of Peter, who was already appointed her minister, and, informing him that the emperor was dead, consulted him on the manner of announcing his death to the public. Panin advised her to let one night pass over, and to spread the news next day, as if they had received it during the night. This counsel being approved, the empress returned with the same countenance, and continued her dinner with the same gaiety. On the day following, when it was published that Peter had died of a hemorrhoidal colic, she appeared bathed in tears, and proclaimed her grief by an edict.

The corpse was brought to St Petersburg, there to be exposed. The face was black, and the neck excoriated. Notwithstanding these horrible marks, in order to assuage the commotions, which began to excite apprehension, and to prevent impostors from hereafter disturbing the empire, it was left three days exposed to all the people, with only the ornaments of a Holstein officer. The soldiers, disbanded and disarmed, mingled with the crowd, and as they beheld their sovereign, their countenances indicated a mixture of compassion, contempt, and shame. They were soon afterwards embarked for their country; but, as the sequel of their cruel destiny, almost all of these unfortunate men perished in a storm. Some of them had saved themselves on the rocks adjacent to the coast; but they again fell a prey to the waves, while the commandant of Cronstadt despatched a messenger to St Petersburg to know whether he might be permitted to assist them. Thus fell the unhappy Peter III. in 1762, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, after having enjoyed the imperial dignity only six months.

On her accession, Catherine behaved with great magnanimity and forbearance towards those who had opposed her elevation, or were the declared friends of the deceased emperor. She gave to Prince George, in exchange for his title of Duke of Courland, conferred on him by Peter, the government of Holstein. She reinstated Biren in his dukedom of Courland, received into favour Marshal Munnich, who had readily transferred his fidelity from the dead to the living, and even pardoned her rival the Countess Vorontsoff, and permitted her to retain the tokens of her lover's munificence. She permitted Gudovitch, who was high in the confidence of Peter, and had incurred her particular displeasure, to retire to his native country. Perhaps the most unexpected part of her conduct towards the friends of Peter, was her adhering to the treaty of peace which that monarch had concluded with the king of Prussia six months before. The death of his inveterate enemy Elizabeth had relieved Frederick from a load of solicitude, and had extricated him from his dangerous situation. He now, as he thought, saw himself again involved in a war with the same formidable power; but, to his great joy, he found that Catherine, from motives of policy, declined entering on a war at the commencement of her reign.

In one particular the empress showed her jealousy and her fears. She increased the vigilance with which the young prince Ivan was confined in the castle of Schlosselburg, from which Peter III. had expressed a resolution to release him. Not long after her accession, this unfortunate prince was assassinated, though whether this event was to be imputed to the empress or her counsellors, cannot be positively determined. But a manifesto published by the court of St Petersburg, and supposed to have been written by the empress herself, admitted that the prince was put to death by the officers of his guard, alleging that this was necessary, in consequence of an attempt to carry him off.

Were we to offer a detailed account of the principal transactions that took place during the long reign of Catherine, we should far exceed the limits within which this article must be confined, and should at the same time repeat much of what has already been given under other heads. As the events that distinguished the life of Catherine, however, are too important to be wholly omitted, we shall present our readers with the following chronological sketch of them, referring for a more particular account to Tooke's Life of Catherine II., and to the articles CATHERINE II., BRITAIN, FRANCE, POLAND, PRUSSIA, SWEDEN, and TURKEY, in this work.

The year 1766 presented at St Petersburg the grandest spectacle that perhaps was ever seen in Europe. At an entertainment, which the empress chose to name a carousal, the principal nobility appeared in the most sumptuous dresses, sparkling with diamonds, and mounted on horses richly caparisoned, in a magnificent theatre erected for that purpose. Here all that has been read of the ancient jousts and tournaments was realized and exceeded in the presence of thousands of spectators, who seemed to vie with each other in the brilliancy of their appearance.

In 1768, the empress composed instructions for a new code of laws for her dominions; and the same year she submitted to the danger of inoculation, in order that her subjects, to whom the practice was unknown, might be benefited by her example.

In the same year a war broke out with the Ottoman Porte. The various events of this long and important conflict, which continued for seven years, must here be only briefly enumerated, as they will hereafter be more particularly noticed under the article TURKEY. In this war our countryman Greig, then an admiral in the Russian service, highly distinguished himself by his conduct in a naval engagement with the Turks, in the harbour of Tschesme, in the Archipelago, in which the Turkish fleet was entirely defeated, and their magazines destroyed. This took place on the 4th of November 1772.

In the beginning of the year 1769, the khan of the Crimea made an attack on the territory of Bachmut, on the river Bog, where he was several times bravely repulsed, with his army of Tartars and Turks, by Major-General Romanus and Prince Prosofiskoi. At the same time were fought the battles of Zekanofca and Sorooca on the Dnieper, when the large magazines of the enemy were burned. In February the Polish Kozaks in the voivodship of Bracław put themselves under the Russian sceptre. In the same month the Nisovian Saparogian Kozaks gained a battle in the deserts of Krim. In March the Polish rebels were subdued, and their town taken, by Major-General Ismailoff. On the 2d of April the fort of Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof, was taken. On the 15th the Russian army, under the general-in-chief Prince Galitzin, crossed the Dniester. On the 19th a victory was gained by Prince Galitzin near Chotzim. On the 21st the Turks were defeated not far from Chotzim by Lieutenant-General Count Solikoff. The 29th, an action was fought between the Russian Kalmyks and the Kuban Tartars, to the disadvantage of the latter. June the 8th, the Turks were defeated at the mouth of the Dnieper, near Otchakoff. An action took place on the Dniester on the 19th, when the troops of Prince Prosofiskoi forced the Turks to repass the river in great disorder. Chotzim was taken on the 19th of September. Yassy, in Moldavia, was taken on the 27th of September. Bukarescht, in Wallachia, was taken, and the hospodar made prisoner, in November 1770. A victory was gained by the Russians under Generals Podborilshany and Potemkin, near Fokshany. The town of Shursha was taken by Lieutenant-General Von Stoffeln, February 4. A Russian fleet appeared in the port of Maina, in the Morea, on the 17th February. Mistra, the Lacedemon of the ancients, and several other towns of the Morea, were taken in February. Arcadium in Greece surrendered, and a multitude of Turks were made prisoners, in the same month. The Turks and Tartars were driven from their intrenchments near the Pruth, by Count Romantza, Prince Repnin, and General Bauer, 11th-16th June. Prince Prosofiski gained several advantages near Otchakof, June 18. The Russian fleet, under Count Alexei Orlof, gained a complete victory over the Turks near Tschesme, 24th June; the consequence of this victory was the destruction of the whole Turkish fleet, near Tschesme, where it was burned by Admiral Greig on the 26th of June. A battle was fought on the Kagul, in which Count Romantza defeated the Turkish army, consisting of a hundred and fifty thousand men, and took their camp, and all the artillery, July 21. The fortress Bender was taken July 22. The town of Ismail was taken by Prince Repnin, July 26; Kilia by Prince Repnin, August 21; and Akkerman in October. Brailof was taken on the 10th of November 1771; the town of Kaffa, June 29; and numberless other victories were obtained by sea and land, till peace was concluded on the 13th January 1775. By this the Crimea was declared independent of the Porte, and all the vast tract of country between the Bog and Dnieper was ceded to Russia, besides the Kuban and the isle of Taman, with free navigation in all the Turkish seas, including the passage of the Dardanelles, privileges granted to the most favoured nations, and stipulations in behalf of the inhabitants of Moldavia and Wallachia.

In 1779, the empress intending to divide the empire into viceroyalties, began in January with the viceroyalty of Orlof. March 21st, a new treaty was signed at Constantinople between Russia and the Porte. May 13th, the treaty of peace between the belligerent powers in Germany and the French king was signed under the mediation of her majesty. In October, a ship built at Taganrog, named the Prince Constantine, sailed to Smyrna with Russian commodities. December 3d, the viceroyalty of Voronetsk was instituted; and the 27th, Count Romantza Zadunaiski opened the viceroyalty of Kursk with great solemnity.

In 1780, February 26th, appeared the memorable declaration of her imperial majesty, relating to the safety of navigation and commerce of the neutral powers. In 1781, March 1st, the empress became mediatrix between England and Holland; April 5th, instituted the first public school in St Petersburg.

In 1782, by a command of her majesty, dated January the 18th, a Roman Catholic archbishop was installed in the city of Mohilef, with authority over all the Catholic churches and convents in the Russian empire. August 7th, the famous equestrian statue of Peter the Great, being finished, was uncovered to the public in presence of the empress, on which occasion she published a proclamation containing pardons for several criminals. November 22d, the order of St Vladimir was instituted. The 27th, the empress published a new tariff.

In 1783, May 7th, the empress instituted a seminary for the education of young persons of quality at Kursk. June 21st, a treaty of commerce was concluded with the Ottoman Porte. July, the institution of the other viceroyalties of the empire followed in succession. On July 21st, the empress published a manifesto by her commander-in-chief Prince Potemkin, in the Krim, in regard to the taking possession of that peninsula, the Kuban, and the island of Taman. The 24th, a treaty was concluded with Heraclius II., czar of Kartalinia and Kachetti, by which he submitted himself, his heirs and successors for ever, with his territories and dominions, to the sceptre of her majesty, her heirs and successors. On the 29th, accounts were received from the camp of Prince Potemkin, at Karas-Basar, that the clergy, the beys, and other persons of distinction, with the towns of Karas-Basar, Bachtishisarai, Achmetchet, Kaffa, Kosloff, with the districts of Turkanskoikut and Nenbasar, and that of Perekop, in the peninsula of the Krim, together with the hordes of Edissack and Dzhambolusak, the sultan Alim Giray, and his vassals, with all the Budshaks and Bashkirs there, and all the tribes dwelling beyond the river Kuban, the sultan Boxtur Giray and his vassals, took the oath of allegiance to her imperial majesty, and with willing hearts submitted for ever to her glorious sway. On the 30th the hospodar of Wallachia was deposed, and Draco Sutzo set up in his place. September 22d, her majesty raised Gabriel, archbishop of Novgorod and St Petersburg, to the dignity of metropolitan. October 21st, in the great hall of the Academy of Sciences, the new institution of the Imperial Russian Academy was opened, after a most solemn consecration by the metropolitan Gabriel, and others of the clergy, under the presidency of the Princess Dashkoff. November 7th, the empress became mediatrix for accommodating the differences between the king of Prussia and the city of Danzig. The school for surgery was opened at St Petersburg on the 18th. December 13th, a school commission was instituted for superintending all the public schools. On the 28th, an act was concluded with the Ottoman Porte, by which the possession and sovereignty of the Krim, the Kuban, and Taman, were solemnly made over to the empress.

1784. January 1st, the senate, in a speech by Field-Marshal Count Razomofskoi, performed the ceremony, repeated Georgia annually, of most humbly thanking her majesty for the benefactions which she had graciously bestowed on the whole Russian empire in the preceding year. October 14th, the Legtiers, having crossed the river Alasan, and invaded the dominions of Georgia, were repulsed with great loss by a detachment of Russian troops. December 29th, Katolikos Maksim, the serdar and court-marshal Prince Zeretelli, and the chief justice Kulnichese, ambassadors from David, czar of Imeretia, were admitted to a public audience of her majesty, at which they submitted, in the name of the czar, him and his subjects to the will and powerful protection of her imperial majesty, as the rightful head of all the sons of the orthodox eastern church, and sovereign ruler and defender of the Georgian nations.

1785. The 12th of January, Maurocordato, hospodar of Wallachia, was deposed, and Alexander Maurocordato, his uncle, restored to that dignity. The 21st, the empress provincial visited the principal national school, and passed a long time examining the classes, and the proficiency of the youth in that seminary; on which occasion a marble tablet was fixed in the wall of the fourth class, with this inscription, in gold letters: THOU VISITEST THE VINEYARD WHICH THINE OWN HAND HATH PLANTED. April 21st, the privileges of the nobility were confirmed, and on the same day the burglers of towns constituted into bodies corporate, by a particular manifesto. The public school in Voronetsk was opened. July 14th, a manifesto was issued, granting full liberty of religion and commerce to all foreigners settling in the regions of Mount Caucasus, under the Russian government. September 15th, the public school at Nishni Novgorod was opened. October 12th, the Jesuits in White Russia, in a general assembly, elected a vicar-general of their order. November 1st, a treaty of commerce was concluded with the emperor of Germany. The 24th, the Russian consul in Alexandria made his public entry on horseback, an honour never before granted to any power; erected the imperial standard on his house, with discharge of cannon, &c. December 28th, a Russian mercantile frigate, fully freighted, arrived at Leghorn from Constantinople. 1786. The 29th of January, the empress confirmed the plan of a navigation school. February 12th, by a decree, the usual slavish subscriptions to petitions were to be discontinued; and, instead of them, only the words humble or faithful subject, and in certain cases only subject, were ordained to be used. March 23rd, the empress granted the university of Moscow a hundred and twenty-five thousand roubles, and all the materials of the palace Kremlin, for increasing its buildings. The 25th, a decree was passed for making and repairing the roads throughout the whole empire at the sole expense of the crown, and four millions of roubles were immediately allotted for the road between St Petersburg and Moscow. April 10th, a new war establishment for the army was signed; 23d, the hospodar of Wallachia was deposed, and Mavroyeni set up in his place. June 28th, the empress instituted a loan bank at St Petersburg, to the fund whereof she allotted twenty-two millions to be advanced to the nobility, and eleven millions to the burglers of the town, on very advantageous terms. August 5th, there were published rules to be observed in the public schools. October 4th, a large Russian ship, with Russian productions, from St Petersburg, arrived at Cadiz. November 24th, the empress erected public schools at Tambov. December 14th, Prince Ypsilanti was appointed hospodar of Moldavia, in the room of the deposed Maurocordato. December 31st, a treaty of commerce and navigation was concluded between Russia and France.

1787. March, public schools were endowed and opened at Rostof, Uglichi, Molaga, and Romanof, in the viceroyalty of Yaroslavi; also at Usting and Arasovitz, in the viceroyalty of Vologda. April 21st, a manifesto was issued for promoting peace and concord among the burglers of the empire. The 25th, took place the concerted interview between the empress and the king of Poland, near the Polish town of Konief. The treaty of commerce with England being expired, the British factory were informed that they must henceforward pay the duties on imports in silver money, like the other nations who had no commercial treaty. May 7th, the empress hearing that the emperor of Germany was at Cherson, proceeded thither, and met him there on the 12th. June 28th, the twenty-fifth anniversary of her reign, she displayed various marks of her bounty. The debtors to the crown were forgiven, prisoners released, imposts taken off, soldiers rewarded, &c. The 12th July, the new-built school at Riga, called a Lyceum, was solemnly dedicated. August 5th, Bulgakoff, the Russian ambassador at the Ottoman Porte, was imprisoned in the Seven Towers, contrary to the law of nations, which the empress regarded as a public declaration of war. 21st, The Turkish fleet at Ochakoff attacked the Russian frigate Skoroui and the sloop Bitingi, but was repulsed and put to flight by the bravery of the latter. Many signal advantages were gained over the Turks; several public schools founded in various parts of the empire between this and August following, during which time the war broke out with Sweden.

1788. August 12th, in the expedition beyond the Kuban, the Russian troops entirely routed a company of four thousand Arutayans and Alcasaimans; eight hundred of the enemy were slain, and five villages destroyed. 15th, The surrender of the Turkish fortress of Dubitsna took place. 18th, The Turks made a violent sortie from Ochakoff, but were repulsed by the Russian yagers, and, after a battle of four hours, were driven back with the loss of five hundred men. 23d, A fierce battle was fought between the Russian troops and Sacubanians, in which the latter lost a thousand men. The Russian fleet kept the Swedish blockaded up in Sveaborg ever since the battle of July 6th. The Swedish army left the Russian territory in Finland. September 18th, The town and fortress of Chotzim surrendered to the Russians, with the garrison of two thousand men, a hundred and fifty-three cannon fourteen mortars, and much ammunition.

19th-29th, A small Russian squadron from the fleet at Sevastopol, cruising along the coast of Anatolia, destroyed many of the enemy's vessels, prevented the transporting of the Turkish troops, and returned with great booty. 20th, Usenier Shamachin, chief of the Baheduchovians, was, on his petition, admitted a subject of Russia. 26th, A numerous host of Kubanians and Turks were beaten on the river Ubir, with the loss of fifteen hundred men. November 7th, Prince Potemkin, at the head of his Kozaks, took the island Beregan, with many prisoners and much ammunition. December 6th, the town and fortress of Ochakoff were taken by Prince Potemkin Tavritsheski; nine thousand five hundred and ten of the enemy were killed, four thousand taken prisoners, a hundred and eighty standards, three hundred and ten cannons and mortars. All the inhabitants were taken prisoners, amounting to twenty-five thousand; the Russians lost nine hundred and fifty-six killed and eighteen hundred and twenty-four wounded. December 19th, General Kamenskoy gained considerable advantages over the Turks near Gangur.

1789. April 16th, Colonel Rimskoy Korsakov was surrounded by the Turks, who were beaten, with great slaughter, by Lieutenant-General Von Derfelden. 17th-28th, Some Russian cruisers from Sevastopol effected a landing on Cape Karakaran, burnt six mosques, and carried off great booty. 20th, General Derfelden drove the Turks from Galatch, gained a complete victory, killed two thousand, took fifteen hundred prisoners, with the seraskier Ibrahim Pasha, and the whole camp. Several skirmishes took place between the Russians and Swedes in Finland, always to the advantage of the former. May 31st, another victory was gained over the Swedes. June 5th, Sukhov was taken from the Swedes, and Fort St Michael on the 8th. July 15th, Admiral Tchitchagoff engaged the Swedish fleet under the command of the Duke of Sadermania; but no ship was lost on either side. 21st, A battle was fought at Fokshany, to the great loss of the Turks, and Fokshany was taken. August 13th, the Russian galley fleet fought the Swedish under Count Ehrenswerd; the former took a frigate and five other ships, and two thousand prisoners. August 21st, another sea-fight took place, and Prince Nassau Siegen made good his landing of the Russian troops in sight of the king of Sweden at the head of his army. September 7th, Prince Repnin attacked the seraskier Hassan Pasha near the river Seltska, and took his whole camp. 11th, Count Suworoff and prince of Saxe-Cobourg engaged near the river Kymnik the grand Turkish army of nearly a hundred thousand men, and gained a complete victory; from which Count Suworoff received the surname Kymniskoi. 14th, The Russian troops under General Ribas took the Turkish citadel Chadshabey, in the sight of the whole of the enemy's fleet. 30th, The fortress Palanka being taken, the town of Balgorod or Akjerman surrendered to Prince Potemkin Tavritsheski. November 4th, the town and castle of Bender submitted at discretion to the same commander.

1790. April 24, General Numser gained a victory over the Swedes near Memel. May 2, a sea-fight took place off Peine and Revel, in which the Russians captured the Prince Charles of sixty-four guns from the Swedes; and in this engagement those two gallant English officers Captains Trevanian and Dennison were killed. 23d, The fleet under Vice-Admiral Kruse engaged the Swedish fleet near the island Siskar in the Gulf of Finland, without any advantage being gained on either side, though they fought the whole day. 24th, An action was fought at Savataipala, when the Swedes were forced to fly. June 6th, the Swedes were defeated by Major Buxhovden, on the island Uranarsi. June 22, the whole Swedish fleet, commanded by the Duke of Sadermania, was entirely defeated by Admiral Tchitchagoff and the Prince of Nassau Siegen; on this occasion five thousand prisoners were taken, amongst whom were the centre admiral and two hundred officers. 28th, General Denisoff defeated the Swedes near Davidoff. July 9th, Admiral Ushakoff obtained a victory over the Turkish fleet commanded by the capudan pasha, at the mouth of the Straits of Yenikali. August 3rd, peace was concluded with Sweden, without the mediation of any other power. August 25th, 29th, an engagement took place on the Euxine, not far from Chodshabey, between the Russian admiral Ushakoff and the capudan pasha, when the principal Turkish ship, of eighty guns, was burnt, one of seventy guns and three others taken, the admiral Said Bey being made prisoner, and another ship sunk; the rest made off. September 30th, a great victory was obtained over the Turks by General Gernann, with much slaughter, and the seraskier Batal Bey, and the whole camp, were taken. October 18th, Kilia surrendered to Major Ribas. November 6th, 7th, the fortress Culish and the Turkish flotilla were taken. December 11th, the important fortress of Ismail, after a storming for seven hours without intermission, surrendered to Count Suworoff, with the garrison of forty-two thousand men; thirty thousand eight hundred and sixteen were slain on the spot, two thousand died of their wounds, nine thousand were taken prisoners, with two hundred and sixty-five pieces of cannon, an incredible store of ammunition, &c. The Russians lost only eighteen hundred and fifteen killed, and two thousand four hundred and fifty wounded.

1791. March 25th-31st, the campaign opened by the Turks under Prince Potemkin, not far from Brailof, when the Turks were defeated in several battles, in which they lost upwards of four thousand men. June 5th, the troops under General Golentishev Kutusoff, near Tulitsa, drove the Turks beyond the Danube, and at Babada entirely routed a body of fifteen thousand men, of whom fifteen hundred were left dead upon the field. 22d, the fortress Anapusa was taken by storm, when the whole garrison, consisting of twenty-five thousand men, were put to the sword, excepting one thousand who were taken prisoners. 28th, the troops under Prince Repnin attacked the Turkish army, consisting of nearly eighty thousand men, commanded by the grand vizir Yusuf Pasha, eight pashas, two Tartar sultans, and two beys of Anatolia; and after a bloody battle of six hours, entirely routed them; five thousand Turks were killed in their flight. June 28th, Sadskuk Kale was taken. July 31st, Admiral Ushakoff beat the Turkish fleet on the coasts of Rumelia. Prince Repnin and Yusuf Pasha signed the preliminaries of peace between the Russian empire and the Ottoman Porte, by which the Dniester was made the boundary of the two empires, with the cession of the countries lying between the Bog and Dniester to Russia. August 15th, 16th, at Pillnitz, near Dresden, a congress was held by the emperor of Germany, the king of Prussia, the elector of Saxony, the Count d'Artois, &c. &c. One of the most important events in this year was the death of Prince Potemkin, at Yassy in Moldavia, on the 15th October.

1792. Early in this year Bulgakovoff, the Russian minister at Warsaw, declared war against Poland; and the Polish patriots raised an army in which Thaddeus Kosciuszko soon bore a conspicuous part.

In 1788, the diet of Poland had abrogated the constitution which the empress of Russia had, in 1775, compelled that nation to adopt, and had formed an alliance with the king of Prussia, by way of defence against the further encroachments of the Russian despot. Three years after, viz. on the 3d of May 1791, the new constitution, which was intended further to destroy the ambitious hopes of Catherine, was decreed at Warsaw. (See POLAND.) These were affronts which the Russian empress could not forgive, and in one of the conciliabula, in which the ministers of state, and the favourite for the time being, sat to regulate the affairs of the north of Europe, and to determine the fate of the surrounding nations, the annihilation of the Polish monarchy was resolved on.

The declaration of war above mentioned was denounced by Bulgakovoff at an assembly of the diet. That body received the declaration with a majestic calmness, and resolved to take measures for the defence of the nation. The generous enthusiasm of liberty soon spread throughout the state, and even the king pretended to share in the general indignation. An army was hastily collected, and the command of it bestowed on Prince Joseph Poniatowsky, a general whose inexperience and frivolous pursuits were but ill adapted to so important a charge.

In the mean time several Russian armies were preparing to overwhelm the small and disunited forces of the Poles. A body of eighty thousand Russians extended itself along the Bog, another of ten thousand was collected in the environs of Kief, and a third of thirty thousand penetrated into Lithuania. While these armies were carrying murder and desolation throughout the Polish territories, Catherine was employing all her arts to induce the neighbouring powers to join in the partition of Poland; and in this she was but too successful. A treaty was accordingly concluded between the empress and the king of Prussia, by which each appropriated to itself a share of the remains of Poland. Stanislas Augustus, the powerless head of that state, was prevailed on to make a public declaration that there was a necessity for yielding to the superiority of the Russian arms.

1793. On the 9th of April the Polish confederation of An. 1793, the partisans of Russia assembled at Grodno; and on this occasion the Russian general placed himself under the canopy of that throne which he was about to declare forever vacant, and the Russian minister Sievers produced a manifesto, declaring the intention of his mistress to incorporate with her domains all the Polish territory which her arms had conquered.

The Russian soldiers dispersed throughout the provinces committed depredations and ravages of which history furnishes but few examples. Warsaw became especially the theatre of their excesses. Their general, Igelstrom, who governed in that city, connived at the disorders of the soldiers, and made the wretched inhabitants feel the whole weight of his arrogance and barbarity. The patriots of Poland had been obliged to disperse, their property was confiscated, and their families reduced to servitude. Goaded by so many calamities, they once more took the resolution to free their country from the oppression of the Russians, or perish in the attempt. Some of them assembled, and sent an invitation to Kosciuszko, to come and lead them on against the invaders of their freedom.

Kosciuszko had retired to Leipzig, with a few other Poles, all eminent for patriotism and military ardour. These hesitated not a moment in giving their approbation to the resolution adopted by their indignant countrymen; but they were sensible that, in order to succeed, they must begin by emancipating the peasants from the state of servitude under which they then groaned. Kosciuszko and Zagonechek repaired with all expedition to the frontiers of Poland, and the latter proceeded to Warsaw, where he held conferences with the chief of the conspirators, and particularly with several officers, who declared their detestation of the Russian yoke. All appeared ripe for a general insurrection; and the Russian commanders, whose suspicions had been excited by the appearance of Kosciuszko on the frontiers, obliged that leader and his confederates to postpone for a time the execution of their plan. In order to deceive the Russians, Kosciuszko retired into Italy, and Zagonechek repaired to Dresden, whither Ignatius Potoski and Kolontay had gone before him. On a sudden, however, Zagonechek appeared again at Warsaw, but was impeached by the king to General Igelstrom, and, in a conference with the general, was ordered to quit the Polish territory. He must now have abandoned his enterprise altogether, or immediately proceed to open insurrection. He chose the latter. 1794. Kosciuszko was recalled from Italy, and arrived at Cracow, where the Poles received him as their deliverer. Here he was joined by some other officers, and took the command of his little army, consisting of about three thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry. On the 24th of March was published the manifesto of the patriots, in which they declared the motives for their insurrection, and called on their countrymen to unite in the glorious attempt to free the republic from a foreign yoke. Kosciuszko was soon joined by three hundred peasants armed with scythes, and some other small reinforcements gradually came in. A body of seven thousand Russians had collected to oppose the movements of this little army, and a battle took place, in which the patriots were successful.

While the insurrection had thus auspiciously commenced on the frontiers, the confederates of the capital were nearly crushed by the exertions of the Russian general. Hearing at Warsaw of the success of Kosciuszko, Igelstrom caused all those whom he suspected of having any concern in the insurrection to be arrested; but these measures served only to irritate the conspirators. On the 18th of April they openly avowed their confederacy with the patriots of the frontiers, and proceeded in great numbers to attack the Russian garrison. Two thousand Russians were put to the sword, and the general, being besieged in his house, proposed a capitulation; but, profiting by the delay that had been granted him, he escaped to the Prussian camp, which lay at a little distance from Warsaw.

Wilna, the capital of Lithuania, followed the example of Warsaw; but the triumph of the insurgents was there less terrible, as Colonel Yasinsky, who headed the patriots, conducted himself with so much skill, that he made all the Russians prisoners without bloodshed. The inhabitants of the cantons of Chein and Lublin also declared themselves in a state of insurrection, and three Polish regiments who were employed in the service of Russia espoused the cause of their country. Some of the principal partisans of Russia were arrested, and sentenced to be hanged.

Kosciuszko exerted himself to the utmost to augment his army. He procured recruits among the peasants, and to inspire them with the more emulation, he adopted their dress, ate with them, and distributed rewards among such as appeared most to merit encouragement. All his attempts to inspire the lower orders of the Poles with the ardour of patriotism were, however, unavailing. A mutual distrust prevailed between the nobles and the peasants, and this was fomented by the arts of Stanislas and the other partisans of Russia.

The empress had sent into Poland two of her best generals, Suworoff and Fersen. For some time Kosciuszko succeeded in preventing the junction of these commanders, and several engagements took place between the Russians and patriots, in which the former were generally successful. At length, on the 4th of October, the fate of Poland was decided by a sanguinary conflict between Kosciuszko and Fersen, at Maciejowitch, a small town of Little Poland, about sixty miles from Warsaw. The talents, valour, and desperation of Kosciuszko could not prevent the Poles from yielding to superior numbers. Almost the whole of his army was either cut in pieces or compelled to surrender at discretion, and the hero himself, covered with wounds, fell senseless on the field of battle, and was made prisoner.

The small number that escaped fled to Warsaw, and shut themselves up in the suburb of Praga. Hither they were pursued by Suworoff, who immediately laid siege to the suburb, and prepared to carry it by storm. On the 2d of November he gave the assault, and having made himself master of the place, put to the sword both the soldiers and the peaceable inhabitants, without distinction of age or sex. It is computed that twenty thousand persons fell victims to the savage ferocity of the Russian general; and, covered with the blood of the slaughtered inhabitants, the barbarian History entered Warsaw in triumph.

Thus terminated the feeble resistance of the Polish patriots. The partition of the remaining provinces was soon effected, and Stanislas Augustus, who had long enjoyed merely the appearance of royalty, and had degraded himself by becoming the instrument of Russian usurpation, retired to Grodno, there to pass the remainder of his days, on a pension granted him by the empress.

1795. On the 18th of February, a treaty of defensive alliance between the empress of Russia and his Britannic majesty was signed at St Petersburg. The ostensible object of this treaty was to maintain the general tranquillity of Europe, and more especially of the north; and by it Russia agreed to furnish Great Britain with ten thousand infantry and two thousand horse in case of invasion; while Great Britain was, under similar circumstances, to send her imperial majesty a squadron consisting of two ships of seventy-four guns, six of sixty, and four of fifty, with a complement of four thousand five hundred and sixty men. On the 18th of March was signed the act by which the duchy of Courland, together with the circle of Pitlen, all of which had lately belonged to the Duke of Courland, but had long retained only the shadow of independence, submitted themselves to the Russian dominion.

In this year there took place between the courts of St Petersburg and Stockholm a dispute which threatened to terminate in a war. Gustavus III had been assassinated by Ankerstroem at a masquerade, on the 15th of March 1791; and the young king Gustavus Adolphus being still a minor, the Duke of Sudermania, his uncle, had been appointed regent of the kingdom. The regent had determined to effect a marriage between his nephew and a princess of the house of Mecklenburg; but Catherine publicly declared that the late king had betrothed his son to one of her grand-daughters. The misunderstanding hence originating was increased by the rude and indecorous behaviour of the Baron von Budberg, the Russian minister at Stockholm; and matters seemed tending to an open rupture, when, in the year 1796, a French emigrant named Christin effected a reconciliation, and General Budberg, the baron's uncle, was sent as ambassador to Stockholm from the Russian court. In consequence of this reconciliation, the young king, attended by the regent, and a numerous train of Swedish courtiers, set out on a visit to St Petersburg, where they arrived on the 24th of August, and an interview took place between the empress and her royal visitors, for the purpose of finally adjusting the projected matrimonial alliance. Gustavus Adolphus was much pleased with the appearance of the Grand Duchess Alexandra, but informed the empress, that by the fundamental laws of Sweden he could not sign the marriage-contract before the princess had abjured the Greek religion; and as neither the solicitations nor the flatteries of Catherine could prevail on the young monarch to depart from the received custom of his country, the negotiation ended, and the next day Gustavus and his retinue quitted St Petersburg.

The last transaction of importance in the reign of Catherine was her invasion of the Persian territories, undertaken for the purpose of acquiring certain possessions on the shores of the Caspian. A Russian army entered Daghestan, and made itself master of Derbent, but was afterwards defeated by the Persians under Aga Mahmoud. The death of the empress took place, as we have elsewhere stated, on the 9th of November of this year; and the Grand Duke Paul Petrovitch ascended the throne under the title of Paul I.

Paul Petrovitch had attained his forty-second year before the death of his mother placed him on the imperial throne; but for many years before her death he had lived in a state of comparative obscurity and retirement, and had apparently been considered by the empress as incapable of taking any active part in the administration of affairs. It is well known that Catherine never admitted him to any participation of power, and kept him in a state of the most abject and mortifying separation from court, and in almost total ignorance of the affairs of the empire. Although by his birth he was generalissimo of the armies, president of the admiralty, and grand admiral of the Baltic, he was never permitted to head even a regiment, and was interdicted from visiting the fleet at Cronstadt. From these circumstances, it is evident that the empress either had conceived some jealousy of her son, or saw in him some mental imbecility, which appeared to her to disqualify him for the arduous concerns of government. There is little doubt, from the circumstances which distinguished his short reign, that Catherine had been chiefly influenced in her treatment of the grand duke by the latter consideration. There were certainly times at which Paul displayed evident marks of insanity, though he occasionally gave proofs of a generous and tender disposition, and even of intellectual vigour.

It is generally believed that, a short time before her death, Catherine committed to Plato Zuboff, her last favourite, a declaration of her will, addressed to the senate, desiring that Paul should be passed over in the succession, and that on her death the Grand Duke Alexander should ascend the vacant throne. As soon as Zuboff was made acquainted with the sudden death of the empress, he flew to Pavlovsk, about twenty-three miles from St Petersburg, where Paul occasionally resided; but meeting the grand duke on the road, he, after a short explanation, delivered up the important document. Paul, charmed with his zeal and loyalty, rewarded the favourite, by permitting him to retain the wealth and honours which had been heaped on him by his mistress, while a general and rapid dispersion soon took place among the other adherents of the late sovereign. On the day following the death of his mother, Paul made his public entry into St Petersburg, amidst the acclamations of all ranks of people.

One of the first measures adopted by the new emperor excited considerable surprise, and divided the opinions of the public with respect to the motives by which it had been suggested; some attributing it to his respect for the memory of his late father, and others to a culpable reflection on that of his mother. He ordered the corpse of Peter III. to be removed from the sepulchre in which it had been deposited in the church of St Alexander Nevsky, solemnly crowned it, and caused it to lie in state for three weeks, while it was watched day and night by the only two remaining conspirators who had assisted at his assassination. After this dreadful mark of his justice on the murderers of his father, surely more terrible to the guilty mind than death itself, he consigned the ashes to the sepulchre of Catherine II. in the cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, obliging the assassins to walk in the procession as chief mourners.

Few political events of any importance marked the reign of Paul previously to the year 1798, when, in consequence of a treaty between him and the emperor of Germany, a Russian army of forty-five thousand men, under Field-Marshal Suvaroff, joined the imperialists in the Austrian territories in Italy. The progress of Suvaroff, his successes over Moreau, and his final recall by his master, have already been related in the article FRANCE.

In 1799, Paul entered into a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with his Britannic majesty. This treaty was signed at St Petersburg on the 23rd of June, having been preceded by a provisional treaty between the same powers at the end of the year 1798. By the latter, which was fortified by a relative treaty with Austria, it had been stipulated that Paul should assist the king of Prussia, if the latter could be persuaded to join his arms to the allied powers against France, with forty-five thousand men, and that the king of Great Britain should pay to Russia a subsidy of L75,000 sterling per month; and in case the king of Prussia should refuse to join the coalition, the same number of troops, in consideration of the same subsidy, should be employed, as occasion might require, to assist the common cause. By the new treaty, the emperor of Russia, instead of the forty-five thousand troops, engaged to furnish seventeen thousand five hundred and ninety-three, with the necessary artillery, to be employed in an expedition against Holland; and six ships, five frigates, and two transports, for the purpose of transporting part of the invading army from Britain to the continent. In consideration of these succours, the court of London engaged to advance to Russia a subsidy of L44,000 sterling per month; to pay the sum of L58,929, 10s. sterling for the expenses of equipping the fleet; and after the period of three months had elapsed from such equipment, to pay a further subsidy of L19,642, 10s. sterling per month, as long as the fleet should remain under the command of his Britannic majesty.

In consequence of this treaty, a Russian fleet joined that of Britain in Yarmouth Roads, and took part in the unfortunate expedition to the coast of Holland, which was undertaken in the summer of 1799. The military fame of Russia was more augmented by the share which its army under Suvaroff took in the campaign of Italy during the same year, although the victories which won for the veteran his name of Italinski were far more than overbalanced by the misfortunes which ensued in Switzerland under the emperor's favourite Korsakoff. But in December 1800, Paul, after having laid an embargo on the British shipping which lay in his ports, openly abandoned his relations with our country, and proclaimed, in confederacy with Sweden and Denmark, to whom Prussia afterwards added herself, the great Northern Coalition with France against Great Britain.

In the beginning of the year 1801, all Europe was astonished or amused by a paragraph which appeared in the Hamburg Gazette of the 16th of January. It was dated from Petersburg, the 30th December 1800, and is as follows:

"We learn from Petersburg, that the emperor of Russia, finding that the powers of Europe cannot agree among themselves, and being desirous to put an end to a war which has desolated it for eleven years past, intends to point out a spot to which he will invite all the other sovereigns, to repair and fight in single combat; bringing with them, as seconds and squires, their most enlightened ministers and their most able generals, such as Messrs Thugot, Pitt, and Bernstorff; and that the emperor himself proposes being attended by Generals Count de Pahlen and Khutosof. We know not if this report be worthy of credit; however, the thing appears not destitute of some foundation, and bears strong marks of what he has been often taxed with."

This paragraph was immediately copied or translated into all the public papers, and it was strongly affirmed by many that it was the composition of Paul himself. This has since been confirmed by the poet Kotzebue, who was employed by the emperor of Russia to translate the original into German, for the express purpose of its being inserted in the Hamburg Gazette. This was not the only mark of mental derangement displayed by the unhappy monarch. The army, which formed his favourite employment, was tormented by incessant caprices affecting its discipline; and the press, the native Russians, and the resident foreigners, suffered tyrannical and unaccountable restrictions. His favours and his displeasure were alternately experienced by some of his most distinguished courtiers and adherents. Stanislas, the deposed king of Poland, partook by turns of his beneficence and his severity; and at length, on the death of that monarch, Paul assisted at his funeral, commanded in person the guards that attended on the ceremony, and uncovering himself with the utmost emotion, saluted the coffin as it passed. To the memory of the aged Suworoff, who is said to have fallen a broken-hearted victim to the distraction of his imperial master, he raised a colossal statue of bronze; and on the days when he reviewed his troops in the square where the figure had been erected, he used to command them to march by in open order, and face the monument. Notwithstanding the important service that had been rendered him by Zuboff, the emperor soon became disgusted with him; spoke of him to his friends with great asperity; at length denounced him as a defaulter to the imperial treasury of half a million of roubles; and, convinced of the justice of the allegation, proceeded to sequestrate the vast estates which belonged to him and his two brothers. Driven to desperation by such conduct, the second brother of the favourite one day walked boldly to the emperor upon the parade, and with manly eloquence represented the injustice of his measures. Paul received him without anger, heard him without interruption, and restored the property; but soon afterwards he ordered Plato Zuboff to reside on his estate, though he again restored him to favour.

It is not surprising that these instances of folly and caprice should alarm and disgust many of the nobles. In particular, Count Pahlen, the governor of St Petersburg, with some other men of rank, entered into a confederacy with Zuboff and his brothers for removing the emperor. In their conferences, which were managed with great prudence and discretion, it was resolved that Paul should die, and that the day of the festival called Maslenitsa, the 11th of March O.S. 1801, should be the day for executing the awful deed. At the time of this plot, the emperor and his family resided in the new palace of St Michael, an enormous quadrangular pile standing at the bottom of the summer gardens. Paul being anxious to inhabit this palace soon after he was crowned, the masons, carpenters, and various artificers, toiled with incredible labour, by day and by torch-light, under the sultry sun of the summer, and in all the severity of a polar winter; and in three years this enormous and magnificent fabric was completed. The whole is moated round; and when the stranger surveys its bastions of granite, and numerous draw-bridges, he is naturally led to conclude that it was intended for the last asylum of a prince at war with his subjects. Those who have seen its massive walls, and the capaciousness and variety of its chambers, will easily admit that an act of violence might be committed in one room, and not be heard by those who occupy the adjoining one; and that a massacre might be perpetrated at one end, and not known at the other. Paul took possession of this palace as a place of strength, and beheld it with rapture, because his imperial mother had never even seen it. While his family were here, by every act of tenderness endeavouring to soothe the terrible perturbation of his mind, there were not wanting those who exerted every stratagem to inflame and increase it. These people were constantly insinuating that every hand was armed against him. With this impression, which added fuel to his burning brain, he ordered a secret staircase to be constructed, which, leading from his own chamber, passed under a false stove in the anti-room, and led by a small door to the terrace.

It was the custom of the emperor to sleep in an apartment next to the empress's, upon a sofa, in his regimentals and boots, whilst the grand duke and duchess, and the rest of the imperial family, were lodged at various distances, in apartments below the story which he occupied. On the 10th March, the day preceding the fatal night, whether Paul's apprehension, or anonymous information, suggested the idea, is not known; but conceiving that a storm was ready to burst upon him, he sent for Count Pahlen: "I am informed," said the emperor, "that there is a conspiracy on foot against me; do you think it necessary to take any precaution?" The count, without betraying the least emotion, replied, "Sire, do not suffer such apprehensions to haunt your mind; if there were any combinations forming against your majesty's person, I am sure I should be acquainted with it." "Then I am satisfied," said the emperor; and the governor withdrew. Before Paul retired to rest, he, beyond his usual custom, expressed the most tender solicitude for the empress and his children, kissed them with all the warmth of farewell fondness, and remained with them for a considerable time. He afterwards visited the sentinels at their different posts, and then retired to his chamber. Soon after the emperor had retired, the guard that was always placed at his chamber door was, on some pretext, changed by the officers who had the command for the night, and who were engaged in the conspiracy. One man only remained. This was a hussar whom the emperor had honoured with particular marks of attention, and who always slept at night in the antechamber, at his sovereign's bed-room door. This faithful soldier it was found impossible to remove, except by force, which at that time the conspirators did not think proper to employ. Silence now reigned throughout the palace, disturbed only by the pacing of the sentinels, or by the distant murmurs of the Neva; and only a few straggling lights were to be seen, irregularly gleaming through the windows of the palace. In the dead of the night, Zuboff and his friends, amounting to eight or nine persons, passed the draw-bridge, ascended the staircase that led to the emperor's apartments, and met with no opposition till they reached the antechamber, where the faithful hussar, awakened by the noise, challenged them, and presented his fusse. Though they must have admired the brave fidelity of the guard, neither time nor circumstances would admit of an act of generosity which might have endangered their whole plan of operations. Zuboff therefore drew his sabre, and cut the poor fellow down. In the mean time, Paul, roused by the unusual bustle, sprang from his couch. At this moment the whole party rushed into his chamber. The unhappy sovereign, anticipating their design, at first endeavoured to intrench himself behind the chairs and tables; but soon recovering some share of his natural courage, he assumed a high tone, told them they were his prisoners, and required them to surrender. Finding that they fixed their eyes steadily and fiercely upon him, and continued to advance, he implored them to spare his life, declared his willingness instantly to relinquish the sceptre, and to accept of any terms which they might dictate. He even offered to make them princes, and to confer on them orders and estates. Regardless alike of his threats and promises, they now began to press on him, when he made a convulsive effort to reach the window, but failed in the attempt; and, indeed, had he succeeded in his endeavour to escape that way, the height from the window to the ground was so great, that the expedient would probably have only put a more speedy period to his existence. As the conspirators drew him back, he grasped a chair, with which he knocked down one of the assailants, and a desperate conflict now took place. So great was the noise, that notwithstanding the massive walls and double folding doors that divided Paul's apartments from those of the empress, she was disturbed, and began to call for help, when a voice whispered in her ear, commanding her to remain quiet, and threatening that if she uttered another word she should instantly be put to death.

Paul was now making his last struggle, when one of the party struck him on the temple with his fist, and laid him prostrate on the floor. Recovering from the blow, the unhappy monarch again implored his life. At this moment the heart of one of the conspirators relented, and he was observed to hesitate and tremble, when a young Hanoverian who was present exclaimed, we have passed the Rubicon; if we spare his life, we shall, before the setting of tomorrow's sun, become his victims; on saying which he took off his sash, turned it twice round the naked neck of the emperor, and giving one end to Zuboff, he himself drew the other, till the object of their attack expired.

The Emperor Alexander, Paul's eldest son, was in his twenty-fourth year when he ascended the throne, and from his amiable disposition had acquired the love and respect of all his subjects. The first measure which he adopted, his proclamation, and his first imperial orders, all tended to encourage and confirm the confidence with which the people beheld him ascend the throne of his forefathers. He solemnly promised to tread in the steps of Catherine II.; he allowed every one to dress according to his own fancy; he exonerated the inhabitants of the capital from the trouble and duty of alighting from their carriages on the approach of the imperial family; he dismissed the court advocate, who was universally and justly detested; he suppressed the secret inquisition, that had become the scourge of the country; he restored to the senate its former authority, set at liberty the state prisoners, and recalled from Siberia several of the exiles. He even extended his mercy to the assassins of the late emperor. Zuboff was ordered not to approach the imperial residence, and the governor of the city was transferred to Riga.

It is not easy to explain the motives that induced Alexander to forego that vengeance which justice seemed to demand on the heads of his father's assassins. It has been attributed by one of his panegyrists to a forlorn and melancholy conviction that the murderers had been prompted to commit the bloody deed solely by a regard for the salvation of the empire. This conviction might have induced the young monarch to diminish the weight of the punishment which piety and justice called on him to inflict, but can scarcely account for his total forbearance.

Alexander, on his accession to the throne, appeared desirous to cultivate the friendship of the neighbouring states, and especially that of Great Britain. His late father, among other projects, had procured himself to be elected grand-master of the knights of Malta, and had laid claim to the sovereignty of that island. This claim, which had nearly produced a rupture between the courts of London and St Petersburg, Alexander consented to abandon, though he expressed a wish to be elected grand-master of the order, by the free suffrages of the knights. A confederacy, as we have seen, had been formed among the northern powers of Europe, with a view to oppose the British claim to the sovereignty of the seas; but by the spirited interference of the British court, especially with the cabinet of St Petersburg, the good understanding between Britain and the northern states was re-established, and the embargo which had been laid on British vessels in the Russian ports was taken off. Alexander, however, earnestly desired to maintain peaceful relations with France; and expressed this wish, both in public manifestoes, and in private communications addressed to the First Consul.

Early in the same year there was signed at St Petersburg a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between Russia and Sweden, to continue for twelve years, by which Sweden was allowed to import into Russia, alum, salt herrings, and salt, on the payment of one half of the duties then exacted, and into Russian Finland the produce of Swedish Finland duty free; while the importation of Russia into Sweden, of hemp, linen, and tallow, was allowed at one half of the existing duties, and of linseed at two thirds. The most remarkable part of this treaty was the recognition, by the court of St Petersburg, of the northern confederacy, which the amicable adjustment with Britain appeared to have done away. The commerce of Russia had now recovered its former splendour. The exports from the city of Riga alone, for the year ending July 1801, amounted to 6,770,638 roubles, and of these exports England alone imported to the value of 2,509,833 roubles.

On the 25th of March 1802 was signed at Amiens the definitive treaty of peace between the belligerent powers of Russia and Europe, by one material article of which the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, were to be restored to the knights of St John of Jerusalem, under the protection and guarantee of the sovereigns of France, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, Russia, and Prussia; and his Sicilian majesty was invited to furnish two thousand men, natives of his states, to serve in garrisons at the different fortresses of the said islands, for one year after their restitution to the knights, or until they should be replaced by a force deemed sufficient by the guaranteeing powers. Some time after the conclusion of this treaty, disputes arose among the contracting powers relative to the sovereignty of Malta, which the emperor of Russia insisted should be yielded to Naples, otherwise he would not undertake to guarantee the order, and would separate from it the provinces of Russia. The result of these disputes is well known, as they afforded a reason for renewing the bloody contest which so long desolated Europe.

During the short interval of peace, the emperor of Russia made several prudent regulations in the internal administration of his empire. On the 12th of September 1801, a manifesto had been published, proclaiming the union of Georgia, or Russian Grusinia, with the empire; and on the 1st of April 1802, Alexander sent a deputation to establish the new government at Tiflis, the capital of the province. On the 28th of May the emperor wrote a letter to the chamberlain Wittstott, president of the commission for ameliorating the condition of the poor of St Petersburg, in which he recommended to the commission to follow the example of a similar establishment at Hamburg, in selecting proper objects for their charitable bequests, preferring the humble and industrious pauper to the idle and sturdy beggar. He also offered considerable premiums to persons who should introduce any new or advantageous mode of agriculture, or who should bring to perfection any old invention, open any new branch of commerce, establish any new manufacture, or contrive any machine or process that might be useful in the arts.

Early in the year 1803, the emperor fitted out, at his own expense, two vessels for a voyage of discovery round the world, under the command of Captain Krusenstern. These ships were provided with every necessary for accomplishing the object of the voyage; and several men of eminence for science and literature, among whom was Churchman the American astronomer, volunteered their services on this occasion.

In the beginning of 1804 the emperor established a university at Kharkof, in Lithuania, for the cultivation and diffusion of the arts and sciences in that part of the Russian empire; and Mr Fletcher Campbell, a Scotch gentleman, was employed to procure masters for this new institution. Some time after, the emperor ordered that meteorological observations should be regularly made at all the universities and public schools, and the results published. It appears that at the end of this year the sums allotted by the Russian government for defraying the expenses of these institutions amounted to 2,149,213 roubles, besides a gift of nearly 60,000 roubles towards erecting the new university. About this time an imperial ukase was published, granting to the Jews a complete emancipation from the shackles under which that devoted people had long groaned, and allowing them the privileges of educating their children in any of the schools and universities of the empire, or establishing schools at their own expense.

For some time the genius of discord, which had again actuated the minds of the European sovereigns, failed to extend her baleful influence over the Russian empire; but it was scarcely possible that the emperor should long remain an impartial spectator of the renewed disputes between his more powerful neighbours. An important change had, in the latter end of 1802, taken place in the ministry of the empire; and Count Woronzoff, brother of the late ambassador at London, had been appointed great chancellor-in-chief of the department of foreign affairs, with Prince Adam Czartoryski for his assistant. How far this change in the councils of the empire influenced the political measures of the court of St Petersburg, it is not easy to determine; but in the latter end of 1803, Alexander appeared to view with a jealous eye the presumption and violence exercised by France among the German states, and the encroachments which she appeared desirous of making on the freedom of the Baltic. Alexander had offered his mediation between Great Britain and France, but without effect; and both these parties strove to bring over the Russian emperor to their alliance. France seems to have held out to the ambition of Alexander the bait of a partition of the Turkish territories, the dismemberment of which had long been a favourite object with his predecessors. At length, however, the court of London prevailed, and the Russian ambassador, by his master's orders, took leave of the First Consul of the French republic, though without demonstrating any intentions of immediate hostility. A new levy of a hundred thousand men was immediately ordered, to recruit the Russian army; and, to prevent any jealousy on the side of Turkey, assurances were given to the Sublime Porte of the amicable intentions of Russia towards that power.

On the 11th of April 1805 a treaty of concert was concluded between Great Britain and Russia, in which the two governments agreed to adopt the most efficacious means for forming a general league of the states of Europe, to be directed against the power of France. From the terms of the treaty, its objects appear to have been, first, the evacuation of the country of Hanover and the north of Germany; secondly, the establishment of the independence of the republics of Holland and Switzerland; thirdly, the re-establishment of the king of Sardinia in Piedmont; fourthly, the future security of the kingdom of Naples, and the complete evacuation of Italy, the island of Elba included, by the French forces; fifthly, the establishment of an order of things in Europe, which might effectually guarantee the security and independence of the different states, and present a solid barrier against future usurpation.

For the prosecution of the great objects of this treaty, it was proposed by the first article that an army of five hundred thousand men should be levied; but in a subsequent separate article, the contracting parties, after observing that it was more desirable than easy to assemble so large a force, agreed that the treaty should be carried into execution as soon as it should be possible to oppose to France an active force of four hundred thousand men. It was understood and stipulated that these troops should be provided by the powers of the continent who should become parties to the league, and subsidies should be granted by Great Britain in the proportion of L1,250,000 sterling for every hundred thousand men, besides a considerable additional sum for the necessary expense occasioned in bringing them into the field.

About this time the occupation of Genoa by the French, on the pretence that that republic was too feeble to support itself against the attacks of Great Britain, was communicated to the different courts of Europe, and excited in every quarter the highest indignation. The Emperor Alexander, in particular, was incensed at this new outrage. Such an open violation of those principles which were justly regarded as essential to the general safety, committed not only during the peace of the continent, but when passports had been delivered to his ambassador, in order that a negotiation might be commenced for the purpose of providing for the permanent security and repose of Europe, he considered as an indecent insult to his person and crown. He issued immediate orders for the recall of M. Novosilzoff; and the messenger despatched upon this occasion was commanded to repair with the utmost diligence to Berlin. M. Novosilzoff had not yet left that city; he immediately therefore returned his passports to the Prussian minister of state, Baron de Hardenberg; and at the same time delivered, by order of his court, a spirited memorial explanatory of the object of his mission, and of the circumstances which had led to its termination.

The recall of the Russian envoy appeared to be the signal of hostilities on the part of Russia and Austria against France. These hostilities may be said to have commenced and terminated in the autumn of this year. The military operations that distinguished this short but bloody conflict, the rapid successes of the French, the capitulation of Ulm on the 17th of October, the occupation of Vienna by the French on the 12th of the same month, and the sanguinary battle of Austerlitz on the 27th of November, have been already noticed under the head of France. The consequences of these disastrous events were, first a cessation of hostilities, and at length a treaty of firm alliance between France and Russia.

But before Alexander finally stooped to the imperial eagles of Napoleon, he was determined to make one more effort to preserve his independence. The Russian envoy at Paris, D'Oubril, had hastily concluded a preliminary treaty of peace between his master and the emperor of the French, which he signed at Paris on the 8th of July 1806, and instantly set out for St Petersburg to procure the ratification of his master. When the terms of this convention were laid before the privy council by Alexander, they appeared so derogatory to the interests of Russia, that the emperor refused them his sanction, and declared that the counsellor of state, D'Oubril, when he signed the convention, had not only departed from the instructions he had received, but had acted directly contrary to the sense and intention of the commission with which he had been intrusted. His imperial majesty, however, signified his willingness to renew the negotiations for peace, but only on such terms as were consistent with the dignity of his crown and the interests of his empire.

In the mean time the king of Prussia began, when it was too late, to see the folly and imprudence of the neutrality with which he had so long maintained, and he at length prepared to oppose his now feeble efforts to the growing power of France. He brought together in the summer of this year an army of at least two hundred thousand men, near Weimar and Jena, while the French myriads assembled in Franconia and on the frontiers of Saxony. Previously to the commencement of hostilities, his Prussian majesty issued a spirited manifesto, in which he explained his motives for abandoning his plan of neutrality, and appealed to Europe for the justice of his cause. He entered into an alliance with the Emperor Alexander, and with the king of Sweden; and it was expected that these united forces would at length hurl the tyrant of Europe from his throne, or at least compel him to listen to equitable terms of pacification. These expectations were, however, miserably disappointed. The same extraordinary success was still to attend the arms of France, and the north of Europe was again condemned to submit in silence to her yoke.

On the 13th of October 1806, the Prussians received a dreadful check at the battle of Jena; and on the 27th of the same month Napoleon entered Berlin. While the French were thus successful, the troops of the Emperor Alexander occupied Prussian Poland, and took up their residence at Warsaw; but they were soon attacked by the French under Murat, who on the 28th entered Warsaw with his cavalry, on which the Russians retreated across the Vistula, burning the bridge over which they had passed. On the 26th of December, a dreadful engagement took place between the Russians commanded by General Bennington, and the French under Generals Murat, Davoust, and Lannes. The scene of action was at Ostrolenka, about sixty miles from Warsaw, and the fighting continued for three days. The loss was immense on both sides, though the advantage appears to have been on the side of the French. According to French accounts, the Russian army lost twelve thousand men in killed and wounded, together with eighty pieces of cannon, and all its ammunition wagons; while the Russian account states the loss of the French at five thousand men.

In the beginning of February 1807, the Russians obtained a partial advantage in the battle of Eylau. According to the account of this battle, given by General de Budberg in a despatch to the Marquis of Douglas, the British ambassador at St Petersburg, the Russian general Bennington, after having fallen back for the purpose of choosing a position which he judged well adapted for manoeuvring the troops under his command, drew up his army at Preussisch Eylau. During four days successively his rear-guard had to withstand several vigorous assaults; and on the 7th of February, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the battle became general throughout the whole line of the main army. The contest was destructive, and night came on before it could be decided. Early on the following morning the French renewed the attack, and the action was contested with obstinacy on both sides; but towards the evening of that day the assailants were repulsed, and the Russian general remained master of the field. In this action Napoleon commanded in person, having under him Augereau, Davoust, Soult, Ney, and Bessières at the head of the imperial guards. The loss of the Russians in that engagement was by themselves stated at above six thousand men, while they estimated that of the French, probably unfairly, at nearly double that number.

This was the last important stand made by the Russian army. In May, Danzig, defended by eighteen thousand Russians and Prussians, surrendered to the French. Several actions succeeded at Spanden, at Lamitten, at Guttstadt, and at Heilsberg, in all of which the French had the advantage, till at length, on the 14th of June, the Russians appeared in considerable force upon the bridge of Friedland, whether the French army under Napoleon was advancing. At three in the morning the report of cannon was first heard, and at this time Marshals Lannes and Mortier were engaged with the Russians. After various manoeuvres, the Russian troops received a check, and filed off towards Königsberg. In the afternoon the French army drew up in order of battle, having Marshal Ney on the right, Lannes in the centre, and Mortier on the left, while Victor commanded a corps de reserve, consisting of the guards. At half-past five the attack began on the side of Marshal Ney; and notwithstanding the different movements of the Russians to effect a diversion, the French soon carried all before them. The loss of the Russians, according to the usual exaggerations of the French bulletins, was estimated at from ten thousand to fifteen thousand men, and twenty-five of their generals were said to have been killed, wounded, or taken. In consequence of this victory the French became masters of all the country round Königsberg, and Marshal Soult entered that city in triumph. Thus concluded the campaign in Germany, in which the Russians sustained a loss of at least thirty thousand of their choicest troops.

While these military operations were going forward on the continent of Europe, the emissaries of France were busily employed at Constantinople in exciting the divan to declare against their ancient enemies. They at length succeeded; for on the 30th of December 1806 war with Russia was proclaimed, and twenty-eight regiments of janissaries assembled under the command of the grand vizir. But the disturbances which broke out in the latter end of May 1807 prevented any operations of importance from taking place; and the pacification which was soon concluded between Russia and France, though it did not entirely put a stop to the war between the former power and Turkey, in some measure diminished their hostile preparations.

The defeats which the allied armies had sustained in Treaty of Prussia and Poland rendered peace, on almost any terms, a desirable object; and Alexander found himself constrained to meet, at least with the appearance of friendship, the conqueror of his armies. Propositions for an armistice had been made by the Prussian general to Murat near Tilsit, and after the battle of Friedland the Russian prince Labanoff had a conference, on similar views, with the prince of Neuchatel, soon after which an armistice was concluded between the French and Russians. On the 25th of June an amicable meeting took place on the river Niemen, between the emperors of France and Russia, and adjoining apartments were fitted up for the reception of both courts in the town of Tilsit. This politic friendship was soon after cemented by the treaty of Tilsit, concluded between the emperor of the French on the one part, and the emperors of Russia and the king of Prussia (whom it despoiled of a fourth of his dominions) on the other, on the 7th and 12th of July in this year. Thenceforth, until Napoleon's star began to wane, Alexander was his firm partisan; and his faithlessness towards his former allies gave them no temptation to repose further confidence in him.

The conclusion of the treaty of Tilsit was notified to the court of London on the 1st of August; and at the same with Britain a proposal was made from his imperial majesty for mediating a peace between France and Britain. This mediation, however, was declined on the part of Great Britain, until his Britannic majesty should be made acquainted with the stipulations of the treaty of Tilsit, and should find them such as might afford him a just hope of the attainment of a secure and honourable peace. This declining of the mediation of Russia was no doubt expected by the court of St Petersburg; but it served as a pretext for binding more closely the alliance between that power and France, by breaking off her connection with Great Britain. Accordingly, in October, Lord Granville Leveson Gower, who had succeeded the Marquis of Douglas as British envoy, received a note from the government, intimating that, as a British ambassador, he could no longer be received at the court of St Petersburg, which he therefore soon after quitted. An embargo was laid on all British vessels in the ports of Russia, and it was peremptorily required by Napoleon and Alexander that Sweden should abandon her alliance with Great Britain.

An additional ground of complaint against the British court was furnished by the attack on Copenhagen, and the seizure of the Danish fleet, in the beginning of September; and though Lord Gower had attempted to justify these measures on the plea of anticipating the French in the same transaction, the emperor of Russia expressed, in the warmest terms, his indignation at what he called an unjust attack on a neutral power. A considerable Russian fleet joined the French; but the combined squadrons were compelled to seek for shelter in the Tagus, where they remain- ed blocked up by the British, till they were surrendered by the convention of Cintra; and another fleet of fifteen sail of the line that proceeded up the Mediterranean, and advanced as far as Trieste, shared a similar fate.

On the 26th of October the emperor of Russia published a declaration, notifying to the powers of Europe that he had broken off all communication between his empire and Great Britain, until the conclusion of a peace between this power and France. In a counter-declaration, published at London on the 10th of December, his Britannic majesty repels the accusations of Russia, while he regrets the interruption of the friendly intercourse between that power and Britain. His majesty justifies his own conduct, and declares, that when the opportunity for peace between Great Britain and Russia shall arrive, he will embrace it with eagerness; satisfied if Russia shall manifest a disposition to return to her ancient feeling of friendship towards Great Britain, to a just consideration of her own true interests, and to a sense of her own dignity as an independent nation.

In October 1808, a meeting took place at Erfurt between the emperors of France and Russia, and a letter was drawn up under their signature, addressed to his Britannic majesty. The object of this letter was, to induce the king of Great Britain to enter into negotiations for a general peace, and with that view it was despatched by Count Rumyantseff, the Russian minister at Erfurt, to Mr Canning, the British secretary of state for foreign affairs. It was answered by an official note, requiring the emperors, as an indispensable condition of any treaty with Britain, to receive Sweden as a party, to protect the interests of Portugal and of the ex-king of Naples, and to extend the benefits of the projected arrangements to Ferdinand VII. of Spain. These requisitions were evidently quite inconsistent with Napoleon's views; the emperors refused to accede to them; and all hope of accommodation was in the mean time at an end.

The demand of concurrence in the views of France and Russia made on Sweden was formally repeated in a declaration of the Emperor Alexander, published at St Petersburg on the 10th of February in this year. In this declaration his imperial majesty intimated to the king of Sweden that he was making preparations to invade his territories; but that he was ready to change the measures he was about to take, to measures of precaution only, if Sweden would, without delay, join Russia and Denmark in shutting the Baltic against Great Britain, until the conclusion of a maritime peace. He professed that nothing could be more painful to him, than to see a rupture take place between Sweden and Russia; but that his Swedish majesty had it still in his power to avoid this event, by resolving without delay to adopt that course which could alone preserve strict union and perfect harmony between the two states.

The king of Sweden, however, determined to abide by the measures which he had for some time pursued, and to adhere to the terms of the convention which had just been concluded between him and the king of Great Britain. In consequence of this determination, a Russian army entered Finland in the beginning of March, under the command of General Buxhoevden, and advanced against Helsingfors, which was occupied by a single battalion of a Swedish regiment. This small force retired into the fortress of Sweaborg, where they maintained themselves with great bravery till the 17th of April, when they were obliged to capitulate. The loss of this fortress, though inconsiderable in itself, so highly enraged the king of Sweden, that he dismissed the naval and military commanders who had been concerned in the capitulation.

On the 27th of April, some slight advantage was gained over the Russians near Rivalax, by the Swedish army under General Count Klinspor; but this was only a partial gleam of success. The Russians soon overran almost all Finland, took possession of Wasa, Old and New Carlshy, and reduced under subjection the whole province of which Wasa is the capital. The army of Field-Marshal Klinspor, which originally consisted of sixteen thousand regulars, and many boors, was, by the end of the campaign, reduced to little more than nine thousand men.

The king of Sweden sent some reinforcements to his army in Finland; but the forces which should have supported Klinspor were foolishly employed in a fruitless attempt to conquer Norway; and in 1809 the Swedes were compelled to cede Finland to Russia.

Russia continued to appear in the unworthy character of Napoleon's ally; and when Austria made an effort in 1809 to recover her losses, a Russian army advanced to co-operate with the French. The diversion which this produced was one cause of the final success of Napoleon, whose situation after the battle of Aspern was extremely critical. When Austria was at last compelled to accept of peace on humiliating terms, Russia received as the reward of her services the district of Tarnopol in Galicia, with a population of four hundred thousand souls. This district was restored to Austria in 1815.

In 1811, hostilities commenced between Russia and the Porte. It is of little consequence to inquire into the causes of this rupture; a powerful and ambitious government in the neighbourhood of a weak one never wants pretexts for war. The result might have been serious, if not fatal to the Porte, had not the prospect of a more arduous struggle induced Russia to suspend her efforts in that quarter, and conclude a peace on condition of receiving a part of Moldavia and Bessarabia.

The great contest was now approaching which was to try the resources of Russia, and ultimately to raise her to unexampled greatness. The seizure by France of the territories of the Prince of Oldenburg, who was the emperor of Russia's brother-in-law, on the one hand, and the admission of British produce into the Russian harbours on the other, furnished the ostensible grounds of the quarrel. After some fruitless negotiations, Napoleon dismissed the Russian ambassador, and left Paris to join the army on the 9th of May 1812. The events of this disastrous expedition into Russia have been minutely related in the article FRANCE; and the reader does not require to be reminded of those lamentable sufferings of the French army, which were its principal results. The spirited resistance of Russia now roused Prussia and Austria; and early in 1813 a league was formed between these powers, to which Bavaria and other small states acceded. The battle of Leipzig, fought on the 18th of October, led to the final overthrow of the French domination. In all the transactions which followed, Russia bore a leading part. At the congress of Vienna in 1814, the duchy of Warsaw, consisting of part of the original conquests of Austria and Prussia in Poland, was assigned to Russia, which thus ultimately obtained about four fifths of the territory and three fourths of the population of that ancient kingdom.

In passing to the new system of foreign policy which has prevailed in Russia, as well as in the rest of Europe, since the year 1815, we must pause for a moment to remark the territorial accessions of territory which the empire had made during the half century which preceded that epoch. The reign of Catherine II. had, as we have seen, been by far the most fertile in foreign acquisitions. Her conquests included the Crimea, which was an incorporated portion of Russia since 1783; Georgia, gained in 1785, though, as we have observed, not formally annexed till 1801; Bessarabia, with a part of Moldavia, and other Turkish possessions, finally secured to Russia by the treaty of Bukarescht in 1812; Courland, acquired in 1795; and the extensive spoils of Poland in 1793 and 1794. Paul's reign made no permanent addition of import- Alexander's gave to Russia in the first years of the present century several of the tribes of the Caucasus; Finland in 1809; Daghestan and other large territories ceded by Persia in 1813; and in 1814, Napoleon's grand duchy of Warsaw, which was erected into a kingdom of Poland. The total population of these new Russian provinces cannot at the very least be estimated under fifteen millions, and probably exceeds that number.

During the ten years of Alexander's reign which succeeded the peace, and ended with his death in 1825, he acquired no new territory as a substantive addition to his dominions, but occupied himself assiduously in that indirect augmentation of Russian influence on the states around the frontier, which had before his time formed, and has since continued to form, the first step in all the schemes of conquest projected by his ambitious nation. The objects of Alexander's foreign policy after 1815 were chiefly three; the suppression of constitutional, or, as they were called by preference, revolutionary movements, in the central and southern states of Europe; the weakening of Turkey, and the gradual reduction of that power into a state of dependence on the cabinet of St Petersburg, so as to pave the way for the Russians towards the sovereignty of the Levant; and the extension of the Russian influence in Persia and those adjacent states, which must form the stepping-stones by which the Muscovites will strive to pass, if they shall ever make the attempt, to the throne of British India. For the attainment of the first of these great ends, there was formed, under the guidance and by the suggestion of Alexander, that league of princes which has been named the Holy Alliance; a confederacy whose bitter fruits have been tasted in full measure by Italy and Spain, but whose conception is in one view an encouraging tribute to the growing enlightenment of the world, since it is the earliest instance in which despots, conspiring against truth and freedom, have condescended to speak the language of Christianity and peace. In reference to Turkey, the policy of Alexander aimed at gradually detaching the Porte from its friendly relations with Great Britain and other European powers, and insidiously advancing towards a position in which the sultan should find himself powerless against his neighbours and his own subjects, until Russia should stretch forth her protecting hand; but a check was administered to this train of diplomacy, and a peculiar relation introduced between the courts of Constantinople and St Petersburg, by the insurrection of Greece in 1821. To the founder and head of the Holy Alliance the Greeks must have appeared to be mere rebels, whom it was his duty as a neighbouring sovereign to assist in punishing; while to the watchful power which desired by every available means to weaken and circumscribe the power of Turkey, such an opportunity as the Greek revolution was unusually tempting, and indeed the sultan's ministers openly alleged that the disturbances had been fomented by Russian agents. The result of the rising in Greece has been related in our article on that country; and the other misunderstandings between Russia and Turkey, the principal of which related to the appointment of the hospodars in Wallachia and Moldavia, were not sufficient to disturb the diplomatic system which was resumed after the Greek question had been settled by the interposition of the other great European powers. The designs of the emperor on the side of India chiefly exhibited themselves in intrigues among the northern neighbours of our possessions in that country; and the system scarcely came to light till after Alexander's death.

In the internal government of the empire, Alexander introduced many salutary changes, especially in the early part of his reign; but here, not less than in his foreign policy, the last ten years of his life exhibited a marked contrast to its earlier portion. The transition in his mind from a love of liberal institutions to a distrust of everything that seemed to threaten the stability of thrones, began almost with his alliance with Napoleon, but reached full maturity after that extraordinary man's fall. In the first year of his reign he abolished the literary censorship, and afterwards restored it with less absurd but not less severe rules than those of his father. He at one time patronized both the education of the young and the general dissemination of religious knowledge; but after the peace the missionary societies were suppressed, and very harsh measures adopted against the universities. In several particulars a better spirit prevailed. That tolerant disposition towards the various sects of Christianity, of which we have remarked more than one instance in passing, had already become systematic, and was never departed from. The emancipation of the peasants from their state of serfdom was long a favourite object with the emperor, who was able to attain it in Courland, Livonia, and one or two other provinces, and used openly to lament that private interests and prejudices had baffled his good intentions elsewhere. Another plan of his, which was connected with the scheme just mentioned, was that of the military colonies, of which Dr Lyall has published an interesting account. The advantages which this system promised to confer were these: the diminution of the expenses of the army in times of peace, and the easy training of a large agricultural population to the trade of war. For these purposes villages were built on the crown-estates along the western frontier of the empire, and in these, soon after the peace, formidable detachments of soldiers were settled with their families, and mixed among the boors who, belonging to the crown, had previously been the sole or the principal inhabitants of the districts. The whole male population of these new settlements was to occupy itself alternately in rural labour and military exercises; and while the troops who had already seen service were always in a position to take the field again, the boors were gradually to qualify themselves for acting as a corps de reserve, and for filling up vacancies. The plan excited considerable opposition; and although the obstacles were finally to appearance vanquished, and the colonies speedily mustered four hundred thousand fighting men, yet new difficulties have arisen since Alexander's death, and the present emperor has abandoned the idea of extending the principle, or making it permanent.

During the last few years of Alexander's life he appears Alexander to have been completely miserable. To family misfortunes, religious despondency, and disappointment in political schemes, was added the continual terror of conspiracies in the heart of the empire, which were said to have ramifications everywhere, and to aim at nothing less than a total revolution, and the assassination of the whole royal family. Those constant travels through the several Russian provinces in which Alexander was engaged for two or three years before his death, have been mainly attributed by some writers to his dread of poison or the dagger. In the course of one of these journeys he died at Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof, on the 1st day of December 1825.

Alexander's brother, the Grand Duke Constantine, whose conduct as governor of Poland has been described in our article on the history of that country, was immediately proclaimed emperor at St Petersburg; and whatever may have been the feelings of the Russians themselves, foreigners who were acquainted with the new sovereign by his general reputation, looked on his accession with pity for his subjects and alarm for the peace of Europe. But the danger had been foreseen and averted by Alexander and the rest of the family. Constantine had been induced to resign his claims to the crown by a formal deed executed in 1822. The senate, on opening the will of Alexander, found it to contain a nomination of his second brother, the Grand Duke Nicholas, as his successor in the empire. The act of resig- nation was at the same time discovered, and in a few days there arrived from Warsaw a communication from Constantine, in which he acknowledged the existence and validity of the deed, and anew waived his right of succession.

Accordingly Nicholas I. ascended the throne, announcing the event by a proclamation of the 23rd of December 1825. The disturbance of the natural order of succession was seized by the discontented as a favourable pretext for insurrection; and the reign of the new emperor was opened by a military mutiny in St Petersburg, which, after having been suppressed with bloodshed, was followed by several executions, and many imprisonments and banishments to Siberia. Nicholas, and his spouse, the princess royal of Prussia, were crowned at Moscow in 1826, and at Warsaw in 1829. The latter of these two ceremonies did not long precede the revolution of Poland, which has been the most remarkable event of the emperor's reign. It is unnecessary to repeat the circumstances of that unfortunate struggle. The whole character and policy of Nicholas have been similar to those of his brother since 1815, with, however, an additional degree of force and boldness, which may be attributable partly to the natural progress of the political tactics which were common to both, and partly to the more energetic will and greater attachment to military principles and forms which distinguish the younger brother.

If we look to the three questions which were described above as forming the main business of Alexander in his foreign policy, we find the position of Russia regarding them to have remained, with slight alterations, the same since the commencement of the new reign as it was before. The anti-constitutional views of the Holy Alliance have been necessarily modified, but not abandoned; although Nicholas speedily recognised the title of Louis Philippe to the French throne, and took an active share in the conferences of the five powers at London for arranging the affairs of Belgium and Holland. On the side of Turkey, Russia has, during the last fifteen years, been rapidly gaining strength. The treaty of Akjerman between the two powers in 1826, extending the principles laid down in the peace of Bukaresh, was ill executed on both sides; and the mutual misunderstanding, being still further complicated by the emergence of the Greek question, issued first in the battle of Navarino, and afterwards in a regular war of two years between Russia and the Porte. The first campaign, in 1828, was favourable to Russia, but not completely decisive; that of 1829 was celebrated for the successful passage of the Balkan by the Russian general Diebitsch, and was closed in September by the peace of Adrianople, in which Turkey consented to several articles both humiliating and injurious. Russia received but a slight direct accession of territory, but obtained a confirmation of the right of her vessels to navigate the Black Sea, a definitive settlement of frontier towards Turkey, and a recognition of such restrictions on the Turkish government of Moldavia and Wallachia as materially weakened the sultan's power. The fortresses of these provinces were moreover to be garrisoned by Russian troops, till the Porte should have paid to Russia the expenses of the war; and accordingly the provinces were not evacuated till 1834. Diplomatic skill, and other means less justifiable, strengthened the hold of Russia on the Porte, whose weakness was completely exposed in 1832, when Russian troops appeared as its protectors against its own rebellious subject the viceroy of Egypt. Turkey, in short, has in the mean time thrown herself unreservedly under the influence of Russia, and it appears not improbable that the course of events may very soon allow that influence a yet more favourable field. The most conspicuous incident of recent Russian history on the side of India has been the war with Persia, commenced in 1826, carried on successfully by the generals Yermoloff and Paskewitsch, and terminated in 1828 by the cession of some important provinces to Russia. (See Persia.) Since that time, both in Persia and in the neutral countries on the frontiers of British India, there is little reason to doubt that the Russian diplomacy has been acquiring an increasing influence. The only actual accession of territory to Russia in this quarter that deserves notice was given in 1829 by the revolt of the Kirghis Tartars, formerly subject to China, who now placed themselves under the sovereignty of Russia, and brought the Russian frontier nearer by another step to our Asiatic possessions.

Internally Russia has had to contend with incursions of the Caucasian hordes from beyond the frontier, with revolts of the Lesghians and other tribes nominally subject to the empire, and lately with an extensive and spirited insurrection of the Circassians, which it has not yet been possible to quell.

The domestic government of Nicholas has little to distinguish it from that of his brother. Education has been governed to some extent more favoured than it had recently been by Alexander; the Catholic and Lutheran churches continue to receive the support of the government, which has also aided missions to the Calmucks and other nomadic hordes; trade and manufactures have been furthered by regulations devised with much intelligence; and the laws have since 1826 received a tolerably complete revision and concentration.

**STATISTICS.**

The Russian empire is of enormous extent, of vast resources, and of great capacity of improvement. It forms a connected territory, extending from the frontiers of Germany and Prussia, and the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, eastward to the sea which separates Asia from America, thus embracing nearly one half of Europe and all the north of Asia. Beyond Behring's Straits it extends over a portion of the north-west territory of America, embracing at the same time a number of islands situated in the ocean which washes the northern shores of Europe and Asia, and flows between Asia and America. Its most westerly point is in longitude 18° 20' 15"; and its most easterly in 209° 14' east from Greenwich, thus extending through about 190 degrees of longitude. Its northern and southern boundaries have deep indentations; the extreme points of the former are in 78° 4', and of the latter in 38° 40' of north latitude. This empire embraces about the one-ninth (some estimate it as high as the one-seventh) part of the habitable globe, the one-fourteenth part of the northern hemisphere, and above the one twenty-eighth part of the superificies of our planet. The whole of China is not equal to two thirds of Russia; and the Roman empire, at the period of its greatest extension, did not comprehend more than one fourth of the territory which now bows to the sceptre of the czar. Some have included the mountains of Caucasus, others the whole of the Caspian Sea, whilst some again have omitted the one and not the other. A very elaborate calculation of the superificies of Russia has, within these few years, been published by M. Sernoff, who has invented an improved method of computing areas, by which he can allow for the inequalities of boundaries. "Russia in Europe, including Russian Poland and the islands of the Baltic and German Ocean, contains 2,078,646 English square miles, of which 151,048 lie within the frigid zone, and 1,927,598 within the temperate zone. Siberia (under which designation are included the islands of the North Frozen Ocean, except Nova Zembla, and of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the peninsula of Alyaska in America) contains 4,866,643 English square miles, of which 1,130,493 are situated within the frigid zone, and 3,736,147 within the temperate zone. It is impossible to calculate the exact area of Nova Zembla, as the southern coast of that island has not..." Russia in Europe.

Russia in Europe is bounded on the south by the Caucasus and the Black Sea; on the north by the Arctic Ocean, especially by its great gulf the White Sea; on the east by the river Kara Baigarama, the Ural chain of mountains, the river Ural to its embouchure in the Caspian, and thence by the shores of this sea to the eastern extremity of the Caucasus; and on the west by the principality of Moldavia, Austria, Prussia, the Baltic Sea, and the dominions of Sweden. Excluding Nova Zembla and the archipelago of Spitzbergen, but including the part of Poland which has been absorbed by this vast empire, European Russia lies between 18° 20' 15" and 64° 20' 15" of east longitude, and between 40° and 70° of north latitude. Its extreme length, from the northern declivities of the Caucasian range, near the sources of the river Samour, to the banks of the Muonio, near Ekontekis in East Bothnia, is 1840 miles of sixty to a degree; and its breadth, from the west side of the Ural chain, near the sources of the Sylva, in the government of Perm, to the western limits of Volhynia, on a line with Loutak, is 1300 miles. In comparison with its size, Russia has less sea-coast than any other great European power. Its line of coast on the Frozen Ocean is about 920 miles in length, on the Baltic Sea about 1230, and on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof about 1280; forming altogether a district of sea-coast about 3430 miles in length. Thus a greatly preponderating part of the country is cut off from all maritime intercourse and influence, except by means of navigable rivers and canals, which at best are but an indifferent substitute for the ocean. Owing to this circumstance, and the interruptions occasioned by the ice in the Arctic Sea, and in a considerable portion of the Baltic for the greater part of the year, Russia has made less progress in commerce and civilization than other nations of Europe more favourably situated.

European Russia, together with Poland, belongs entirely to that immense level plain which begins in the north of Germany, and extends over the whole east of Europe. From the Carpathian to the Ural range, a distance of five hundred leagues, all is one immense undulating plain, without a mountain to break the monotonous level of the horizon, or oppose a barrier to the winds. A great portion of it, in the south especially, consists of those immense levels called steppes, that, like the pampas of South America, present to the eye only a dead flat for many hundreds of miles. Here and there indeed the surface is diversified by some large ancient tumuli, supposed to be the burial-places of the ancient Scythians, and in a few places there are small table-lands; but the latter swell so gently above the surrounding level as scarcely to be perceptible. Of these, the most worthy of notice are the Valdai Hills and the forest of Volkonskoi, situated in the governments of St Petersburg, Moscow, Tver, and Tula, the loftiest summit of which, lying between the villages of Poloschva and Mosti, and the towns of Ostaschkov and Valdai, is only 1064 French feet in height. No part of the forest of Volkonskoi is very rugged; on the contrary, it is a gently sloping plain. But the rivers and the deeply-indented lakes are encompassed by steep banks of slate, gypsum, and limestone mixed with shells. Masses and blocks of granite are scattered on the surface. This ridge, or rather plateau, is rich in iron, sulphur pyrites, vitriol, alum-earth, a species of coal, petrifications, salt springs, and lime and gypsum quarries. Here are situated, within the distance of a hundred miles, the sources of the rivers Volga, Dvina, Dnieper, Don, Oka, Volchow, Lowat, Pola, Kolp, and others less distinguished. To the north-east, the land gradually slopes to the almost flat shores of the Baltic Sea, and is for the most part covered with immense forests, marshes, and turf-moors. Between this ocean inlet and the White Sea, on the north-west, lies a tract of country which is richer in water than any other in Europe. Here a multitude of lakes, large and small, are united together like a network of water, and between them extend those rocky ridges which, on the north-west, rise into the inferior Finnish chain of hills. These, however, sink again towards the lake Emars and the river Tana, without joining the Scandinavian system of mountains. Proceeding south-west from the interior hills of Voldai, the land also gradually sinks, and becomes encumbered by immense marshes, situated between Minsk and Volhynia. Through these the river Priepetz, the great feeder of the Dnieper, takes its way, constituting their drain or outlet. The northern declivities of the Carpathian Mountains only in a few places cross the borders of the Austrian territory, and enter Russia, but not as hills of any height. Near the sources of the Oder, they proceed towards the Vistula, and along this stream, as a plateau eight hundred feet in height, which, eastwards between Pfliz and the above river, rises into groups of mountains, which extend, in five parallel chains, having a breadth of about fifty miles, for a distance of ninety miles. In two places they reach about two thousand feet in height, which are the loftiest points in Poland. Upon the other side, in the east, the declivities of the Carpathian range extend as a broad plateau across the whole of Southern Russia. It thus separates the low land of the interior from the maritime country of the Black Sea. Unlike the table-land of Volkonskoi, which bears on its broad surface lakes and fens, this southern plateau consists of large steppes, penetrated by the rivers Dniester, Dnieper, and Don, which here form cataracts. Between the last-named stream and the Volga it rises as a continuation of the Lower Volga range, which, under the name of the Irjeni Hills, extends southwards to the Caucasus. On the peninsula of Crimea, a wholly insulated chain of mountains rises to a considerable height, and runs from east to west nearly a hundred and twenty miles, close to the coast of the Black Sea. In one part it attains an elevation of 4740 feet, and in another 4600 feet. Along the eastern boundary of European Russia, the Ural mountain chain extends from the shores of the Frozen Ocean southwards towards the Caspian Sea, for a distance of nearly 1500 miles, unconnected with any other mountain system of Europe. The northern portion of the Ural chain, from the Straits of Waygats to the sources of the Petchora, consists of rough, naked, limestone rocks, which in one place, Padwinski, are 6500 feet in height. This part of the country is comparatively little known. The middle portion of the chain, as far as the sources of the Oufa, called the Verchoturic Urals, forms a broad table-land of moderate elevation, overspread with morasses. Further to the south the Urals rise again in height, and become thickly wooded, whilst in the government of Orenburg they expand in broad ramifications on both sides of the river Ural. The chain, with all its branches, sinks to- wards the Caspian, without coming into contact on the east with the mountain systems of Asia. It is called at different points the Orenburg, Bashkir, and Kirghis Urals, and sends out an offshoot on the south-west, between the rivers Ural and Samara, the Obshchel-Syr, which stretches to the banks of the Volga. The Sok Mountains form a part of this spur of the Urals. There are seven defiles or passes through this great range, the most practicable of which are the roads from Perm and Orenburg into Asia. Between the southern declivities of the Urals and the Caspian Sea and Aral, there is an opening of about two hundred and eighty miles in breadth, through which, more than once, the hordes of Asia in former times have poured like a flood over Europe.

Steppes, or plains, are an important feature of the geography of Russia, as well as of that of Tartary, with which the term is more frequently associated. The most important of these are the following: 1. The Steppe of Petchora, which stretches along both sides of the rivers Dvina and Petchora, from the Icy Ocean and White Sea, to the northern part of the government of Vologda. It is called Tundra, and consists of turf-moor covered with moss. In the north it is destitute of wood; in the south it is thickly wooded, and has many small fresh-water lakes. 2. The little Jarashov Steppes, situated between Koslov and Tambov, a plain rich in flowers, and fifty versys in diameter. In connection with it may be mentioned the great steppe between Tambov and Kopersk, which is plentifully supplied with water, very fruitful, and rich in vegetables and pasture. 3. The Steppe of the Don, belonging to the Don Cossacks. This immense plain, wholly destitute of hills, is about 57,600 geographical square miles in extent; in some parts it is fruitful, but in general the soil is barren and uncultivated. 4. The Kuban Steppes, extending from Kuban to the Manitch. The soil is very unproductive, and rests on a bed of sandy limestone. 5. The Steppe of Azof, which extends on both sides of the Lower Manitch, to the Sea of Azof and the Lower Don; but it is as worthless as the former. 6. The Steppe of Taurida, a gentle declivity of the northerly and easterly mountains of Taurida, inclining towards Kerch and the Bosphorus, the Putrid Sea (a branch of the Sea of Azof), and the Straits of Perekop. The soil near the mountains is poor and unproductive; but farther down it becomes clayey and fruitful, and towards the sea is impregnated with salt. Similar to the Steppe of Taurida are those of Vosnesensk and Otchakoff. 7. The Steppe of Nogais on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, from the Lower Don to the Lower Dnieper. It is a dry unwooded tract, of some value to the wandering tribes, but nearly useless to the settled countryman. 8. The Steppe of Astracan, stretching between the Don, the Volga, and the Caucasus; and, 9. The Steppe of Kalmyks. According to Pallas, both of these immense plains must at one time have been covered with the waters of the Caspian Sea. But, in fact, the whole country appears at some period of remote antiquity to have lain beneath the tide of the ocean. Two large cases must be noticed as occurring in the midst of these steppes; they form the country of the Little Russians, and that of the Don Cossacks.

M. Huot, in his new edition of Malte-Brun's great geographical work, thus mentions the rivers of Russia. "The soil of Russia is so slightly undulated, that to consider the spaces traversed by its rivers as true basins, would be an abuse of terms; notwithstanding that it contains the most important water-courses in Europe. It would not perhaps be more exact to apply the same name to the Black, Caspian, and Baltic Seas, or to the Icy Ocean, in one or other of which all its waters disembogue. I prefer designating by the denomination of declivities the inclination of the soil to these several seas, and hence shall term them the Tauryc, Caspian, Icy, and Baltic declivities. The Tauryc, to which I give the name because all the water-courses which descend on this side have their embouchures around the peninsula of Taurida, is watered by the Dniester, the Dnieper, the Bog, and the Don; the Caspian, the waters of which fall into the sea of that name, is watered by the Terek, the Volga, and the Ural; the Icy declivity, formed by the tracts which incline towards the White Sea and Icy or Frozen Ocean, is watered by the Petchora, the Mezen, and the Northern Dvina; lastly, the Baltic comprehends all the streams which fall into the Baltic, the most important being the Tornéo or Tornéa, the Neva, the Southern Dvina or the Diina, and the Niemen." Some eminent German geographers have also adopted this plan of classifying the rivers according to the seas into which they discharge themselves; and as it has several advantages over the usual method of describing the streams of a country in the order of their size and importance, we shall follow it.

In the declivity which slopes to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, there is, 1. the Danube, whose northern arm forms part of the southern boundary between Russia and Turkey. Below Galatz it receives its last tributary the Pruth, which descends from the mountains of Galicia or Austrian Poland, and separates Bessarabia in Russia from Moldavia in Turkey. 2. The Dniester, which rises also in Galicia, and flows with many serpentine windings towards Russia. Below Chotzim it is broken by rapids, so that near Bender boat-navigation is interrupted, and without receiving any tributaries of importance it falls into the Black Sea at the broad but shallow estuary or Lake of Ovidovo. 3. The Dnieper, which has its source in the government of Smolensko, on the southern slope of the Volkouski Wood, and empties itself into the Black Sea below Kerzon. This noble stream receives many tributaries, amongst which, on the right, flow in the Berezina, the Priepetz, and the Bug, and on the left the Soj, the Desna, the Sem, Sula, Psiol, Vorskla, and others. This river is the ancient Borysthenes. It is connected by canals with the Dvina and the Niemen. 4. The Don, which originates in the small lake of Ivanovsko, in the government of Riasan. After intersecting the Cossack territory to which it gives name, it discharges itself below Tcherkaisk into the Sea of Azof, by several mouths. In summer it is shallow; in spring it overflows its low banks to a great extent, and forms unhealthy morasses. By means of navigable canals it is connected with the rivers Slat, Upa, Oka, and Volga. Its principal affluents on the right are the Sozna and Donetz, and on the left the Voronej (on which stream Peter the Great built his ships for the Black Sea), the Khooper, Molveditsa, and the Manitch. 5. The Kuban, which descends from the northern side of Elburz in the Caucasus, flows first north and then west, upon the boundary between Asia and Europe. It separates into two main branches, the northern of which falls into the Sea of Azof, and the southern into the Black Sea.

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1 As we shall have frequent occasion to mention Russian weights and measures, we here present a table, to which the reader can refer, in order to understand what the calculations are equivalent to in English.

A verst is 3520 English feet; consequently three versys are equal to two English miles.

A dessiatine is equal to 27.5 lbs English acres nearly.

A chetwert is equal to 5-952 Winchester bushels; consequently 100 chetwerts are equivalent to 74.4 English quarters.

A vedro is equal to 34th English wine gallons.

A roble, that is, a paper rouble, the only basis of commercial calculations, is equal to 10l., which is very nearly the value of a French franc. But the rouble fluctuates with the exchange.

A pood or pound is always reckoned in commerce as equal to thirty-six pounds English. On the Caspian declivity we have, 1. the Volga, the largest river in Europe. It originates in the government of Tver, near the village of Volgo Verkovic, in the forest of Volkouski, in north latitude 57° 4' 37". It traverses Lakes Sterj, Peno, and Volga; and on receiving the waters of Lake Seligher, it becomes navigable, and falls into the Caspian Sea by eight principal arms, which have in all sixty-five mouths, forming about seventy islands. It has a number of tributaries, the principal of which, on the left, is the Kama, or Little Volga, which has a course of about a thousand miles in length. Before the Volga receives the Kama, the rivers Tverza, Mologa, Onuja, Vetlouga, and others, join it on the left; and on the right the Oka, which descends from the water-shed where the Don and the Dnieper originate. The Soura, which flows from the mountains of Volga, is another large tributary, which joins it on the right. The Volga is nearly two thousand miles in length. Its breadth at Astracan, where it embraces many islands, is nearly five leagues at the greatest height of the water. The depth of its waters varies from seven to eighteen feet. In the winter it is covered with ice throughout its whole extent, but there are always many apertures in the south, from which currents of air escape, and hence they are termed the lungs of the Volga. During summer the Volga is crowded with thousands of boats, constructed in the well-wooded countries of Northern Russia, and bearing down from the interior all kinds of commodities. Their return being difficult, they are generally broken up and sold at Astracan. This noble river is the principal commercial road of the interior of the Russian empire. It encircles the central table-land, receiving, as we have seen, the Oka, the principal river in this fertile region. It communicates in the upper part of its course by the canal of Vichnem-Volotchock, with the Lakes Ladoga and Onega; and, lastly, the Kama conveys to it all the waters of Eastern Russia. "The town of Astracan," says Malte-Brun, "may be supposed an Alexandria on a Scythian Nile, but the river enters an inland sea; it does not communicate with the ocean, and the countries which it waters are inhabited by barbarous nations; still, however, the advantages which human industry may derive from the majestic courses of the Volga and the Danube are not yet realized." The term "barbarous" is now scarcely merited. 2. The Ural, or Oural, so called in conformity to a decree of Catherine II. It descends from the eastern declivities of the mountains bearing the same name, and flowing in a smooth channel sufficiently deep for small vessels, traces for a considerable distance the eastern and southern frontiers of the government of Orenburg, and the eastern limits of Europe. On the right it receives the Sakmarn, on the left the Ilek, and after a course of above a thousand miles falls into the Caspian near Gouries. 3. The Terek. This stream rises at the base of the Kazbek; receives on the right the rivers Songa and Aksai, on the left the Ourong, Theresk, Bekhlar, and Malka; and enters the Caspian by three principal mouths, between the Gulfs of Kouma and Agrakhan.

On the declivity of the Frozen Ocean we have, 1. the Petchora, which rises in the Ural mountain range, and traverses the most solitary deserts of Russia, the governments of Archangel and Vologda. Its steep calcareous banks are broken by caverns and ravines; and hence its name Petchora, which in the Russian language signifies caverns. After receiving, amongst other tributaries, the Oussa on the right and the Tyra on the left, it falls into the Arctic Ocean in north latitude 67° 10', its mouth forming an immense estuary. The length of its course is about 670 miles. 2. The Mezen, which originates in some bogs in the government of Vologda, and after a course of five or six hundred miles discharges itself into a bay of the same name on the shores of the White Sea, almost under the polar circle. 3. The Dvina, which name the rivers Soukhona and Jong receive after their junction near Weliki-Oust-Joug. The Soukhona flows from Lake Koubinskoe, in the government of Vologda; it is united with Lake Bielo by means of a canal, and also with the rivers Volga and Neva in the same manner. The Jong rises in the same government, but is a much smaller stream. The Dvina does not assume the dimensions of a large river till after the junction of the Vyechegda, which falls into it on the right. The latter is united with the Volga by means of Catherine's Canal. Near Khomogory it divides into several arms, and after a course of above 700 miles falls into a gulf of the same name. Its mouth is greatly obstructed by a bar of mud. 4. The Onega, which is the outlet of several lakes, but not that of Onega, although it be situated in the neighbourhood. There are other rivers which fall into the White Sea and Arctic Ocean, but none of them are of any great moment.

The declivity of the Baltic Sea contains a variety of rivers. 1. The Tornéa, or Tornéa. It originates in Swedish Lapland, and, after the confluence of its great tributary the Muonio, down to its embouchure in the Baltic Sea, it forms the boundary between Russia and Sweden. The Muonio, likewise, traces for some distance the limit of the empire on this side. The Tornéa has a course of about 250 miles. 2. The Neva, in several respects a remarkable river. "The Neva," says Colonel Jackson, "though it be called a river, is more properly a bosphorus or strait. Its length, from Schlusselburg, at the south-west angle of the Ladoga Lake, to its mouth, is sixty-nine versts; its direction that of a straight line from east to west; its medium breadth about 1500 feet; and its depth, in many places considerable, is generally in the channel about fifty feet. The water of the Neva is remarkably pure, and though the first use of it by strangers generally produces slight diarrhoea, yet it is very wholesome and extremely palatable. This fine river is the grand and only outlet for the superabundant waters of four great basins, each of which has an extensive natural reservoir of its own. These reservoirs are the Lakes Onega, Ilmen, Saima, and Ladoga; the latter receiving the drains of the other three. Ten different streams flow into the Onega, whose length from north to south is 190 versts, and its breadth from east to west seventy versts. It discharges into the Ladoga, by the Sveer, a river 202 versts long, and of very unequal breadth. The Ilmen is fifty-five versts long from north-east to south-west, and about thirty wide from north-west to south-east. It receives eleven streams, and has its outlet into the Ladoga by the Volkoff, 206 versts long, with a medium breadth of 1400 feet. The Saima, which is rather a collection of lakes, of gulfs, and bays, of all shapes and sizes, communicating with each other, than a regularly-formed and single sheet of water, is estimated by Peter Friccus at 130 versts long in the direction of west-south-west, to east-north-east, and 120 from north to south; but on the Swedish side it is about 280 versts more. It pays its tribute to the Ladoga by means of the Voksha or Voxa, a river about 180 versts long, and not navigable in consequence of its several cascades, of which the most considerable, that of Imatra, has a fall of upwards of thirty-two feet. Besides the Sveer, Volkoff, and the Voxa, the Ladoga receives the waters of thirteen other streams. This, the largest lake of Europe, is about 175 versts long and 105 broad, and of an oval form. The surfaces of the four lakes are thus estimated. The Onega, 430 leagues, or 25 to a degree; the Ilmen, 36; the Saima, 210; and the Ladoga, 830 degrees." At St Petersburg the Neva di-

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1 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. v. part i. p. 1. To this able paper the reader is referred for some interesting particulars regarding the Neva. vides into several deltoid branches, the largest of which is 1260 feet across, and bears along a mass of about 74,000 cubic feet of water in a second, while the Nile in the same time furnishes but 21,800 cubic feet. It moves at the rate of about two miles and one furlong in an hour; but notwithstanding the immense mass of water which is borne along, and the speed with which it moves, taking one year with another, for five months of the year the navigation is interrupted by its being frozen over, the ice sometimes exceeding three feet in thickness.

3. The Dvina, or Southern Dvina. This river originates in a fen on the western declivities of the forest of Volkonskoi, in the government of Tver, not far from the sources of the Volga. It soon becomes deep enough to be navigable, but its course is broken by falls and sand-banks; it falls into the Bay of Riga, without having received any affluents of importance on its way.

4. The Niemen, which rises in the forests of Kopialov, in the government of Minsk. It flows first in a northerly direction, and then bending to the west, enters Prussia under the name of Memel. On the right it receives the Vilia, a navigable stream; and on the left one or two others, but they are small and unimportant.

5. The Vistula. This river rises in the principality of Teschen, in Eastern Silesia, at the foot of the western Carpathian range of mountains. It flows in an easterly direction to Cracow, where it becomes navigable, and as far as Sandomir forms the boundary line between Gallicia and Poland. Amongst its confluents, the most important are, the Bug, which originates on the northern side of a chain or lofty ridge of hills separating the chalky lands of Volhynia from the rich plains of Podolia; the Priepeetz, a feeder of the Dnieper, which unites the Bug and the Niemen in spring and autumn; and at Sie- rock it receives the Narew, a river which flows from the plains of Lithuania, and is believed by the common people to be fatal to water-snakes. Its other tributaries are the Pilica, which originates in the heights above Warsaw; the San, which rises not far from the sources of the Dnieper; and the Bzura.

6. The Wartha. This river rises in a plateau near Kromolow, in Cracow, flows in a broad channel like the Vistula, and inundates the neighbouring fields. After receiving the Ner, it becomes navigable, and though not so deep as the Vistula, has the appearance of a large river. After receiving the Prosna, which for a great distance forms the boundary between Poland and Prussia, the Wartha enters the Prussian territory, and adds its waters to the Oder.

The Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian will be found described in this work, each under its own proper head.

In the foregoing account of the rivers of Russia, we have noticed four of the most considerable sheets of water in this country. Deep in the interior are a few pretty large collections of water; but lakes are not a characteristic of Russia, except in the north-west part, where Finland is situated. Here immense numbers of winding lakes of varied form and dimensions intersect the country in all directions, giving rise to numerous rivers; but none of them irrigates a great extent of country. All these, surrounded by flat and bleak shores and frozen plains, present little that is striking in point of scenery, and afford few facilities for internal intercourse. The coasts of Russia are deeply penetrated by large arms of the sea, forming gulfs, bays, and the like. Besides the Black and Baltic Seas, we have the Sea of Kara, which is the most easterly, and bathes at once Europe and Asia. It is four hundred and fifty miles in length; but navigation is almost constantly interrupted by ice at its northern entrance. On the extreme west is the Bieloë More, or White Sea, which itself embosoms a number of bays and gulfs of considerable size. The largest of these are the Gulfs of Mezen, Dvina, and Onega, so called from the rivers which flow into them; and Kandalaksh, which communicates with Lake Kovdozero. The White Sea is about the same length as that of Kara, with a breadth of from sixty to seventy miles. Between these two great inlets of the Arctic Ocean occur other gulfs, the most considerable being Tcheskaïa, which is separated from the White Sea by the peninsula of Kaniskia Zemlia, and that formed to the east of this by the estuary of the river Petchora.

The extensive inlets of the sea above mentioned of course form numerous promontories and other projections of land. In looking over a good map, the most striking which meets the eye is Cape Kamin or Canin, the north-western extremity of the peninsula of Kaniskia Zemlia. This neck of land, which separates the Gulf of Tcheskaïa from the White Sea, stretches directly north into the Arctic Ocean, a distance of about 150 miles. Its breadth is between forty and fifty miles. Cape Onega projects into the White Sea near the bottom of that gulf; and forms the Bay of Archangel on the north-east, and the Bay of Onega on the south-west.

In European Russia, the predominating kinds of rocks, or, to use the language of geology, formations, are tertiary and alluvial; those of an older date, says Professor Jameson, namely, the secondary, transition, and primitive series, occupying but comparatively small space. The latter two occur in the Ural chain, in Finland, and Russian Lapland, in some parts of Karelia, Olonetz, Crimea, Caucasus, the Valdis plateau, and Sandomir Mountains, Revel, the country around Lake Ilmen and Vologda, and the tract extending from Brody across the Bug and the Dnieper. The secondary lands frequently appear rising like little islands in the great Russo-Polish plains. Amongst the formations of this class of rocks are found coal, lime, gypsum, chalk, and salt, which will be afterwards noticed. The tertiary rocks, which occupy vast tracts of the low country, are clay, loam, limestone, brown coal, with gypsum, and in many tracts, as in Austrian Poland, rich deposits of rock-salt. There is a tertiary limestone almost peculiar to this part of Europe, and extensively distributed throughout Poland, Podolia, and Southern Russia. "It occurs, however," says Jameson, "in the basin of Vienna, and Hungary, and in France. It is the last depot of that sea which covered all the country to the north of the Carpathians, from the Baltic Sea to the foot of that chain, and to the Black Sea, in the middle of which rose the mountains of Sandomir, and the plateau south-west, in the form of islands. It is covered by a marly clay, and a sand formed by the last great alluvial catastrophe, which gave to Europe its present form, and buried in its depots remains of unknown species of the elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros, &c." In Central Poland there is a clay, with lignite or brown coal, resting upon chalk, which is supposed by some geologists to be the oldest members of the tertiary formations. The alluvial formation consists of an old and new deposit, the former being composed of a great stratum of marly clay or loam, interspersed with numerous blocks of granite and other primitive rocks. It covers vast tracts of country in Poland, varying in thickness from thirty to a hundred feet. The soil which it forms in the south of Poland is excellent; but as it advances northward it becomes less and less productive, and more and more intermixed with sands, gravels, and primitive blocks. It is this deposit which contains such an immense quantity of fossil remains of animals, including great whales. An alluvial sand, different from the sand of rivers, is widely distributed in Poland, and connected with the great sandy plain of Northern Germany. Vast numbers of large and small primary blocks occur in this plain, and which, from their identity with the rocks of Sweden and Finland, it is believed, on good grounds, have been transported from these countries by a debicle flowing from the north-east to the south-west. The same debicle has also formed the marly clay or alluvial loam; it has interred the elephants and other animals of unknown antiquity; it has broken up the chalk plains of the north, and separated Denmark from Sweden, and, in general, given to The great mineral repositories of this empire occur in the Ural and Altai chains; those in European Russia are few in number, and of little importance. A tract called the central mining district of Russia extends from the Oka near the town of Kalouga, including portions of the governments of Nizhni-Novgorod, Vladimir, Tambov, Riazan, and Kalouga. But it is for the most part a poor sandy district containing iron ore; and as the metal is manufactured in the localities where it is found, several extensive iron-works are situated at intervals along the line mentioned. The ore is described as occurring in regular beds, sixty feet below the surface. It is of several varieties, the lightest coloured producing the most iron. Few minerals occur in that large and sandy plain which we have noticed as forming the northern and central portion of Poland. The land, as in all the northern countries on our globe, is incrustated with a ferruginous deposit, and every marsh and every meadow contains iron in a greater or less proportion. The iron is of indifferent quality; and the existing veins of lead, gold, and silver, which, it appears, were once productive, lie beyond the Russian territory. At Petrozavodsk, near Lake Onega, in Finland, there are iron-works, which, it is believed, are the largest in the north of Russia. Bog-iron ore abounds in the neighbourhood; and for a long time this was the only kind smelted; but thirteen different mines are now wrought. Vast quantities are obtained by simply dragging the lakes. Another great iron-work of the same description is situated four versts from St Petersburg, on the road to Riga. Finland also yields copper and tin, but only one mine of the former is wrought. Coal is found in very inconsiderable quantities in European Russia. There is a small mine worked at Tula, another at Bakhmout in the government of Ikaterinoslav, but neither seem to be of much utility. In Southern Poland and Cracow there are numerous beds of black bituminous coal, resembling that of Great Britain, some of which are thirty feet in thickness. These occur in the secondary formation. In the tertiary districts deposits of brown coal are met with, which also yields amber, the exudation of a dicotyledonous tree. Russia possesses a great treasure in the numerous salt-lakes and marshes of the Siberian steppes, and the country to the north of the Caspian Sea. There are also mines of salt dispersed throughout the empire, and from these sources immense quantities are annually obtained, the amount increasing indefinitely with the population. There is a tract of country called the Northern Salt District, which stretches in a line parallel with the Petersburg limestone, for a thousand versts. It makes its first appearance in the island of Oesel, and is worked in several parts of the south of Livonia. Quarries of gypsum are also situated in this great tract. A central salt district is described as existing in the course of the Volga. Along the course of the river Kama there is also a rich and extensive marl, salt, and gypsum tract, probably connected on the south with that of the Volga, and on the north with that of Vologda. The principal salt-works are in the neighbourhood of Solikamsk; and the gypsum grottoes of Kounghur, in the government of Perm, are of great size and magnificence. There are in Poland large mines of rock-salt, which annually yield immense supplies of the article. They form part of that enormous layer of fossil-salt which extends along the Carpathian Mountains, and is large enough to supply the consumption of all the nations of the earth for an indefinite period of time. Copper-sand is found throughout a vast tract of country extending over the governments of Perm, Viatka, and Onfs. It completely skirts the south and west sides of the Ural Mountains. The sand is of a dull red or green colour, and is usually worked for copper. It contains fossil-wood impregnated with the metal. But it is in the Asiatic territory of Russia that the most abundant mines of copper are found, as well as those of gold, silver, platinum, and other metals.

In a country of such vast dimensions, the soil must of course vary considerably in different situations. There is a vast tract of territory 65,000 geographical square leagues in extent, which possesses a peculiar and rather remarkable soil. Indeed, Ritter, in his Erdkunde, informs us that there is only one other place on the surface of the earth where any thing similar in soil has been discovered, and that is the north of Hindustan. It consists entirely of decomposed vegetable matter, and is deposited in a thick layer. It is situated in the south of Russia, stretching in a broad belt from Volhynia in a north-easterly direction, to the foot of the Ural chain, near Perm. It is prolonged on one side from this to the shores of the Black Sea; and on the other it stretches from Perm to Orenburg, and thence to the Caspian Sea. All this vast tract, exceeding in extent France, Spain, and Prussia united, is covered throughout with a stratum of vegetable mould, which varies in thickness from three to five feet. It is so extremely productive as to stand in no need of manure. Its fertility is shown in the large returns of grain, especially rye, which it yields, and in the excellent breeds of cattle which are reared upon it. From the thinness of the population, this vegetable mould is far from being wholly laid out in corn-fields; vast tracts still remaining unoccupied. The soils of the steppes which cover so large a portion of the surface of Russia we have already adverted to when describing these plains. What remains to be said regarding the soil of this country must be stated in reference to specific localities, a general description being impracticable.

The country between the Dniester and the Dnieper has a soil impregnated with nitre, a substance deleterious to vegetation; yet, as soon as it is removed or diminished, wheat, millet, and the arbutus melon, may be cultivated with great success. The mildest and most fruitful region in all the Russian empire is that continuation of valleys arranged in natural amphitheatres at the southern base of Taurida, along the coasts of the Black Sea. Proceeding eastward, we meet the government of Astracan, only part of the soil of which is fertile. This portion includes the low districts on the banks of the Volga, the Ural, and the Terek, and is by no means large; but here vegetables attain an enormous size. The soil is impregnated with saline and bituminous substances. Higher up, the land on the Volga becomes sandy and unproductive. The soil of Little Russia and the Polish Ukraine is partly sandy and not very fruitful, partly very rich and fertile. A great part of Western Russia is sandy, and intersected by vast marshes and bogs. Large tracts are covered with immense forests, the retreat of the bear, wolf, and wild boar; whilst not an inconsiderable portion of this westerly territory ranks amongst the most fertile in the empire.

It thus appears, with regard to the soil of Russia, taking climate, a summary view of it along with the climate, that from the forty-fourth to the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, comprising Bessarabia, Podolia, Kherson, Ikaterinoslav, and Taurida, it is for the most part low and level, little wooded, partly very fruitful, partly arid and unfruitful, and here and there impregnated with salt. The winters are short, with little snow; but in some parts the cold is severe. The spring is early and mild; the summer is of long duration, with oppressive heat and little rain; autumn follows late in the year. In the heat of summer a dangerous disease called jassica is generated; it is fatal to the lower animals as well as to man. Violent whirlwinds are frequent. The south of Russia is subject to a north-easterly wind called mitet, often accompanied by snow, which is drifted with great violence, and much dreaded by the inhabitants. The middle or temperate district, extending from 50° to 57°, Statistics has a rough and long-continued winter, especially in the eastern territory. This district is the largest and wealthiest portion of the empire, and forms broad, open, undulating plains, over which, as far as the declivities of the Ural chain upon the east, only slight elevations break the monotonous level. The northern district, from 57° to 67°, in European Russia, has a much milder climate than the same parallels in Asia. With the exception of the wooded mountains of Finland on the west, it is, as far as the Urals, a continuation of the former flat land, upon which forests, meadows, marshes, and moor-ground, alternate with one another. The poor, meagre soil, only insures the husbandman a return as far as the sixtieth parallel. The winter here is long and severe, there being six or seven months in which travelling is prosecuted by sledges. Mercury freezes in the winter, and the autumn is foggy. Here only slow-growing wood succeeds, and beyond 67° is confined to dry, stunted shrubs. From 64° the rearing of cattle is always difficult, and agriculture is limited to roots. Under the parallel of 66° the sun does not set on the 21st of June, nor rise above the horizon on the 21st of December. According to observations by the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences, extending over twenty years, from 1777 to 1797, the duration of winter in St Petersburg extends from the end of September to the beginning of May. Snow and ice set in about the 9th of October, and continue to the beginning of May. Upon an average, 230 days of the 365 are reckoned as belonging to winter. For 160 of these, that is, from the 27th of November till the 19th of April, the waters are bound fast with ice. In winter the east wind prevails for 113 days, and the west sixty-eight days. In summer the westerly wind prevails for 110 days, and the easterly for eighty-four days. The quantity of rain which falls is from ten to eleven French inches; the number of rainy days is reckoned at about eighty. In 1778 there were reckoned forty-eight appearances of the northern lights; but since 1782 their number has decreased in a remarkable degree, especially within the last fifteen years. In the arctic or hyperborean region, extending from 67° to 74°, the rigours of the climate tell upon man and other animals, as well as upon vegetation; for neither attain the full size nor the complete development of their members. In Archangel the sun rises on the 11th of December at twenty-three minutes past ten, and sets about our mid-day, thirty-seven minutes past one; whilst on the 10th of June it rises thirty-seven minutes past one in the morning, and does not disappear below the horizon until twenty-three minutes past ten in the evening. But beyond 67° the climate is one long summer day and long winter night. The summer, however, is much overcast with vapours, which obscure, and sometimes wholly conceal, the sun. The dark and dreary reign of winter is greatly alleviated by clear moonlight and the brilliant apparition of the aurora borealis. Trees cease entirely about 67°, only hardy shrubs being able to endure the intense cold of the climate.

In St Petersburg in 1732 the cold was 33° below zero, and in Tornéa 37°. On the 12th of January 1809, quicksilver froze into a solid mass in Moscow, and was extended with a hammer like lead. As this metal becomes solid about 33°, we may reckon the degree of cold in this case as about 35° below zero. Earthquakes were almost unknown in this country till the 17th of November 1821, when Kief and other places were visited by one, which shook the buildings with violence, but did no material damage.

From the vast extent of this empire, and the great range of its temperature, it is not surprising that the productions of every clime are found, or may be successfully cultivated, in some parts of its wide-spread surface. On the east, the great chain of the Urals separates by a bold line the Slavonian European from the northern Asiatic botany; and over this vast expanse winter reigns with excessive severity, while the almost tropical temperature of the brief summer brings the productions of the vegetable kingdom to sudden maturity; and this rapid growth is followed by as rapid a decay in autumn.

The forests of Russia are in several respects an important feature of the country; firstly, as a physical characteristic, from their overspreading such enormous tracts of country; secondly, in a commercial point of view, from the timber, tar, pitch, potash, and turpentine, which they afford, forming important items of trade; and, thirdly, from their supplying fuel in a country nearly destitute of coal. An able writer thus describes them: "Estimating the surface of European Russia," says M. Schnitzler, "at 402,100,552 dessiatines, 156,000,000 of this number are occupied by forests; 178,000,000 by uncultivated land, water, houses, and roads; 61,500,000 dessiatines by arable, and a little more than 6,000,000 by meadow-land. On this general view of the surface, we may compute that a dessiatine of wood occurs for every two and five-ninth dessiatines without it. The forests, indeed, constitute a source of riches which may long continue inexhaustible, and which might be indefinitely increased by strict regulations for their economy and management. Seventy-six millions of dessiatines are still completely covered with pines, firs, and other cone-bearing trees, without counting the oaks, maples, beeches, poplars, and elms, which are by no means rare in the latitudes within the 52d degree, and the birch, which grows in still more northern districts... The governments of Novgorod and Tver, in particular, are studded with forests; that of Vologda, which extends to the Valdai Hills, is one of the largest known. In the government of Perm, out of 18,000,000 of dessiatines, 17,000,000 are forest. These immense tracts, covered with wood, are a great blessing in so inclement a climate, as they form a shelter against the winds from the icy seas. The provinces to the south have not the same necessity for them, and are so destitute of wood as to occasion the burning of grass and dung for fuel." The trees furnish the inhabitants with fir-timber of the finest and most durable quality, for building, household furniture, and utensils; and for these purposes it is largely used in the interior. The same tree supplies the peasantry with torches, which they use instead of candles. The brushwood, which covers a vast extent of forest country, consists almost entirely of the hazel, dwarf birch, alder, willow, and juniper. In other places the surface of the earth is covered with wild bilberry, and the cranberry, which is extensively exported.

Russia is as yet chiefly an agricultural country. It is so extensive, and in many parts yields such abundant crops of grain, that enough is produced not only for home consumption, but for exportation in considerable quantities. On an average of five years, the annual production of grain amounts to 180,905,000 chetwerts, or about 134,818,920 English quarters, of which quantity 50,335,864 chetwerts were reserved for seed, leaving 119,498,213 chetwerts for home consumption or exportation. The price of grain varies exceedingly in different governments. Rye-meal in 1818 was, in Revel and Mittau, twenty-six and twenty-seven roubles per chetwert, while in Viatka and Simferopol it was only about the one half. St Petersburg, Moscow, Archangel, Vologda, and Perm are the only governments that consume more than they raise; all the others produce more than they require. The grains most commonly cultivated are rye and oats. The best wheat is produced in Southern Russia, where also, along with millet, a little rice

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1 La Russie, la Pologne, et la Finlande, Paris and St Petersburg, 1835. This is a valuable work on the statistics of Russia. Whilst corn and cattle constitute the riches of the central districts, the southern abound in productions of a more precious or delicate nature. The peninsula of Crimea is adapted, by climate and soil, for all the productions of Italy and Greece, and here, indeed, many of them are indigenous. Government has taken a most lively interest in developing the resources of each district of the empire; and in consequence of this the cultivation of the vine, an indigenous plant, and the mulberry tree and sugar-cane, has been carried to a considerable extent. In 1835 there were planted in Crimea 1,454,000 feet of vines, the annual produce of which, in a few years, will be at least 75,000 vedros, or 250,000 gallons. The vine cultivation is extending with great success in the south, in the governments of Astracan, Kherson, Podolia, the country of the Don Cossacks, and especially in the Taurida. In 1837, 1,150,000 vedros of wine were produced, and 1,900,000 to be distilled; while in 1836 the whole quantity was not more than 800,000 vedros. The mulberry tree has been as carefully attended to as the vine, and the result has been, upon the whole, favourable. Vast plantations of mulberries have been formed near all the principal towns of the southern districts. Every encouragement is held out to planters by the government. In Crimea and the countries of the Caucasus, the rearing of the silk-worm is likewise rapidly advancing. Experiments have also been made to cultivate sugar-cane and indigo; but it is doubtful if they will succeed. The cork-tree was transplanted from Portugal to the Crimea in 1817, but we see no notice of it in recent works.

In Southern Russia, a region whose climate differs little from that of Asia Minor, we find a similar abundance and variety of fruits and vegetables. The flora of Russia is very abundant in the south. As Pallas informs us, the country presents the most enchanting aspect. On the mountain side, in the valley, in the forest, everywhere, the earth is clothed with a profusion of the loveliest flowers, and aromatic herbs, whose delicate odours embalm all the surrounding atmosphere.

Russia further produces hops (not sufficient for home consumption), and tobacco, the Nicotiana paniculata, of which the young leaves are gradually removed, dried in the shade, and buried beneath hay-ricks, where they become of a brownish-yellow colour. Of garden vegetables there are the usual varieties found in Europe. Spanish pepper is raised on the Samara and Lower Volga; poppy in Charikov, where it yields a return of a hundred and sixty fold; rhubarb, which grows wild in Taurida; rhapontick, which grows wild in the Urals; and polygonum minus, which in the Ukraine engenders worms that yield a beautiful crimson dye used as paint by the Cossack women. Genuine turpentine might be collected to a great extent. Many plants useful for dyeing are produced in a wild state; and for tanning there are several valuable plants. In short, the Crimea presents great facilities for rendering this a lucrative branch of manufacture. It only remains to be stated with regard to the vegetation of Russia, that in the south there is abundance of excellent food for cattle, consisting not only of a great variety of grasses, but also of the best vegetables recommended for artificial meadows.

The quadrupeds of Russia are numerous. Some appear to be peculiar to the country, but our business is chiefly with the domesticated animals. Cattle of every description are bred in vast numbers in the steppes, and they have increased with the improvement of agriculture. Black cattle and oxen are raised as far north as the sixty-fourth parallel, especially in Podolia and the Ukraine. Some of the calves of the latter territory weigh from 480 to 600 lbs. Sheep are reared to a great extent, there being supposed to be between sixty and seventy millions of these useful animals in different parts of the country. In Taurida a poor Tartar may have in his possession 1000, and a rich Tartar 50,000. The Merino breed of sheep has been naturalized in Little Russia, in the governments comprised under the name of New Russia on the south and east, and in those of the shores of the Baltic Sea. These different regions, so remote from one another, are too dissimilar to enjoy precisely the same advantages; nevertheless, the perseverance and judicious management of the cultivators have been crowned with success. Even in those districts least favoured by nature rapid improvement has been made. In 1826 the exports of wool from Odessa were only 18,000 poods, valued at ten roubles each; in 1835 they were 116,000 poods, the price being advanced to thirty roubles per pood. At Taganrog the exports have increased in the same proportion; and in Little Russia this branch of commerce is acquiring fresh activity. The wool trade is now also cultivated in Siberia, where a wool-company was established in 1832. In fine, Russia, lately so poor in this species of produce that even in 1824 her exports did not exceed annually 35,000 poods, valued at only 600,000 roubles, in 1834 sold 281,450 poods, the value of which amounted to 1,557,066 roubles. This is of course independently of the demands for the cloth manufactories in the interior, which have increased to a very great extent. The report of the minister of the interior for 1837 states the extensive advancement made in agricultural industry, and the improvement of the breeds of cattle and sheep, especially the great increase in the number of Merino sheep in New Russia, as well as in Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland. Amongst the animals are horses of very different races, to improve the breed of which, races have been instituted; goats, from the silken hair of some of which animals the celebrated Cashmere shawls are woven; camels in the warm and saline steppes of Taurida and Kherson; asses, which are especially domesticated in Taurida; swine; rein-deer, so valuable in the north; the buffalo, and others. Amongst useful insects there are bees, which yield an abundance of honey and wax for exportation. There are many wild animals, the skins or furs of which constitute important items of trade in the northern parts of Russia; and abundance of others, whose flesh is useful as food. Birds are very numerous, including field and water game of various kinds. Fish abound in the seas, lakes, and rivers; and the fisheries constitute an important branch of productive industry, as will be afterwards shown.

European Russia consists of a variety of countries, viz., that part improperly termed Muscovy, which is Russia strictly so called, and forms the nucleus of the empire; the country of the Cossacks of the Don and of the Black Sea; the kingdoms of Kazan and Astracan, wrested from the Tartars; Biarmia; the greater part of Lapland; Ingria, Karelia, Finland, Astrobothnia, Esthonia, Livonia, the archipelagos of Abo and Aland, and the islands of Dago, Oesel, &c., countries formerly appendages of the Swedish crown; the largest portion of the once independent kingdom of Poland, comprising the governments of Vitebsk, Moghilev, Minsk, Volhynia, Grodno, Vilna, Podolia, the province of Bialystok, and the new kingdom of Poland; the former khanate of the Crimea, with Little Tartary, Bessarabia, and part of Moldavia, territories conquered from the Ottoman empire; and the region beyond the Caucasus, wrested from the natives, Turks, and Persians. "The Russian government," says Balbi, "does not recognise the distinction made by geographers betwixt Russia in Europe, Russia in Asia, and Russia in America. The first two are blended in several governments. For instance, Perm and Orenburg, being traversed by the Urals, have one part of their territory in Europe and another in Asia. However, having determined the boundaries of Europe by the crest of the Urals and..." Statistics, that of Caucasus, I have admitted into my table the whole of the two governments of Perm and Orenburg, although great part of their territory, lying east of the Urals, belongs in reality to Asia; and I have rejected the general government of Caucasus, although its northern portion is situated within the limits assigned by me to Europe. This was the only course I could pursue in order not to divide what the Russian government has willed to be united, and to preserve the great natural divisions which are the base of all geography." The following table is taken from M. Huet's edition of Malte-Brun's great work. Whilst its divisions correspond with those of the able geographer just named, it contains important materials which are not to be found in his work.

| Government | Actual Population at Decembrist of 1827 | Chief Towns | Population | Distance in Versts | Count of Merchants | Annual Harvest, in sheat-worths | Natives of each Government | |---------------------|----------------------------------------|------------------|------------|--------------------|-------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------| | Baltic Provinces | | | | | | | | | St Petersburg | 645,000 | St Petersburg | 448,221 | 606 | 26,000,000 | 170 | 1,030,000 | Russians, Finns, Ijors, Germans, Fins, Saecoles, Karelians, Laplanders, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Germans, Jews. | | Finland (Grand Duchy) | 1,364,000 | Helsinki | 94,409 | 415 | 1,111 | 20 | 700,000 | Russians, Finns, Ijors, Germans, Fins, Saecoles, Karelians, Laplanders, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Germans, Jews. | | Esthonia | 300,000 | Revel | 16,000 | 339 | 1,057 | 6 | 900,000 | Russians, Finns, Ijors, Germans, Fins, Saecoles, Karelians, Laplanders, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Germans, Jews. | | Livonia | 700,000 | Riga | 41,600 | 565 | 1,669 | 39 | 1,270,000 | Russians, Finns, Ijors, Germans, Fins, Saecoles, Karelians, Laplanders, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Germans, Jews. | | Courland | 400,000 | Mitau | 14,026 | 607 | 1,111 | 4 | 1,250,000 | Russians, Finns, Ijors, Germans, Fins, Saecoles, Karelians, Laplanders, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Estonians, Germans, Russians, Letts, Germans, Jews. | | Great Russia | | | | | | | | | Moscow | 1,333,000 | Moscow | 257,694 | 696 | 52,000,000 | 540 | 2,990,000 | Russians, and numerous foreigners, Russians, Poles. | | Smolensk | 1,325,000 | Smolensk | 11,155 | 708 | 382 | 5 | 4,500,000 | Russians, Poles. | | Pskov | 750,000 | Pskov | 10,000 | 339 | 721 | 7 | 3,000,000 | Russians, Germans. | | Tver | 1,260,700 | Tver | 21,747 | 537 | 17,000,000 | 32 | 4,050,000 | Russians, Karelians. | | Novgorod | 915,500 | Novgorod-Veliki | 7,295 | 182 | 515 | 7 | 2,150,000 | Russians, Fins, Laplanders. | | Olonetz | 359,000 | Petrozavodsk | 5,500 | 109 | 1106 | 2 | 2,200,000 | Russians, Fins, Laplanders. | | Archangel | 363,100 | Archangel | 19,262 | 1137 | 1218 | 1 | 1,490,000 | Russians, Laplanders, Samoyeds. | | Vologda | 892,000 | Vologda | 12,553 | 710 | 428 | 4 | 2,300,000 | Russians, Fins, Samoyeds. | | Jaroslav | 1,052,500 | Jaroslav | 23,592 | 741 | 241 | 9 | 2,625,000 | Russians. | | Kostroma | 1,324,500 | Kostroma | 12,056 | 325 | 325 | 3 | 3,300,000 | Russians. | | Vladimir | 1,334,500 | Vladimir | 7,144 | 870 | 172 | 11 | 3,300,000 | Russians. | | Nizhni-Novgorod | 1,380,000 | Nizhni-Novgorod | 14,430 | 1159 | 441 | 4 | 4,500,000 | Russians, Mordovians, &c. | | Tambov | 1,500,000 | Tambov | 15,718 | 1157 | 459 | 3 | 3,500,000 | Russians, Tartars. | | Ryazan | 1,308,600 | Ryazan | 18,866 | 888 | 190 | 7 | 5,525,000 | Russians, Tartars. | | Toula | 1,130,000 | Toula | 38,850 | 873 | 175 | 10 | 6,700,000 | Russians. | | Kaluga | 1,175,000 | Kaluga | 25,660 | 466 | 168 | 12 | 2,250,000 | Russians. | | Orel | 1,390,000 | Orel | 30,200 | 1054 | 355 | 13 | 3,100,000 | Russians, Cossacks. | | Koursk | 1,649,000 | Koursk | 22,897 | 1294 | 506 | 10 | 3,200,000 | Russians, Cossacks. | | Voronezh | 1,500,000 | Voronezh | 18,568 | 1196 | 490 | 6 | 5,500,000 | Russians, Cossacks, Bohemians. | | Little Russia | | | | | | | | | Kiev | 1,472,100 | Kiev | 26,020 | 1251 | 888 | 1,115,000 | 65 | 5,500,000 | Russians, Poles. | | Tchernigov | 1,410,000 | Tchernigov | 5,656 | 1104 | 991 | 6 | 2,750,000 | Russians. | | Poltava | 1,578,000 | Poltava | 8,140 | 1437 | 844 | 2 | 2,550,000 | Russians. | | Slobodak Ukraine | 950,000 | Kharkov | 13,370 | 1405 | 707 | 1 | 4,135,000 | Russians, Cossacks. | | Southern Russia | | | | | | | | | Haterinoslav | 626,100 | Haterinoslav | 7,846 | 1600 | 921 | 3 | 3,400,000 | Russians, Cossacks, Wallachians, Greeks, and a mixture of other nations. | | Kherson | 459,400 | Kherson | 12,400 | 1787 | 1297 | 3 | 2,200,000 | Tartars of Crimea, Nogais, Russians, Germans, Cossacks, Tartars, Kalmyks. | | Taurida | 346,200 | Simferopol | 2,330 | 2057 | 1485 | 1 | 1,400,000 | Russians, Cossacks, Tartars, Kalmyks, Wallachians, Cossacks, Greeks, Russians, Germans, Poles. | | Don Cossack (country of) | 369,900 | Tcherkas | 11,327 | 1720 | 1022 | 1 | 1,500,000 | Russians, Cossacks, Tartars, Kalmyks, Wallachians, Cossacks, Greeks, Russians, Germans, Poles. | | Bessarabia (province of) | 390,000 | Kichiriev | 4,240 | 1023 | 1419 | 1 | 1,500,000 | Russians, Cossacks, Tartars, Kalmyks, Wallachians, Cossacks, Greeks, Russians, Germans, Poles. | | Western Russia | | | | | | | | | Wilna | 1,357,400 | Wilna | 56,379 | 767 | 874 | 1 | 1,000,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Grodno | 658,100 | Grodno | 9,237 | 889 | 1032 | 6 | 650,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Bialystok (province of) | 224,600 | Bialystok | 6,535 | 1063 | 1105 | 1 | 3,400,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Vitelisk | 933,000 | Vitelisk | 15,560 | 627 | 576 | 2 | 2,400,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Mogilev | 945,400 | Mogilev | 21,093 | 784 | 563 | 1 | 1,100,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Minsk | 1,160,100 | Minsk | 14,591 | 911 | 670 | 1 | 1,230,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Volhynia | 1,496,300 | Jitomir | 11,430 | 1248 | 1040 | 2 | 2,000,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Podolia | 1,462,100 | Kamienetz | 13,060 | 1523 | 1314 | 2 | 2,500,000 | Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Rusnaks, Lithuanians, Jews, Poles, Jews. | | Eastern Russia | | | | | | | | | Kazan | 1,025,150 | Kazan | 47,794 | 1519 | 821 | 6 | 6,500,000 | Russians, Mordovians, Tchereinis, Tcheches. | | Viatka | 1,200,000 | Viatka | 9,147 | 1460 | 1002 | 2 | 2,700,000 | Jews and Voliaks. | | Perm | 1,270,000 | Perm | 9,940 | 2093 | 1396 | 2 | 2,500,000 | Russians, Permiaks, Mariolins, Tcheches. | | Simbirsk | 1,130,000 | Simbirsk | 12,700 | 1443 | 750 | 3 | 3,900,000 | Jews and Voliaks. | | Penza | 1,035,000 | Penza | 18,400 | 1307 | 629 | 3 | 3,900,000 | Russians, Permiaks, Mariolins, Tcheches. | | Astracan | 222,500 | Astracan | 39,637 | 2100 | 1492 | 5 | 5,000,000 | Jews and Voliaks. | | Saratof | 1,333,500 | Saratof | 35,250 | 1596 | 898 | 11 | 11,500,000 | Cossacks, Tartars, Kalmyks, Hidats. | | Orenburg | 1,343,500 | Orenburg | 8,450 | 2043 | 1345 | 3 | 3,500,000 | Russians, Cossacks, Germans, Tartars, Russians, Cossacks, Baschkirs, Tchereinis, Teptians, &c. | The governments, provinces, cities, and principal towns, being described in this work under their respective names, we shall not in this article enter into details regarding them.

### Census of the Russian Empire, taken in the year 1836.

| Category | Number | |------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------| | Russian priests | 52,331 | | Deacons and sacristans | 63,178 | | Male children of priests, deacons, and sacristans | 138,648| | **Total** | 254,057| | Priests of the united Greek and Roman Church | 7,823 | | Catholic priests | 2,497 | | Armenian priests | 474 | | Lutheran priests | 1,003 | | Reformed Church | 51 | | Mahommedan mollahs | 7,850 | | Lamas (Tartar) | 150 | | Nobles: | | | Hereditary | 284,731| | By virtue of service, &c., with their sons | 78,922 | | Petty officers who have left the army and are employed in the civil service, &c. | 187,047| | Foreigners of all classes | 22,114 | | Military colonies | 950,698| | Inhabitants of towns: | | | Merchants | 131,347| | Shopkeepers, artisans, &c. | 1,339,434| | Citizens in the eastern provinces | 7,535 | | Greeks of Nishnei, gunmakers of Toula, &c. | 10,882 | | Citizens of Bessarabia | 57,905 | | Inhabitants of villages: | | | Peasants (that is, slaves) the private property of the emperor and the imperial family, peasants annexed to the crown, &c. | 10,441,339| | Peasants the property of nobles | 11,403,722| | Wandering tribes: | | | Kalmuks, Circassians, and Mahommedans of the Caucasus | 245,715| | Territory beyond the Caucasus: | | | Georgia, Armenia, Mingrelia, &c. | 689,147| | Poland | 2,077,311| | Finland | 663,588| | Russian colonies in America | 30,761 | | **Total of population** | 28,806,223| | **Grand total of both sexes** | 59,133,566|

In this number, however, the private soldiers of the army and navy, with their wives and children, are not included, so that the sum total, in round numbers, may be estimated at sixty-one millions. In addition to this must be reckoned the inhabitants of the mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian, 1,445,000 souls. There are also wandering tribes of Circassians and others, whom it is impossible to number. In short, the population of Russia may be stated in round numbers as about sixty-three millions.

This vast population consists of a number of distinct nations, tribes, and tongues, which have been classed and calculated by different writers. The last and most complete classification is as under.

1. **Slavonians.**—These consist of six races, and comprehend the inhabitants of Russia, Poland, and Courland. They are estimated in round numbers at 44,000,000.

2. **Fins.**—These consist of twenty-two races, and comprehend the chief residents of Finland, Livonia, Lapland, and some other places. They are estimated at 2,950,000.

3. **Lithuanians or Lettish.**—There are three races of this people; their chief residences being the governments of Moghilev, Vitebsk, Wilna, Minsk, and Grodno. Their number is estimated at 2,000,000.

4. **Tartars or Tatars.**—There are no less than twenty-six or twenty-seven races of Tartars scattered over the empire. The Tartars proper are divided into fourteen branches; the Noggers into six; besides which there are the Kirghises, Aralians, Chewensens, Bukharians, Baschkirs, Telutes, and Jakutes, whose aggregate number amounts to 2,190,000.

5. **Caucasians.**—There are eleven races of Caucasians, comprehending amongst others the Ischerkessens, the Awhches, Lesghies, Ossetts, and Kistenses, estimated at 1,400,000.

6. **Germans.**—One only race, which is estimated at about 450,000.

7. **Jews.**—There are 550,000 of this indestructible people in the Russian empire.

8. **Mongols.**—Under this head are comprehended the Mongols proper, the Kalmuks, Buritens, and Kuriles, supposed to amount to 330,000.

9. **Mandshurs.**—These are divided into three branches or races, viz. Mandshurs proper, Tunguses, and Lamutes, whose number may be about 40,000.

10. **Samoyedes.**—There are twelve races of this polar people, comprehending 70,000 souls in all. 11. Kamchats.—This is another polar people, consisting of six races and 48,000 souls.

12. Esquimaux.—This northern race is estimated at 20,000.

13. Indians.—There are three races of Indians, estimated at 30,000 souls in all.

There are, besides, in the Russian empire, 25,000 Greeks, 10,000 gypsies, 15,000 Persians, and 6000 Arabians on the river Kama. There are likewise in the empire Hindus, Osman Turks, and in the cities and towns mercantile people belonging to England, France, Italy, and other countries.

It appears from the researches of De Jonnes in the Revue Encyclopédique for August 1833, that the mortality of Russia and Poland has remained stationary for a great number of years. The ratio of deaths to the population is one in forty-four, the annual mortality in each million of the inhabitants being 22,700. This differs somewhat from the statements of Herrmann, from whose elaborate researches concerning the progress of population in Russia the following conclusions have been drawn, viz. 1. The proportion of births to the number of inhabitants is one to twenty-five for the whole empire. 2. The proportion of deaths to the total population is one in forty. 3. The general proportion of births to deaths in the whole empire is sixteen to ten. 4. The proportion of male to female births is forty-four to forty. The following table is of a more recent date than the researches of Herrmann. It is formed from the reports published by the synod (which, however, includes only the members of the orthodox Greek church), and shows the rate of the progressive increase of the population, as far as relates to that most numerous body of the people.

| | 1806 | 1810 | 1816 | 1820 | |-------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Marriages | 299,057 | 320,389 | 329,683 | 317,805 | | Births | 1,361,286 | 1,374,926 | 1,437,606 | 1,570,399 | | Deaths | 818,585 | 903,380 | 820,383 | 917,680 | | Deaths of persons above a hundred years old | 293 | 350 | 689 | 807 |

The increase of population in Russia appears to be equal to that of any European country. It is indeed not a little remarkable, that in places where neither nature nor fortune have been lavish of their bounties, the inhabitants live one half longer than those who enjoy the sunny skies and lovely landscapes of Italy, and exactly twice as long as those who people the capital of Austria; yet very recent and elaborate investigations have proved this to be the fact. The instances of longevity in Russia are astonishing. In 1821 the deaths were reckoned at 945,088; and of these, 221 were above 105 years of age, 120 above 110 ditto, seventy-eight above 115 ditto, forty-nine above 120 ditto, sixteen above 125 ditto, five above 130 ditto; one obtained to the great age of between 145 and 150 ditto; and another had tenaciously adhered to life till he had reached the almost antediluvian term of existence, 155 years.

The government of Russia is that of an absolute hereditary monarchy, where the will of the sovereign is the supreme law of the empire. No restraint can be imposed on it; but the emperors themselves have endeavoured in some degree to qualify this unlimited power, which is likewise somewhat moderated by the rights and privileges enjoyed through long-established usage by many bodies of people in different provinces, and which claims it would be dangerous to the monarch to infringe. The emperors of the house of Holstein have more than once declared that they would wish to follow fixed laws in whatever appertains to the rights of individuals and corporations. Arbitrary enactments are partly abolished; indeed they are only enforced against the great, or courtiers less solicitous about liberty than personal aggrandisement. The highest department of government is the council of the empire, which was established in 1810, to render the laws and the administration less liable to change. In 1811 it was completely organized, and consisted of thirty-five members and four presidents. It is divided into four departments, viz. law or legislation, the supreme court of judicature in spiritual and civil affairs; war; civil and church affairs; and internal political economy, or administration of the public revenue. The emperor himself is president, and, in his absence, one of the members whom he formally appoints president every year takes his place. Each department has its president, and the whole together have a common secretary, who is principal director of chancery, and the organ through which the council of the empire makes known its decisions to the monarch. He is also the person who bears the commands of the sovereign to the directing council of the empire, or makes them known to individual departments; he expedites all the orders of the above council to the respective authorities who are to execute them; and he receives all petitions, and the like, directed to the emperor in person. Each department has its state secretary. The ministers are members of the council of the empire, but they are disqualified from being presidents of the departments. The introduction of the members to the departments takes place half yearly. The original outline, or sketch of every law, ordinance, or regulation, is laid before the council of the empire, who examine it; but the sovereign power alone can give it efficiency. There are three commissions in connection with the council of the empire; these are, commissions of law, petitions, and the chancery of the empire. Alexander gave new activity to the law commission, by which about 70,000 ukases relative to civil rights were rescued from oblivion, and arranged in proper order. The archives of the chancery of the empire contain a collection of accurate accounts of state affairs of former years; complete accounts of the present situation of the government, the protocols of the council of the empire, and the imperial decisions. Each commission has a director, and is divided into several sections, over which a head presides. Such is the constitution of the Russian council of the empire.

The directing senate is one over which the emperor also presides. It is the supreme tribunal in all affairs of a home or internal description, as distinguished from those of a foreign nature. As guardian of the law, the sovereign watches over the administration of justice, superintends the management of the income and expenditure of the state, as well as looks after the means of national instruction, the preservation of public security, and the abolition of every illegal proceeding. The minister of justice is at the same time general procurator; but the remaining members are undefined, partly consisting of the ministers, who have likewise seats in the council of the empire. The directing senate is divided into eight departments, five of which have their constant seat at St Petersburg, and three at Moscow. These two bodies being composed of individuals either directly or indirectly

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1 The annual mortality has diminished in some localities since Herrmann drew up his tables, which in some measure accounts for the discrepancy here observable. 2 It appears that the marriages in 1820 were fewer by 22,470 than in the year 1819. 3 The births of 1820 exceeded those of 1819 by 48,265. 4 The deaths of 1820 were fewer than those of 1819 by 1429. appointed by the emperor, and, besides, not having power to act independently, cannot be looked upon as much better than mere agents for promulgating his decrees.

The holy directing synod has for its object the management of ecclesiastical affairs. It watches over the interests of the established church, but its decrees are issued in the name of the emperor.

The ministries of state, whose members officiate in their several departments independently of each other, but sit in the council of the empire and the senate, and to the latter annually render an account of their stewardship, are distributed into three sections. The first section consists of the minister of foreign affairs, whose ministry comprises a vice-chancellor, vice-president of the imperial cabinet, director of the Asiatic department for the study of the oriental languages, and a superintendent of the archives of the empire; the minister of war, who takes cognizance of the departments of artillery, engineering, inspection, auditory, commissariat, provision, and medicine; the minister of marine; the minister of the interior, under whom are the departments of the administration of the public revenue, police, and medicine, the minister of spiritual matters, of public instruction; and, lastly, the minister of finance, who has supreme direction over the revenues, and yearly lays before the emperor a balance-sheet of the income and expenditure. He is also the highest authority in matters relative to the departments of trade, manufactures, the customs, mines, and the demesnes of the empire. The second section forms the treasury of the empire, into which all the revenues flow, and from which all payments are made according to the direct orders of the emperor. And to the third section belong the business of state accounts, the general direction of land and water communication, and the ministry of justice. There are likewise ministers of control, the post-office, and of the imperial household. There is, besides, a special minister of state, or secretary, for Poland, and a secretary of state for Finland.

To all the various ministers the necessary information is weekly sent from the different governments; the whole intelligence being annually laid before the monarch in a definite form. The governors and other authorities in the provinces hold their command through the ministers. Each government has a head director or civil governor, who usually has conjoined with him a military governor. Of course, there is under these the usual train of functionaries, who assist in administering justice, and protecting the peace of the country and the rights of the subject. How justice is administered it is difficult to say with certainty, for corruption prevails to a great extent. Alexander did much to put an end to it, and his successor has imitated his example with the most laudable zeal, but equivocal success. Conjunctly with the judges are appointed assessors, who must be of the same rank as the person tried, which is a plan somewhat similar to that of our jury. In the cities, two burgomasters and four councillors, and in the country, one justice and two plebeian proprietors, form tribunals of the first instance. From these, appeals may be made to higher courts established in the several provinces; and from them again to the supreme tribunals at St Petersburg and Moscow. A kind of court of conscience exists in most places, which hears verbal complaints, acts as arbiter in differences about smaller matters, and exercises power in behalf of minors and imbeciles. Great deviations from the general system exist in some of the less civilized provinces, that of the Cossacks, for instance, which has a sort of military administration. Statistics. Siberia is also under a different system, as we shall see when we come to describe that country.

The civil and criminal codes of Russia are very imperfect, notwithstanding the efforts which several successive sovereigns have made to introduce order and certainty. The institutions and pandects of the Russian law were published in 1819-1823, by order of the emperor, in twenty-two volumes. The Russian government has also made public a collection of all the ukases, rules, ordinances, &c., in vigour in Russia, which amounted in 1830 to forty-five volumes, systematically arranged, with copious indexes, and forming a single body of laws, divided into several codes. This measure, according to the imperial manifesto of the 31st of January 1833, guarantees the execution of the laws for the present, at the same time that it establishes a solid basis for their progressive improvement. This body of laws became the standard code of the empire in the beginning of the year 1835. Amongst the particular laws, the ukase of 1822, abolishing the practice of branding after the administration of the knout, deserves particular mention. With regard to the punishment of crime, capital punishment was nominally abolished by the licentious Empress Elizabeth; but in reality it was often inflicted. That horrible instrument the knout may be so administered as to produce death, which often happened. However, it is no longer allowed to extend so far as to take away life. Banishment to Siberia is the other extreme punishment to which the Russian is liable for such crimes as murder and robbery. The police of Russia is a political body, and all travellers complain of its regulations, as being formal and minute beyond anything known in other European countries. A very recent traveller thus speaks of it. "The Russian police, whose business it is to perform the various essential duties of the civil government, are not, I think, more numerous than in other kingdoms on the Continent, where the system of form and routine is kept up; while the officials with whom you are brought in contact, as far as my experience goes, although grossly venal, and taking bribes without the smallest attempt at concealment, are always disposed to treat a stranger with the utmost courtesy. But, in addition to these acknowledged servants of the state, there is a body of secret police, who are everywhere, and most certainly spy out all the ways of the stranger." Not only are passports necessary to any one who wishes to enter the country, but every person resident there, whether a native or a foreigner, must have one, which is regularly renewed at stated intervals at the police-office for the district in which the party resides. A fine is the consequence of neglect of this periodical renewal. Every servant applying for a place must produce a regular passport; and there are other annoying minutiae connected with this branch of the civil service. The police of Russia is strong in numbers, and distinguished for its searching system of espionage.

The revenues of the Russian government arise chiefly from a capitation tax of two roubles on each peasant, and five per cent. on each burgher; a tax on merchants' capital, of about five per cent.; the leases of the crown-lands, and obrok or rent of the crown-peasants, the customs, stamps, patents, various leases, &c.; the monopoly of spirituous liquors and salt; the mines; the purchase of exemption from military service; fines on smugglers and other delinquents; the crown-fisheries, mills, manufactories, baths, &c.; the profits of the coinage and the post-office; and the issue or tribute

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1 Mr Bresaner, whilst he does justice to Nicholas for his strenuous efforts to reform the bribing system, says, "In spite of all his efforts, however, bribery in public offices still prevails to a degree unheard of in other countries. Even in Austria, where they understand such things very well, they are mere tyros in the science, compared with the Russians. It grinds the poor and impoverishes the rich; it is practised in every branch of the administration, from the lowest clerk to the highest minister; it paralyses industry, enterprise, and merit, in every corner of the empire."

2 Hand-Book for Travellers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. London, 1839. Statistics in furs of the nomadic races. But in estimating the receipts and expenditure of government, allowance must be made for numerous and large sums never carried to the account of either income or expenditure, because they are either appropriated to local purposes, or are discharged in kind by various portions of the population. This is the case with the rent of the fisheries on the Ural, which either serves as pay for specific services, or is assigned in perpetuity to certain classes of the community, so that it makes no appearance amongst the public receipts. In some districts the capitation tax is commuted, either wholly or in part, for labour or military service. According to Schubert's reckoning, the income of the Russian empire for 1836 amounted to 354,268,000 paper roubles, or about £14,200,000 sterling. To the above may be added six millions of roubles as the produce of the gold and platinum mines. The national debt, which in many other countries swallows up so much of the revenue, here absorbs but a comparatively small part of it. On the 1st of January 1834, the debt of the Russian government amounted to 938,871,673 roubles, a sum which two years and a half of revenue would pay up. It has been materially reduced since the above date, and, it is believed, will in a few years be altogether extinguished. Every year a large sum is appropriated to this purpose. In the course of 1835, there were consigned to the commission for the extinction of the national debt no less than 66,529,080 roubles 96 kopecks.

For a long period the currency of the country was in a very equivocal state, from government having issued paper roubles or assignats at a gradually increasing depreciation. The assignats, or bank-notes, of Russia were established by an imperial ukase in 1768, and issued in the following year. Of course they were at first equivalent in value to silver roubles, or very nearly so, and were issued to the amount of 40,000, in notes of the value of a hundred, seventy-five, fifty, and twenty-five roubles a piece. In 1786 these assignats were exchanged for new ones, and their quantity increased to the sum of 60,000,000 roubles. Their number went on augmenting till the death of Catherine II., when the sum in circulation amounted to 157,000,000 roubles. A natural consequence of the increased issue was their proportional fall; so that, at the above-mentioned epoch, the value of a hundred roubles in assignats was equal to seventy in silver. During the reign of the Emperor Paul I. the quantity of assignats was increased by 55,000,000 more; and during the reign of Alexander the issues were carried to such an extent, that in 1817 their whole quantity amounted to 836,000,000, and their value fell in proportion to their over-issue. The Russian treasury then adopted measures for diminishing the number of its assignats; and from that year till 1822, assignats to the amount of 236,077,650 roubles were withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. In 1819 the old assignats were exchanged for new ones, issued in a much improved shape, and in notes of two hundred, one hundred, fifty, twenty-five, ten, and five. According to the report of the minister of finance on the 20th of August 1835, the whole amount of assignats in circulation was 595,776,310 roubles, and their relative value to the metallic money was as a hundred to twenty-seven. There is little gold to be seen; and the only silver coin is the rouble, and its aliquot parts of halves, quarters, tenths, and twentieths. There is an immense copper circulation of kopecks, one hundred of which equal a paper rouble. Indeed the only true metallic currency may be said to be copper. A coinage of platinum was made at the mint, but it is more rarely seen than even gold.

The amount of the Russian army in time of peace is nominally 612,332 men, of which the imperial guard contains 41,200. The most correct enumeration of the various corps of this enormous force appears to be that of Marshal Marmont. He says that "the imperial guard are six divisions, three of infantry and three of cavalry, making sixteen battalions in all. The grenadier corps has three divisions of infantry, made up of twelve regiments, and a division of light cavalry, made up of four regiments; also two batteries of horse artillery and fifteen of foot. The regiments of guards consist of three battalions of infantry and seven squadrons of cavalry. The six corps of the line are composed each of a division of light cavalry (made up of four regiments), and three divisions of infantry, each of four regiments; in all twelve regiments; besides two battalions of foot and two of horse artillery. The total six corps of the line are seventy-two regiments of infantry and twenty-four of cavalry, twelve batteries of horse and ninety of foot artillery. The corps of cavalry reserve has two divisions, each of four regiments, making a total of twenty-four regiments, and twelve batteries of artillery. The reserve of the line are three divisions, composed of twenty-four battalions. There is, in addition, the corps of the Caucasus, Siberia, and Finland; the troops of the interior, fifty battalions of horse militia, and one hundred and forty-six regiments of Cossacks." The expense of this vast force is very small; the articles for their equipment, provisioning, and arming, being of the cheapest and coarsest kind, and the pay of both officers and men being low. See the article Army.

The naval force of Russia, for a long time inferior both in point of numbers and character, is now placed upon a highly respectable footing. The present emperor, when he ascended the throne, resolving to render Russia a first-rate naval as well as military power, made great exertions to realize his wishes. The Baltic fleet, in 1838, consisted of the following vessels; one three-decker of a hundred and twenty guns, three three-deckers of a hundred and ten guns, seven ships of eighty-four guns, and nineteen ships of seventy-four guns; thus making in all thirty heavy line-of-battle ships. To these must be added one razee of fifty-six guns, three frigates of fifty-two guns, and eighteen frigates of forty-four guns, besides corvettes and small craft. The whole is manned by a force of 33,000 men. The fleet in the Black Sea consists of sixteen heavy ships of the line, besides a number of frigates, smaller vessels, gun-boats, &c. On the Caspian Sea there are also several ships of very considerable size, and more are in rapid progress at the building-yards recently established at favourable points. Russia possesses at least sixty steam-boats of one kind or another. This is a formidable armament, and it is admitted by unprejudiced individuals, that the navy of Russia was never in such high condition as it is at the present time. But it is quite preposterous to look upon it in the light of a rival to that of

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1 Whenever the word rouble is used in any work relative to Russia, as well as throughout this article, the paper rouble (104d.) is meant. The silver rouble is never made the basis of calculations of any kind, nor have the Russians any higher denomination corresponding to our pound sterling. Kopecks and roubles constitute the only practical elements of the currency throughout the whole empire, with the exception of Poland.

2 "The military conscription in Russia," says the British and Foreign Review, October 1838, "is the most horrible thing that can be imagined. The levy of recruits is ordered almost every year, and each community is compelled to furnish one, two, three, or more recruits from every hundred males, or, as they are officially called, seals. The choice of recruits is entirely left amongst peasants to their masters, and amongst the burghers to the elders of the community; and it may be easily imagined how many abuses such a mode of levying is liable. We shall not enter into the disgusting details by which the levy of recruits is accompanied in Russia; we shall only add, that the condition of a Russian soldier is considered so wretched and so hopeless, that there are many instances of individuals, who have not only mutilated, but even destroyed themselves, in order to escape military service." Great Britain. The expense of the navy, like that of the army, is comparatively small. "Indeed," says Mr Bremner, "it is one of the points which should never be forgotten in considering this question" [viz. the maintenance of such a large fleet], "that Russia can not only build ships cheaper than any other European power, but can also man them for less. The pay both of officers and men is so small, that the annual outlay on twenty Russian line-of-battle ships would not defray the expense of ten of ours." The Russian sailor is brave, well-trained, somewhat after a military fashion, and submissive; but he wants the activity and enthusiasm of the English seaman. To remedy a great defect under which the Russian navy has long laboured, a want of good native officers, colleges of naval cadets have been formed, where young Russians are carefully trained for the higher branches of the service.

Ten or fifteen years ago the agricultural operations of the Russians were conducted in a very clumsy manner. Rotation of crops was little understood or practised, and husbandry in general was carried on in a very ignorant and unprofitable manner. In the Ukraine, so famous for its fertility, the mode of farming is very simple. They take as many crops out of the ground as it will yield, and then let it lie fallow for a year or two. But this branch of productive industry has made considerable progress within these few years; partly through the exertions of government, and partly through those of the landed proprietors, who find it for their advantage to approximate to those improved methods of cultivating the soil which are practised in most other parts of Europe. Amongst other means employed by government for encouraging agriculture, it has ordered what are called model-gardens to be formed in a number of governments. Native manufactures have likewise been greatly extended and improved.

State of the Manufactures of Russia in 1831.

| Value of the Produce (estimated in roubles) | Increase since 1621 | |-------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Cotton manufacture | 104,170,481 | | Silk ditto | 16,131,373 | | Woollen ditto | 50,000,000 | | Flax and hemp | 22,615,940 | | Leather | 97,213,710 | | Paper | 6,468,968 | | Hats | 3,801,900 | | Dyes and colours | 8,000,000 | | Tobacco and snuff | 19,623,494 | | Refined sugar | 23,007,004 | | Soap | 6,591,690 | | Tallow candles | 8,095,584 | | Snuff-boxes, and different kinds of japanned goods | 2,000,000 | | Chemical preparations | 3,000,000 | | China and earthenware | 4,000,000 | | Glass and crystal | 9,000,000 | | Potash | 6,000,000 |

Metallic Produce.

| Gold | 25,905,680 | | Silver | 3 | | Copper | 9,620,736 | | Wrought iron and steel | 9 | | Cast iron | 38,828,000 | | Sundry minerals | 500,000 |

The whole amount of the above produce is 509,574,370 roubles. Russia, which formerly imported nothing but manufactured goods, now imports immense quantities of raw material for the use of her manufactures, as will be seen from our table of the imports; and the amount is yearly on the increase. In 1815 the total number of manufacturing establishments throughout the empire was estimated at 3250, at which 150,000 workmen were employed. In 1836 the number of manufacturing establishments in activity was 6045, which gave employment to 279,673 workmen. The financial agents of Russia residing at Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, as well as the consuls at the chief commercial towns of Europe, have instructions to contribute to the progress and improvement of national industry, by communicating to Russian manufacturers every information respecting new inventions made in foreign countries, forwarding to them patterns of new manufactures, models of machines, and the like, and by engaging expert workmen for them. Government holds out the greatest encouragement to persons engaging in new commercial enterprises. By a ukase dated 1827, such parties are relieved from certain taxes imposed upon them as members of one of the three city guilds, and in 1835 the land-tax and municipal imposts were also remitted in their favour. A further evidence of the advance which Russia has made in commercial enterprise is furnished by the fact, that the number of persons engaged in such pursuits is rapidly increasing, and that every year many acquire the means of passing from the inferior to the upper guilds. The following statement will make this clear.

| Year | Number of Persons Engaged | |------|--------------------------| | 1833 | More than 1834 | | Merchants of the first guild | 605 | | Ditto of the second | 1,547 | | Ditto of the third | 30,099 | | Peasants having permission to trade | 4,992 | | Clerks | 7,976 |

In 1836 thirty-five applications were made for patents for new inventions connected with manufactures, of which eleven were granted.

The distillation of brandy is the most extensive and lucrative branch of the productive industry of Russia. This article is produced to the amount of 270,000,000 roubles annually, for which government receives an excise duty of 90,000,000 roubles. The brandy monopoly of government is productive of great mischief, as by the universal system of bribery the cost to the consumer is greatly increased. The farmer-general bribes the governor of the province, whose duty it is to see that the article is not adulterated; the farmer-general, and his secretary who grants licenses, are bribed by the retailer, so that by the time the spirit has reached the tables of the peasantry, amongst whom the use of it is universal, one gallon has multiplied itself to three or even four. A kind of beer called braga is likewise made to a great extent, and largely consumed.

The mines, particularly those on the Ural Mountains, were worked at a very ancient period; but it is only in modern times that the Russians have applied themselves to that branch of industry. Gold, platina, silver, and copper, are most abundant in the Asiatic governments, or along the last declivities of what is called the great central ridge. The quantities of gold and platina produced will be seen from a table at the end of the exports and imports.

The silver mines yield annually about 43,200 lbs., besides 1,440,000 lbs. of lead. The aggregate produce of cop per from the government and private mines is 7,596,000 lbs. English. By a document published in the Russian Mining Journal for 1830, we find that there were in the Ural districts alone fifty-eight smelting works (seven belonging to the crown and fifty-one to individuals), which in 1827 produced 9,731,147 poods of cast iron. The forges, which

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1 The above official returns are taken from a work of M. Prelezyinski, on the State of the Manufacturing Powers of Russia, published in Russian at St Petersburg in 1833. amounted to 105 (only eight of them being crown property), sent into the markets in the same year 5,578,474 poods of wrought iron. We learn, from the same source, that the steel manufactured in all the empire in 1829 amounted only to 80,000 poods.

Another branch of industry to which the attention of the Russian government has been for some time directed, has originated in the discovery of precious stones in the Ural Mountains. Stones of great value have from time to time been detected in that range, and scientific individuals have been employed to make researches for the purpose of obtaining extensive and accurate knowledge of these hidden treasures. Diamonds have likewise been found in the auriferous sands of the Ural. But to what amount annually any of these precious stones may be collected is still uncertain.

The mines of Finland, particularly those of iron, are also an important branch of productive industry. Some of the hills of that country contain veins of an ore fit for the manufacture of wrought iron, while layers of a fusible ore are found buried at a small depth, in marshes and along the borders of lakes. For a long time the mines of the first description were neglected; but there are thirteen now at work. The richest ore, produced from the mines of the Gamholm and Ofiana, contains from fifty-three to fifty-four per cent. of metal; the poorest yields about thirty per cent. of cast iron. The smelting of these ores is performed in eight different furnaces, which consume more ore than Finland can at present furnish; and the deficit is supplied by Sweden. Almost the whole of the cast iron produced by them is distributed among the forges established in different parts of the country. There are sixteen of these forges, which manufacture annually about 121,350 poods of wrought iron. Those immense beds of iron ore which extend throughout the country, along the shores of lakes, and at the bottom of marshes, have been wrought from time immemorial.

The number of forges and smelting-houses for working up this product is considerable; and as experience has proved that the marsh ore is preferable to any other, several other establishments of forges have recently been erected, and more are in the course of being added to the number. Next to iron, copper is the most important mineral which Finland produces. Until very lately, however, only one mine was wrought, that of Ovi-Yervi, discovered in 1758. But a patent was a short time ago obtained for the working of copper and tin mines found near Nikkaranda. Iron of the best quality is likewise found in the district of Toula, the seat of the iron manufactures. Russia possesses another treasure in the numerous salt-lakes and marshes in the Siberian steppes, and in the country to the north of the Caspian Sea. The quantity of this article obtained throughout the empire amounts to 22,000,000 poods annually. Alum is also produced to the yearly extent of 16,000 poods.

"A prodigious quantity of fish," says M. Schnitzler, "is supplied by the rivers and lakes, constituting almost the sole food of the population of extensive districts, and during the long Lent replacing the use of meat. The fisheries of the Volga and the Oka are particularly productive. Without speaking of the carp, the pike, the trout, the herring, especially that species of herring termed reponchki, and of the pilchard, I shall cite the sturgeon, beluga, and salmon fisheries, and the pickled lampreys and mackerel of the Crimea. The sterlet of the Volga is a variety of the sturgeon. Caviare, the consumption of which is so great in Russia, is made from the eggs of this fish, and from those of the beluga. A single sterlet will give from ten to thirty pounds weight; and from a single beluga there may at times, it is said, be taken as much as 120 pounds. The best caviare comes from the Cossacks of the Ural. The sturgeon fishery is usually of considerable value; 1,850,500 fish of this species, caught in the year 1793 in the Volga, near Astracan, yielded 124,970 poods of caviare, 3575 poods of herring. The coasts, which are visited by the cachalot, the whale, and other cetaceous fish, and on which are collected a quantity of pearl-oysters and mussels, likewise furnish cod and herrings. The largest fishery of the latter is in the Sea of Kamtschatka. The net annual value of the Russian fisheries amounts to more than 10,000,000 roubles." The chase in the Russo-North American colonies, and elsewhere, has long been a profitable branch of national enterprise. Great quantities of furs and skins, of the otter, beaver, and fox, are annually brought to market by the traders.

The internal traffic carried on in Russia is very considerable, and yearly upon the increase. The exchange of commerce, agricultural produce, as well as of manufactures, is immense. Nineteen fairs have been established for the benefit of trade in several principal towns of the empire, and thirteen in lesser ones. A great number of bazaars have likewise been erected for the accommodation of traders. The great centre of the inland commerce of Russia is Niznei-Novgorod, the annual fair at which place is entitled, both from the amount and variety of its articles, to be considered as the first in Europe, perhaps in the world. The trade consists chiefly of three branches; namely, that of goods brought from Asia, Russian manufactures, and merchandise from Europe and America. The Asiatic trade consists principally of tea from China, of which article immense quantities are annually brought to this great emporium. Russian manufactures form the most important branch of the trade of Niznei-Novgorod, and consist chiefly of cotton, silk, and woollen goods brought from the central provinces of the empire. The merchants of Kiakhta carry back large quantities of cotton and skins; those of Bukharia and of Khiva purchase nankeens, calicoes, cambrics, cloth, and sugar; the Armenians and the Persians buy cotton and woollen stuffs. Russian and Polish cloths are sent to this market in considerable quantities, part of which are sold to the Transcaucasian provinces, and some are even exported to China.

The produce of the Russian mines and founderies forms also a considerable item of trade, consisting of iron, copper, and steel articles from Toula; and which are bought for the use of the inhabitants of the interior. Sugar is sent from St Petersburg and Archangel. Much country produce is sold for the purpose of exportation; such as wax, wool, cotton, camel-hair, hemp, feathers, and Russian leather. The superb furs of Siberia and the coast of the White Sea form also most important objects of commerce. There is likewise a smaller trade in earthenware, glass, and soap. The third branch of the commerce of Niznei-Novgorod is the produce of Western Europe and its colonies; but the amount of goods imported from these countries is scarcely one tenth of the merchandise sold at the fair. It consists of indigo, cochineal, and madder, used for the purpose of dyeing manufactures. Foreign wines form also an important article of trade. Coffee and rum are imported from the West Indies; coral is also imported and sold, chiefly to Kiakhta merchants for the Chinese markets. Foreign manufactures, consisting of silks, cotton, and woollen stuffs, are likewise sold in very considerable quantities. The value of the goods which change hands at this fair, according to Klapproth, amounts to ninety-four millions of roubles annually. Dr Lyall and Captain Cochrane raise it to double this sum; but the statement of Lord Londonderry is more to be relied upon. He says that the value of goods actually sold amounted in 1831 to 98,329,525, in 1833 to 117,210,676, and in 1835 to 117,743,800 roubles. A great deal more merchandise than is sold is always brought to market. It is supposed that this fair is visited by about 150,000 strangers. The confluence of traders from such remote countries as those mentioned is one of the most striking and picturesque spectacles that can be witnessed. The fair lasts during the months of August and September. By the official account of the minister of the interior, the value of merchandise sold The internal commerce of Russia is greatly facilitated by the vast system of inland navigation, which forms so striking a feature of that country. All the great rivers, lakes, and seas have been connected with one another by means of canals, so that a water-communication exists between the most remote parts of the empire. The Black Sea and the Baltic communicate by means of three canals; the Baltic and the Caspian Seas are united by means of the Volga and artificial cuts; and the same great river is connected with the White Sea and other lakes. Important undertakings are in progress to perfect the junction of such rivers as the Markta and the Volga, the Oka and the Don, the Priepetz, the Niemen, the Bug, and others. In 1817 the Emperor Alexander created an office of "director-general of the ways of communication," including canals, roads, and bridges. From that period the works of this description have been vigorously prosecuted. The roads of Russia are in general bad, but a number of new high roads are in progress. That from St Petersburg to Moscow, which has long been in existence, is a remarkable work. It is an elevated causeway of timber, running in one long, level, unvarying, straight line, over marsh and bog, through forest and thicket. Many other important public works have been undertaken, of which number is the construction of quays along the Oka, and from the Volga to Niznei-Novgorod, and the works upon the river Seyn. Steam-boats have been established upon some of the principal rivers, for towing barges as well as for conveying passengers and goods. (See NAVIGATION, INLAND.)

The foreign commerce of Russia is very considerable, as the following tables will show:

### Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise imported into Russia from Countries in Europe, and from America, in the year 1835.

| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|---------| | Coffee | cwts. | 31,302 | L.123,642 | | Spices | value | | 42,701 | | Wines and liqueurs | casks | 52,094 | 470,313 | | Ditto ditto | bottles | 118,406 | | | Champagne | bottles | 472,365 | 142,331 | | Fish | value | | 180,136 | | Salt | cwts. | 1,105,955| 212,216 | | Tobacco | cwts. | 29,709 | 222,144 | | Fruits | value | | 283,468 | | Cotton, raw | cwts. | 66,853 | 306,481 | | Ditto, twist | cwts. | 168,562 | 1,516,709| | Ditto, ditto, dyed | cwts. | 2,722 | 63,787 | | Indigo | cwts. | 8,816 | 287,637 | | Cochineal | cwts. | 1,135 | 48,599 | | Madder | cwts. | 38,619 | 130,311 | | Logwood | cwts. | 139,655 | 106,354 | | Dyewoods, various | value | | 71,827 | | Drugs | value | | 75,647 | | Olive oil | cwts. | 76,797 | 225,388 | | Hardware | value | | 99,006 | | Lead | cwts. | 54,890 | 53,812 | | Sugar, raw | cwts. | 441,844 | 1,179,889| | Silk | cwts. | 2,629 | 312,690 | | Manufactures, cotton | value | | 233,823 | | Ditto, silk | value | | 393,066 | | Ditto, worsted | value | | 203,453 | | Cloth | cwts. | 1,159 | 85,099 | | Precious stones | value | | 103,115 | | Miscellaneous | value | | 1,388,817| | Total value | | | 8,563,461|

### Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise exported from Russia to Countries in Europe, and to America, in the year 1835.

| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|---------| | Wheat | qrs. | 550,181 | L.581,100| | Rye | qrs. | 31,029 | 23,944 | | Barley | qrs. | 14,651 | 8,793 | | Oats | qrs. | 19,483 | 7,764 | | Wax | cwts. | 7,770 | 46,508 | | Hides (Muscovy leather) | cwts. | 15,351 | 83,115 | | Ditto, tanned | value | | 29,328 | | Ditto, raw | cwts. | 117,752 | 267,315 | | Flax | cwts. | 475,133 | 825,843 | | Hemp | cwts. | 977,726 | 822,706 | | Timber | value | | 400,354 | | Potash | cwts. | 135,795 | 135,338 | | Oil (hemp and linseed) | cwts. | 38,515 | 63,365 | | Copper | cwts. | 62,985 | 278,889 | | Iron | cwts. | 416,093 | 246,080 | | Tallow | cwts. | 1,075,178| 1,639,192| | Linseed | qrs. | 463,474 | 815,999 | | Wool | cwts. | 109,175 | 406,818 | | Brisles | cwts. | 17,706 | 203,411 | | Cordage | cwts. | 74,022 | 76,083 | | Sailcloth | pieces | 81,323 | 157,317 | | Ravensduck | pieces | 90,454 | 87,933 | | Piems | pieces | 68,210 | 93,544 | | Cattle | value | | 136,815 | | Furs | value | | 75,528 | | Hare-skins | cwts. | 3,171 | 21,475 | | Miscellaneous | value | | 1,083,321| | Total value | | | 8,550,459| ### Description of Merchandise Imported into Russia

| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------|------------|-------| | Sugar and candy | 5,039 | 15,951| | Tea | 7,173,306 | 302,366| | Fruits | | 12,743| | Cotton, raw | 559,768 | 12,508| | Ditto, yarn | 1,269,468 | 67,044| | Silk, raw | 177,372 | 48,836| | Leather | 92,638 | 6,934 | | Cotton manufactures | | 253,306| | Silk ditto | | 38,291| | Woollen ditto | | 12,657| | Cattle | | 137,746| | Furs | | 58,341| | Miscellaneous | | 61,937| | **Total value** | | 1,028,190|

### Description of Merchandise Exported from Russia

| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------|------------|-------| | Grain | | 31,892| | Iron | 126,616 | 54,345| | Copper | 1,688 | 6,396 | | Russia leather | 7,092 | 55,699| | Hides, tanned | | 33,943| | Ditto, raw | 379 | 3,033 | | Ditto, ditto | 19,058 | | | Colours | | 17,656| | Manufactures, cotton | | 194,968| | Ditto, ditto, in transit | | 10,714| | Ditto, linen | | 13,335| | Ditto, silk | | 6,524 | | Cloth, Russian | 670,740 | 96,600| | Ditto, ditto | 1,421 | | | Ditto, foreign | 22 | | | Ditto, ditto | 3,238 | 827 | | Ditto, Polish | 160,456 | 20,428| | Hardware | | 22,908| | Horses | 5,658 | 3,898 | | Furs | | 105,542| | Ditto in transit | | 4,118 | | Coral | | 1,398 | | Ditto in transit | | 3,083 | | Miscellaneous | | 120,225| | Ditto in transit | | 5,947 | | **Total value** | | 769,481| | **Total value in transit** | | 44,304| | **Grand total** | | 813,785|

### Value of Imports and Exports

| Countries | Value of Imports | Value of Exports | |----------------------------|------------------|------------------| | Sweden and Norway | 183,602 | 154,630 | | Prussia | 411,952 | 492,328 | | Denmark | 66,260 | 238,651 | | The Sound | | 78,679 | | Hanse Towns | 1,153,633 | 268,518 | | Holland | 315,057 | 449,202 | | Great Britain | 3,122,025 | 3,950,335 | | France | 631,660 | 362,289 | | Spain and Portugal | 201,796 | 142,126 | | Italy | 205,167 | 150,440 | | Austria | 507,061 | 479,174 | | Turkey | 594,314 | 1,004,814 | | America | 1,159,623 | 570,078 | | Other countries | 11,281 | 209,195 | | Turkey, Asiatic | 44,714 | 37,423 | | Persia | 293,169 | 100,595 | | Khiva | 30,590 | 17,719 | | Kirghise | 175,250 | 182,072 | | Bukharia | 105,675 | 47,309 | | Tashkent | 41,154 | | | Kokhaut | 15,800 | 36,222 | | China | 320,373 | 324,946 | | Other countries | 1,092 | 67,314 | | **Total** | 9,551,478 | 9,364,059 |

### Value of Gold and Silver

| Years | Value of Gold and Silver | |-------|--------------------------| | | Imported | Exported | | 1824 | 274,510 | 209,669 | | 1825 | 506,995 | 70,865 | | 1826 | 213,432 | 159,598 | | 1827 | 600,962 | 157,985 | | 1828 | 659,244 | 113,916 | | 1829 | 1,606,496| 127,327 | | 1830 | 2,122,600| 151,044 | | 1831 | 1,955,819| 198,891 | | 1832 | 1,887,081| 189,004 | | 1833 | 2,278,512| 359,753 | | 1834 | 873,953 | 378,279 | | **Total** | 12,989,889 | 2,116,339 |

Difference: L10,873,550

Gold extracted from the Ural mines, and coined, in the above years; quantity, lbs. 117,564; value 7,143,499

Platina extracted from the Ural mines, and coined, in the above years; quantity, lbs. 28,125; value 383,737

Total apparent increase of circulation L18,410,786

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1. The trade with China being one exclusively of barter, the exports ought to balance the imports, which is not the case here. The difference, however, is not very material; and we preserve the table as given in the Parliamentary Papers. The foregoing tables have been obtained from parliamentary papers. In the last one, no mention is made of the silver and copper mines of the Urals, which, however, are less important than those of gold and platinum. The quantities which they produce have already been stated. In 1832, the latest year for which we have complete returns, the number of vessels which arrived in the different ports of Russia was as follows:

| Ports on the Baltic Sea | 3601 | |-------------------------|------| | Ditto on the White Sea | 472 | | Ditto on the Black Sea | 1446 | | Ditto on the Caspian Sea | 201 |

Total: 5720

It may be mentioned, that there is little difference between the commercial returns of 1834 and those of 1835. Still, taking a series of years, Russia will be found to be steadily and widely extending her commercial relations.

The receipts of the custom-house in 1835 amounted to 46,763,444 roubles, and in 1836 to 48,968,790 roubles, or L2,142,384, which is an increase of 2,205,346 roubles in one year. By far the most important of the commercial relations of Russia are those which she has with Great Britain. The interests of the two greatest empires in the world are thus pretty closely united; and there appears to us to be little cause for dreading aggressive hostility on the part of a power which draws half its custom-house revenue from British imports, and sends to Britain one half of all the raw produce which it can raise for exportation. After all, the commerce of Russia is not one third of that of France, and not one seventh of that of Great Britain.

The nobles in Russia, though distinguished by the several titles of prince, count, or baron, are all upon an equal footing, and enjoy equal privileges. Their persons and lands are freed from taxation; they are exempted from the recruiting ballot; and they are not subject to bodily penalties. These exemptions are, however, more apparent than real; for though their lands and persons are not taxable, yet a capitation tax, at the will of the government, may be imposed on their slaves, who form the most valuable part of their possessions. Though not in person compelled to serve in the army, yet they are bound to furnish from their slaves a number of recruits, in proportion to the demands of the service. In some of the more recently-acquired provinces, such as Livonia, Esthonia, and in Poland, the nobles have, or rather exercise, other privileges, extending even to the power of life and death, over their vassals; but these powers arise from custom and general acquiescence much more than from the existing law. The classes of the nobility are very numerous, being fourteen in all; but, singularly enough, some of them have no members. Thus, of the eleventh and thirteenth none are alive. Although titles are hereditary, there is no rank except what the emperor confers. Most of the public employments are filled by the nobles; but no one whatever is eligible to such appointments unless he belongs to one of the fourteen classes of rank into which the civil and military services, and the clergy, are correspondingly arranged. A fixed term of service, and a prescribed form of examination, are undergone previously to acquiring rank. The right of conferring nobility rests with the emperor, and, as with us, it is hereditary.

The clergy are exempt from taxation, and from corporal punishment; which privileges are extended to each eldest son, who must, however, though his father is excused, take the risk of being called upon for military service.

The citizens form the second grand division of the Russian nation. Every inhabitant of a town, who is neither noble, nor the property of another, is a citizen. The notables constitute the highest class amongst them, and possess privileges similar to those of the nobles. Next to these come the merchants of the three guilds. The first or highest guild corresponds with the eighth class of rank, and enjoys most of the immunities of the notables. In fact, whoever has belonged ten years to the first guild, or twenty to the second, without incurring any visitation of the law, becomes a notable. For an account of the merchants of these guilds, see the article Petersburg.

The next class is that of the peasants, or free inhabitants Peasants of the country. In this rank are included, first, the ancient race of proprietors, who cultivate their own lands, but do not enjoy the right of possessing slaves; second, the Tartars, the Baschkirs, and several other races, less numerous, to the south of Siberia, who are all proprietors of the lands they cultivate; and, third, the peasants of Finland. Since the acquisition of New Finland, the privileges enjoyed by the peasants of that country under the Swedish government have been continued and confirmed to them, and the same rights granted to those of Old Finland, where all are now either proprietors or renters. There is a considerable number of rent peasants, who, by paying an annual sum to their proprietors, purchase the right of carrying on trade or business on their own account. Some of these have been known to amass considerable property; but they still remain slaves. In the fourth are included the colonists, consisting of foreign families of agriculturists, who are proprietors of the lands they cultivate, and whose number is about 65,000. The fifth embraces the military colonists. These are soldiers, who, after having served a prescribed period, have had land given to them, and a capital sufficient to cultivate it, in the southern provinces. And, lastly, the free cultivators, who enjoy immunity from taxes, on condition of keeping post-horses for the public service, which they furnish at a charge regulated by government.

The class next below these is that of the serfs. They Serfs are chiefly peasants on the crown-lands, or of the province of Livonia. The first of these, the crown-peasants, amount to about 12,000,000, some of whom labour in the fields, and the others in the mines and manufactories. The lot of this class seems to be placed on the confines between liberty and slavery. They may rise to the rank of citizens, they may acquire property, they may enjoy the protection of the laws, and, under some restrictions, may quit their residences to obtain employment for a limited time; but they are liable to be hired to the service of the mines, or to be sold. The peasants of Livonia, amounting to about 560,000, were slaves until the year 1804, when they first obtained the rights of serfs. They are now subject to some peculiar claims; but those claims are fixed, and they cannot be removed from the soil without their own consent.

The last and most numerous class is that of the slaves. Slaves These amounted in 1782 to 6,678,000 males, and at present are estimated to include 23,000,000 persons. They are in law considered as things, not as persons; they are attached to the soil, and incapable of possessing any property in land; they may be bought, sold, or exchanged, with little more restrictions than are enacted in dealing for cattle; and they have no other protection against their masters than what is created by a regard to their pecuniary interest. They belong to the nobles, or to such civil or military officers as have acquired the right of possessing them. They are divided into agricultural, mining, manufacturing, or domestic slaves, and have their condition only improved when drawn for military service.

"A Russian proprietor," says a recent traveller, "reckons the value of his property, not by the annual income of his estate, but by the number of souls, that is, of male peasants upon it. An estate is said to be worth so many souls instead of so many roubles per annum. The footing on which the agricultural serf practically stands towards his master, is in most respects that of a small tenant; the principal difference being, that he cannot change his employment or..." Statistics move from home without his master's leave, which is sometimes obtained for a certain annual sum, called obrok, in lieu of service. As a general rule, he has a house and a portion of land, for which he pays rent in labour instead of money. He works three days in the week for his master, and has the remainder of his time at his own disposal. A day's labour of a man includes that of his wife and his horse when requisite. These peasants, who are for the most part in a state of the grossest ignorance, are perfect predestinarians, or fatalists; and this doctrine serves as an excuse on all occasions for their habitual improvidence and want of forethought. Yet, though ignorant, superstitious, and a slave, the serf seems in general happy and contented, and bears about him no signs of oppression; his desires are few and easily satisfied; though his fare is coarse and poor, he seldom suffers from cold or hunger, and he is naturally gay, good-humoured, and light-hearted." The situation of domestic servants is much worse than that of the peasant, whose great dread is the conscription, and a serious evil it is when it visits him. The peasant cannot legally be sold or transferred from one master to another, excepting with the whole of his family; but this law is often broken or evaded. "There are few landed proprietors who do not carry on a manufactory of some kind or other. The riches of the Russian gentleman lie in the labour of his serfs, which it is his study to turn to good account; and he is the more urged to this, since the law which compels the peasant to work for him, requires him to maintain the peasant; if the latter is found begging, the former is liable to a fine. He is therefore a master who must always keep a certain number of workmen, whether they are useful to him or not; and as every kind of agricultural and out-doors employment is at a stand during the winter, he naturally turns to the establishment of a manufactory as a means of employing his peasants, and as a source of profit to himself. In some cases the manufactory is at work only during the winter, and the people are employed in the summer in agriculture. The alternate employment of the same man in the field and in the factory, which would be attempted in most countries with little success, is here rendered practicable and easy by the versatile genius of the Russian peasant, one of whose leading national characteristics is a general capability of turning his hand to any kind of work which he may be required to undertake." Not only are the Russian nobles manufacturers, but they carry on the business in every branch; and from the privileges which they enjoy, they have great advantages over the other classes who are not allowed to possess serfs. In almost every house some art is carried on, useful or ornamental; and women are employed in spinning, weaving, knitting, carpet-making, and the like. Mr Bremner informs us that seven shillings and sixpence a week is the general pay of a labourer in the field, and that the best hands in the manufactories can only earn nine shillings and sixpence a week. Hence no people in Europe are so plainly or coarsely fed as the Russians. Their daily fare consists of pickled cucumbers, cabbages, and mushrooms, with a piece of black bread. Fish and butcher-meat are great rarities amongst the poor; they live upon the wretched articles which we have specified.

The established religion of Russia is that of the Greek Church, to which the great bulk of the population belongs, although all others are tolerated, no civil or political disabilities attaching to those who profess other creeds. In regard to the doctrines of this church, it may be briefly stated, that they differ in several essential particulars from those of the Roman Catholics, although there is a general accordance. The first of these particulars is, that it holds the necessity of complete submersion of the whole body at baptism; the second, that whilst it admits the doctrine of transubstantiation in regard to the eucharist, it affirms that the bread must be leavened and the wine mixed with water, and they allow both elements to be distributed to every communicant, even to children before they have any correct idea of sin; and a third important distinction relates to the marriage of the clergy, all secular or parish priests being bound to marry. The Greek Church further differs from the Roman Catholic by rejecting purgatory, predestination, works of supererogation, indulgences, and dispensations. Catechising and preaching are scarcely practised; and mass forms the chief part of the public worship. No instrumental music is allowed, but vocal music is much cultivated. Fast days are numerous, and they are kept with great strictness. In addition to the Wednesday and Friday of every week, there are four principal fasts in the year, and several festivals which are celebrated with eastern pomp and splendour. This church rejects all round or solid images of the Saviour, or of saints, as idolatrous; but pictures, mosaics, bas-reliefs, in short, whatever is represented on a flat surface, they do not consider as violations of the law which says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." The state of religion amongst the lower orders is in general deplorable. The most important parts of public worship are, first, to pronounce distinctly and fluently the two words Gospodin ponimit, which mean, "God be merciful;" secondly, to make the sign of the cross on the breast a countless number of times; and, thirdly, to bow the head to the ground repeatedly. The common people have a firm belief in good and bad angels. Evil spirits are the tempters and betrayers of men, and they believe that the sign of the cross, which they are very fond of making, will not only drive them away, but avert every kind of misfortune. There are comparatively few sectarians in Russia. The following is as near an approximation as can be arrived at, of the religious diversities of the Russian empire.

Members of the Russo-Greek Church...........................................45,000,000 Dissenters from the church, called Razhodniki, or Heretics..................................................850,000 Roman Catholics, including the united Greeks and the united Armenians................................................3,500,000 Armenians not united........................................................................250,000 Members of the Confession of Augsburg (Protestants).........................................................2,000,000 Members of the Reformed Church..............................................................54,000 Moravians 10,000, and Mennonites 6000.......................................................16,000 Mohammedans.....................................................................................2,500,000 Jews........................................................................................................600,000 Worshippers of the Grand Lama.................................................................800,000 Indians, devotees of Fetishism....................................................................600,000 Idolaters....................................................................................................170,000

The whole spirituality of the Greek Church is divided into priests belonging to some religious order, and secular church-priests. For the management of church affairs there are at present thirty-six eparchies of three different classes, only four being of the highest class, those of St Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, and Kief. There are nine metropolitans, thirteen archbishops, and twenty-nine bishops. All aspiring to these dignities must be members of some monastery, and unmarried. By a statement published a short time since, the number of monasteries throughout the empire would appear to be 350, with 5330 monks. There are ninety-eight nunneries, containing 4162 nuns; all of them belong to the strict order of St Basil. There are 483 cathedrals, and 29,200 parish churches (of which 838 are situated in Bessarabia), with 218,418 ecclesiastics of the orthodox Greek ritual, and 7311 ecclesiastics of the united Greek ritual. The Russian clergy may be divided into three classes; those who are in full orders, including "protopaps," or inferior priests, and "papi," or common priests; those who are only in what may be called half orders, such as deacons and readers, who are not allowed to administer the sacrament; and those who have received no ordination. The Mahometans have 4785 mosques in Russia, of Statistics which 2466 are head mosques. They have colleges, mullahs, and muftis, who regulate the religious affairs of the Mahometans.

The worshippers of the Grand Lama have their principal religious establishment at Darshan, in the province of Udiinsk. They have a numerous priesthood, who are said to be very successful in making converts amongst the wandering tribes.

The principal institution for the dissemination of the Bible so-Holy Scriptures amongst the various tribes of the empire, cities, in their native languages, is established at St Petersburg, and is in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society of London. It consists of fifty-eight sections and 289 auxiliary societies, situated in Moscow, Jaroslav, Dorpat, Mittau, Revel, Riga, Orenburg, Tobolsk, Irkutsk, and other places. From the period of its institution in 1813 until June 1823, it had issued 184,851 complete Bibles, 315,928 New Testaments, and 204,052 Old Testaments, in forty-one different languages and dialects. Its further usefulness was greatly promoted by an arrangement made in 1826, by which the sale of Bibles was for the future permitted. There is always a large supply of Bibles at Moscow, where those condemned to exile in Siberia may have a copy, if they desire one, as they pass through this city on their way to their place of banishment. It is well known that all the exiles, in whatever part of the country they may have received sentence, must take Moscow in their route to Siberia.

As early as the eleventh century, public schools were founded at several places in Russia; but Peter the Great, to whom Russia is indebted for her civilization and present standing, was the first to plan a regular system of public education. Elementary schools were established throughout the country; a naval and engineering school at St Petersburg; mathematical and navigation schools at Moscow and other places; ecclesiastical schools in the bishoprics; and Latin and Greek schools were also founded in different towns of the empire. Shortly after the demise of Peter, the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences was opened; but the military schools were those which throve best under the Empresses Anne and Elizabeth. This last sovereign, however, founded in 1755 an university at Moscow, and two years afterwards an academy of the fine arts at St Petersburg. Inferior public schools were not regularly organized until the year 1786, under the reign of the Empress Catherine II. Boarding schools were established by her authority in all the different governments of the empire. But a more important measure was the institution of a central authority, intrusted with the care of disseminating education. This organization underwent a complete reform under the Emperor Alexander, who substituted, for the special commission of the former reign, a minister of public instruction with more extensive powers. This sovereign re-organized the university of Wilna, and founded those of Dorpat, St Petersburg, Kazan, and Kharkov. He also established a gymnasium in the capital of every government, and district schools in every district. But on the accession of Nicholas the system underwent a total change. A few immaterial forms were preserved, but the spirit had departed. His object was to render the system of instruction religious, monarchical, and national; but as the two first terms are evidently auxiliaries of the last, we must fuse the whole into two words, strictly national, a term of profound import, as we shall presently see. Until the year 1835, all the civil schools of the empire throughout the se-

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1 Brunner's Excursions in the Interior of Russia, vol. ii. p. 133. 2 Précis du Système, des Progrès, et de l'Etat de l'Instruction Publique en Russie, rédigé d'après des documents officiels. Par Alexandre de Krusenstern, Chambellan de S. M. l'Empereur de Russie. Warsaw, 1837, in 8vo. veral circuits were dependent, in relation to superintendence and administration, upon the universities situated in each of these circuits. By the ukase of the 23rd of June 1835, they are placed under the ministry of public instruction, represented in the different circuits by sub-delegates called curators, by which education is placed under the direct and immediate control of government. The different branches of the administration also take special cognizance of the schools analogous to them. Thus, the military schools are presided over by the war-office, the ecclesiastical schools by the holy synod, and so on of the others. The whole system is divided into four distinct parts: I. The ministry of public instruction; II. Military schools; III. Ecclesiastical schools; and, IV. Special and other schools.

I. Ministry of Public Instruction. This department comprehends, 1. Education in public schools; 2. Education in private institutions; 3. Domestic education; 4. Establishments destined for forming professors and masters; 5. The Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy, the other learned societies, the censorship, public libraries, museums, and collections of every description. The public schools are thus discriminated into, 1. Parish schools, intended for the lower orders, and allowed to teach only the catechism, reading, writing, and the first four rules of arithmetic; 2. District schools, having three classes intended for the children of shopkeepers, and restricted in their course of instruction to the catechism, caligraphy, drawing, the first rudiments of grammar, arithmetic, geometry, geography, and history; 3. Gymnasiums distributed by government, divided into seven classes, authorized to embrace more elevated studies, but only accessible to the children of the nobility; 4. Universities of three faculties, those of philosophy, of jurisprudence, and of medicine (the university of Dorpat has a fourth, the faculty of theology), and of which the courses last five years. The following is a table of the state of the schools in 1835 throughout the ten circuits of the Russian empire, exclusive of Poland, which has a separate administration. It may be mentioned, that another university has recently been established at Vladimir, in Volhynia; so that, including the university of Warsaw, there will be nine institutions of this description throughout the Russian empire.

| Number of | |-----------| | Universities | Gymnasiums | Infant Schools | Pupils | | 1. Circuit of St Petersburg | 1 | 8 | 571 | 11,911 | | 2. Moscow | 1 | 10 | 914 | 16,259 | | 3. Kharkov | 1 | 7 | 269 | 11,446 | | 4. Kazan | 1 | 10 | 187 | 8,459 | | 5. Dorpat | 1 | 4 | 245 | 8,326 | | 6. White Russia | 1 | 13 | 239 | 11,530 | | 7. Kief | 1 | 7 | 62 | 6,790 | | 8. Odessa | 0 | 5 | 59 | 4,647 | | 9. Caucasus | 0 | 1 | 15 | 1,235 | | 10. Siberia | 0 | 2 | 39 | 2,043 | | Total | 7 | 67 | 2563 | 83,196 |

According to an official report lately issued by the minister of public instruction, the number of pupils amounted in 1837 to 95,560. The progress which the universities have made, and also their present condition, will be seen from the following table.

| Year | Professors and Masters | Pupils | Professors and Masters | Pupils | Professors and Masters | Pupils | |------|------------------------|--------|------------------------|--------|------------------------|--------| | 1824 | 128 | 450 | 213 | 1691 | 458 | 1985 | | 1835 | | | | | | |

The number of schools under the minister of public instruction has likewise increased; and, viewing the general table of the march of education in Russia, there appears to be a progressive increase of the number of pupils. But, examined in detail, some parts of the empire exhibit a striking falling off. This is especially the case in some of the provinces formerly Polish, where schools were suppressed as a measure of policy.

The minister of public instruction has another important duty besides those mentioned. He exercises a jealous scrutiny of education in private and in boarding schools, as well as domestic education; no one being permitted to follow the profession of a teacher unless he has at least undergone an examination at one of the universities. Private institutions of instruction are usually conducted by foreigners, who, lest they should propagate forbidden truths, are placed under the inspection of the local authorities, and cannot make use of any books but those appointed by government. Other means are taken to shackle these private schools, and deter foreigners from settling in Russia as teachers of the people. But private or domestic tuition even by natives is discouraged. No father has the power of selecting the instructors of his children at his own pleasure; he must take them from amongst the individuals licensed by government, or furnished with an authority which gives them the character of public functionaries. No Russian subject is permitted to be educated in a foreign country under eighteen years of age; and even after that age it is the emperor alone who can grant the necessary permission. In 1829 there was founded at St Petersburg what is called an Upper Teacher's Institution, a sort of normal school, its object being the preparation of tutors for the gymnasia and lyceums of the empire. It stands next in order after the universities, and the number of pupils in 1835 was 146.

II. Military Schools. These institutions especially engage the solicitude of government; they multiply with astonishing rapidity, and absorb far too much of the funds allotted to national education. The numerous establishments of this class have been arranged under the categories of, 1. Schools placed under the direction of his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael; 2. Schools under the direction of the navy board; and, 3. Military schools, especially reserved for soldiers' children, and which are under the control of the minister of war. The first are pretty widely distributed throughout the empire; the second class, designated navy, battalion of pilots, and instruction for workmen, are established only at St Petersburg, Cronstadt, Nikolaief, and Sebastopol; and the third are planted in the military colonies. Their actual condition in 1835 was, Schools under the first head... 8,733...6,255,000 Ditto under the second do... 2,224...632,194 Ditto under the third do...169,024...1,800,000

Total...179,981...8,687,194

Of these, 179,500 are supported by government.

III. Ecclesiastical Schools. There are numerous establishments of this nature in Russia, which, as relates to their management, are divided into two heads. The first comprehends the schools of the Greek Church, under the control of the holy synod, and directed by a special commission; the second, the ecclesiastical schools belonging to other forms of worship, which schools are under the superintendence of the minister of the interior. All these schools are divided into three circuits or departments, viz., those of St Petersburg, Moscow, and Kief. Each district has a superior school, called the ecclesiastical academy; with a certain number of intermediary schools or seminaries, for the most part established in the chief provincial towns, and of inferior schools, divided into district and parochial ones. These establishments are exclusively reserved for the children of the clergy, an arrangement exactly of a piece with the system practised in the common schools. In 1835 the ecclesiastical institutions stood thus:

| Schools | Pupils | |---------|--------| | Greek Church | 384...58,586 | | United or pure Greek Church | 23...1,274 | | Roman Catholic Church | 275...7,078 | | Catholic Armenian Church | 5...137 | | Gregorian Armenian Church | 14...319 |

Total...701...67,889

Of this number of pupils, 41,596 pay their own expenses, 10,517 receive pecuniary aid from government, and 15,408 are educated wholly at the expense of the state.

IV. Various Schools. The numerous establishments which are comprehended under this head are classified according to the different ministers, or members of the imperial family, who especially superintend them. 1. Under the minister of finance. These consist of mining schools, distributed into inferior, middle, and superior seminaries, where the art of mining is taught. They are situated at St Petersburg, and in the principal manufacturing and mining districts. They are organized on the same vicious principle as the others, being confined to the children of miners, as if talents for particular arts were hereditary in families. The total number of pupils in the mining schools is 4613, who are allowed for their support by government 647,911 roubles annually. Private individuals support similar establishments, at which there may be a thousand pupils more. There are ten other various kinds of schools under the minister of finance. The Practical Institution of Technology was founded in 1828, and intended to form master manufacturers. Two mercantile-marine schools, for forming pilots, were both established in 1829 at St Petersburg and Kherson. There are, besides, the Forest Institute, the Academy of Commerce at Moscow, the Agricultural School at Gorygoretsk, schools of land-surveying and design at Tchernigov, and two schools for forest sciences, all as yet in their infancy. They are attended by 608 pupils, which, added to those attending the mine-schools, makes the number of pupils in the schools of this class amount to 6221.

The annual budget is 1,032,191 roubles. 2. Schools under the minister of the interior. These are schools of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy, all independent of the university faculties; rural schools for the cultivation of the vine, and for agriculture in general; schools for the sons of persons employed in subaltern situations in public offices, who are supported by the state on condition of serving it eight years; and schools for orphans and poor children. The establishments under the minister of the interior contain 13,340 pupils, of whom 10,500 are in the hospitals. 3. Under the minister of the emperor's household are the Moscow Academy of the Fine Arts, Moscow School of Architecture, the Theatrical School of St Petersburg, and the Court School of Singers. These contain in all only about 345 pupils. 4. The minister of appanages has under him some schools of agriculture, and primary schools for the peasants, but containing only 1070 pupils. 5. Under the general direction of roads and communications is a school of civil engineers and conductors, containing 665 pupils. 6. Under the minister of justice are a school of jurisprudence, and another of land-surveying, to train youth for the exclusive service of government. These two establishments contain 350 pupils. 7. Under the foreign office is an oriental institution for qualifying individuals to act as diplomatic interpreters in the Asiatic tongues. 8. Institutions under the reigning empress, comprehending the founding hospitals of Moscow and St Petersburg, the boarding-schools for young ladies at St Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa, which contain 52,912 pupils. The empress has further under her control several patriotic establishments, mostly appropriated to the education of children of indigent or invalid officers. In all they contain 1122 pupils. There are also a number of benevolent institutions, such as houses of industry, establishments for the deaf and dumb, the blind, and others. 9. The Archduchess Helena superintends a number of educational institutions, established in different provincial towns, and managed by the local authorities. 10. There remain to be added to the above a number of schools which are supported without any assistance from government. All the foregoing derive considerable pecuniary aid from that source. There are four German schools at St Petersburg, and 750 in the German colonies, having in all 35,746. In the same provinces are 561 Tartar schools, with 14,000 pupils; and there are two Jewish schools, with 500 pupils. At Orusk, Cossack and Asiatic schools have been instituted. The latter are intended to supply interpreters to all the frontier line of Siberia.

The following is M. de Krusenstern's estimate of the establishments of education throughout the Russian empire:

| Pupils | Money supplied by Government | |--------|-----------------------------| | The ministry of public instruction | 85,707...7,450,000 | | Military schools | 179,981...8,687,194 | | Ecclesiastical schools | 67,024...3,000,000 | | Divers schools | 127,584...9,598,947 |

Total...460,576...28,734,141

This upon a population of 48,000,000, exclusively of the Asiatic population, gives about one pupil for every 104.

Travellers have remarked, that the Russians possess a singular aptitude for music; and Reicha, a very eminent musician, particularly notices the admirable accuracy with which the vocal music is performed in the churches, without the aid of any instrumental accompaniment. But in Russia, the music of the church, the theatre, the concert-room, and the chamber, has been chiefly indebted for its progress to Italian and German musicians, though the native music and musical instruments of Russia are sufficiently interesting to deserve much more consideration than has hitherto been bestowed upon them. The occurrence of popular airs in Finland in the unusual measure of $\frac{5}{4}$ is vouched by continental writers. In the interior of Russia, there appear to be many native airs of an uncommon character in respect of melody and tonality. The celebrated Russian horn-music, though very remarkable in its kind, Statistics of the inhabitants. He estimates the number of children receiving a home education at 597,424 individuals, which would give to Russia one pupil enjoying education for every fifty of the inhabitants. According to M. Ouvareff's last report, this proportion had in 1837 become one in forty-five. The data upon which both the minister and Kruzenstern make their calculations are very problematical. We greatly doubt if the proportion is so high as it is here given.

Mr Bremer states that "popular education is advancing but slowly; for in many of the governments of the interior, out of every four or five hundred of the population, there is not more than one young person attending school. The educational schemes of the government have hitherto been unsuccessful in the provinces, because the people, being ignorant of the value of instruction, seldom think of sending their children to school. In the large cities, however, public seminaries are most successfully conducted and numerously attended." With regard to the provinces, considering the character both of the country and of the peasantry, we think that there may be some truth in Mr Bremer's statement; but it cannot be of very extensive application, the discrepancy being so great between it and those of the individuals mentioned.

Independently of the institutions occupied directly in the education of youth, Russia has further her academies of science, her learned societies, her public libraries, and her museums. The number of scientific establishments in St Petersburg is very great; and the merits of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, in relation to its mathematical, astronomical, mineralogical, and geographical labours, are incontestable. The universities of Moscow and Dorpat are also highly celebrated. The institution last named would appear to be the most prosperous of all the universities in Russia, many of its professors, such as Struve the astronomer, Parrot the traveller, and others, being men of great eminence in the scientific world. Of the Russian libraries, that of St Petersburg is the richest and most considerable, containing 413,000 volumes. After it rank the Hermitage Library, consisting of 100,000 volumes; the library of the Academy of Sciences, 90,000 volumes; and those belonging to the universities of Dorpat, Moscow, Kief, Kazan, Kharkov, and St Petersburg, each being highly respectable, as will be seen from a table already given. In 1837, the total amount of books in the public libraries of Russia amounted to 858,635 volumes. It ought to be mentioned, however, that about two thirds of the scientific and literary treasure of Russia have been plundered from unhappy Poland. The number of literary and scientific institutions throughout the empire, including several purely philanthropic associations, may be estimated at fifty, of which twenty belong to St Petersburg alone.

In Russia proper, the owners of estates are under obligations to provide their peasantry with the means of support, and in times of distress to relieve them. On the estates belonging to the crown, a methodical system of parochial relief is established, each parish being compelled to supply its destitute poor, in poor-houses, with fuel, food, and clothing. In Courland, Esthonia, and Livonia, a similar compulsory system is established, the landowners and farmers contributing in proportion to their occupations or rental, and the overseers being elected by the rate-payers. Public begging is forbidden, and vagrants set to work by the overseers. Even in Siberia the authorities are under legal obligation to prevent any individual of the people committed to their charge from suffering want, or remaining without assistance when in distress. In the Russo-Polish provinces a similar system prevails as in Russia proper.

The productions of the Russian press are no index to literature or national cultivation. Amongst the great body of the people there is little or no taste for literature. It is only amongst the higher classes that anything like a reading public is to be found; so that it may well be believed native authors, or translators of foreign literature, have little encouragement held out to them, at least of a public nature. It redounds, however, to the credit of the late sovereigns of Russia, and the more wealthy of the nobles, that they have done much to foster Russian literature, by the magnificent favours which they have bestowed on native writers. But that ready market, a large and intelligent reading community, is alone calculated to draw forth to any great extent the talents and the genius of native writers, and to promote the interests of literature. Thus, although many eminent men have appeared in Russia as authors, such as Lomonosoff, Muravieff, Karamzin, Pouschkin (a celebrated poet, who perished in a duel in the flower of his age, February 1837), and some others, its literature is yet in an infant or imitative state. The greater number of the books that are published are translations from the German and French, and their circulation is limited. Karamzin's History of Russia, the most popular work ever published in that country, and said to be the one most widely circulated, sold only to the extent of 1500 copies in two editions. In the Russian empire are published eighty papers and minor periodicals, and about twelve scientific and literary journals. Of course, nothing like the liberty of the press is known in Russia. Indeed there cannot be said to exist a press at all in the common acceptation of the term, as the newspapers are published by the government, and no periodical literature of a political character exists in the Russian language. In 1837, the printing establishments in the empire were 171, of which ninety-four were maintained by government, and seventy-seven by private persons. There were seventy-four lithographic establishments, nine of which were supported by government. A strict censorship of the press has been instituted, and its jealous vigilance is particularly directed to English newspapers, all but the Morning Post being absolutely prohibited from entering the capital. The censorships of the press are conducted according to the precepts of a new regulation, which is due to the solicitude of the Emperor Nicholas, and was issued in 1828. In university towns it is intrusted to committees, and everywhere else committed to censors appointed ad hoc. The censorship of works relating to religious rests with the ecclesiastical authorities. Every book hostile to the creed of the Greek church, to monarchical or autocratic authority, to decency, to morality, to the honour of individuals, is prohibited. The first duty of the censors in examining a book, is "to consider what is the object that the author has proposed to himself." These rules apply alike to national and to foreign works. Literary property is a vested interest during the life of the author, and for twenty-five years after his death. Literary piracy is punished by a fine equivalent to double the cost of an edition of twelve hundred copies. In 1835, seven hundred and eight works were printed in Russia, and three thousand foreign volumes were imported. Mr Bremer informs us, that in spite of all restrictions, "Russian literature is advancing with great rapidity."

Under this head two languages are to be distinguished: Russia I. The Russian language, originally the dialect of the Slavi, langa-

must be considered as of foreign introduction, and as the result of great musical aptitude, and of most careful and laborious training.

About the middle of the eighteenth century, J. A. Marsely, a Bohemian, and a very skilful horn-player, who was settled at St Petersburg, invented there the famous Russian horn-music. For a brief account of it, see the Appendix to Graham's Essay on Musical Composition; and for minute details regarding the notation and the mode of performance of this kind of music, consult J. C. Heinrich's work, "Entstehung, Fortgang und jetzige Beschaffenheit der Russischen Jagdmusik," published at St Petersburg in 1796.

Excursions in the Interior of Russia, in two vols. 8vo, 1839. who founded the empire. It underwent various changes along with the empire itself, the Scandinavian, Mongolian, Tartar, and German, also the Polish and French languages, being all by degrees incorporated with it to a greater or less extent. This improvement is continually advancing by means of the national literature. 2. The Slavonian language, or that of the Slavonian Bible. It was fixed by the translation of the Holy Scriptures, and so settled that it has since experienced but few alterations. From the combination of these two a mixed language arose, which was used in sermons, rhetorical prose, and the higher species of poetry.

The following extract presents a concise view of the way in which the Russian language began to assume its present form. "From the thirteenth to the fourteenth century," says the celebrated Karamzin, "our language generally became more pure and more correct. Our scrupulous authors gave up the use of the Russian language, as yet too rude, in order to attach themselves more strongly to that which had been employed in composing the books of our church, namely, the ancient Servian, in which our Bible is written. They followed its rules, not only in the declensions and conjugations, but even in the pronunciation and orthography; nevertheless, as may be seen in Nestor, the force of habit made them often recur to their natural idioms, a circumstance which has introduced into our literature a mixture consecrated by antiquity, and so deeply rooted amongst us, that often in the same book, and in the same page, we write zlaté and zoloto (gold), gladé and golod (hunger), maladost and molodost (youth). The time had not yet arrived for giving to the Russian language that energy, that flexibility, that grace and delicacy, which in the days of peace and prosperity are coupled with the rapid progress of the intellectual faculties, with richness of ideas, and variety of knowledge, as well as with the formation of taste and the sense of the beautiful. We see, however, that our ancestors endeavoured to express their thoughts with more distinctness; that they sought to soften the still too rude sound of words, and to give less stiffness to their style. In short, putting aside all national pride, we may say that though, compared with other Europeans, the Russians might appear very ignorant, they were nevertheless far from having lost all the fruits of civilization; they proved how much force it has to resist the rudest assaults of barbarism."1

The study of the Russian language is extremely difficult; and from the fact of its not yet being in a state which would entitle it to be called fixed, it is an arduous study, even for the natives.

The accounts of the Russian character in the works of those who have resided or travelled in the country, are extremely conflicting. He who impartially weighs the evidence of Coxe, Tooke, Clarke, Porter, Wilson, Cochrane, Holman, Londonderry, Bremner, and others, will arrive at the conclusion, which might have been suspected before the investigation began, that whilst there are not a few dark stains on the national character, many of them are attributable to the peculiar political system under which the people live, to their general ignorance hitherto, and to the low character and uncleanly behaviour of the secular clergy; and that under a proper system of government, instruction, and religious discipline, the Russians would not be far behind some of their continental neighbours who hold a much higher place in the scale of civilization and morals. The opinion which generally prevails in this country regarding the Russians as a people does them injustice. If, as Dr Lyall asserts, they are "insinuating and cunning, deceitful and perfidious, sensual and immoral," it must not be forgotten, that any natural tendency to these vices not only remains unchecked by proper secular and religious instruction, but is fostered, as in a hot-bed, by a state of slavery, or semi-vassalage, which is little better. Amongst all the nations of Europe, in Russia alone is one half of the population a marketable commodity, or something not very far removed from it. But we question much if the natural bias to the crimes and vices mentioned by Dr Lyall and others be very strong. From circumstances, however, they have received a powerful development; and from the statements of more recent travellers, it would seem that they are gradually becoming less conspicuous. They are fond of novelties, amusements, and gambling, particularly of card-playing. They are extremely partial to singing, and their talents for imitation and the acquisition of languages are universally allowed to be remarkable. With regard to the former, Dr Clarke observes, "their surprising powers of imitation exceed all that has been hitherto known."

The foregoing observations apply to the bulk of the community. With regard to the Russian nobles, it may be briefly stated, that the style of living of the wealthy greatly resembles that of the higher ranks in other parts of Europe. With the exception of a few traits of a national cast, there is little distinction between the majority of the Russian nobility and those who move in the polite circles in Paris or in London. French and German are spoken with as much facility as the Russian language. French is the court language, and in spite of the invasion of 1812, and the loss of Moscow, the manners and literature of France are held in universal esteem. The wealthy nobles expend enormous sums on their entertainments, and many a goodly estate is mortgaged to gratify this passion for display.

The national dress of Russia consists of a long coat reaching to the calves of the legs, with numerous tucks at the bottom of the waist; a waistcoat of coloured linen, having the neck bare; and thin boots and shoes of the bark of the linden tree. In winter a sheep-skin pelisse is substituted for the coat. The dress of the higher ranks is now formed studiously on the European model, though no other part of Europe can rival the gorgeous robes worn by the nobles and bishops on public occasions, or the profusion of diamonds which embellish their persons. The national amusements are chiefly those afforded by the ice. A favourite diversion is the ice-hill, or mountain, as the Russians call it, on whose sides are formed steep inclined planes, down which the adventurer throws himself, seated on a machine, which he guides with surprising skill. Swinging is another Russian diversion; to which may be added the common ones of dancing, and of a national music, which, with the songs and ballads to which it is sung, is very plaintive and pleasing.

There are ten orders of knighthood or of merit in this Miscellaneum, three of which were established by Peter the Great, the parent of Russian civilization. They are both of a civil and military description; and many of them are divided into several classes, some having five, others three and four. But the indiscriminate manner in which these marks of distinction are bestowed greatly lessens their value. Even private soldiers have frequently half a dozen bits of ribbon strung in a line across the breast, and common policemen are sometimes bedecked in the same manner. A general officer in the Russian service is usually covered with orders of one kind or another. It is a fact worthy of remark, that the calendar has not yet been reformed in Russia. The reason assigned by the Russians for thus remaining twelve days in arrear of all other nations, is partly the fear which the emperor has of any serious innovations giving offence to his nobles, and partly the unwillingness of the clergy to accede to any change which would so materially disarrange the present order of their numerous feasts or saints' days. Without the sanction of the priesthood, such Asiatic Russia.

Russia in Asia comprehends the whole northern portion of it, extending from latitude 38° 40' to 78° north, and from longitude 37° 14' to 190° 22' east from Greenwich. It is bounded on the west by European Russia and the Black Sea; on the south by Asiatic Turkey, Persia, the Caspian and Aral Seas, the territories of the Turkomans and Kirghises, and China; on the east by the Pacific Ocean and Behring's Straits; and the Frozen Ocean extends along the whole of its northern limits. Its greatest extent from west to east is about 4142 miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south is about 1933 miles. This vast dominion is calculated to be spread over twenty-seven ninetyths of the land of the globe.

The Ural Mountains, already described, run along the western limits of Asiatic Russia. On the south-west extends the Caucasus, and on the west the Altai range. The eastern division of the Russian territory, from the river Yenisei or Icenessi, has on its southern and eastern parts vast mountain ranges; and on its interior there are several chains that run to the Arctic Ocean in gigantic masses. This portion of Siberia is covered with woods, large lakes, or extensive and elevated plains, and terminates towards the shores of the Frozen Ocean, in vast fields of eternal ice. The western division, with the exception of the mountain ranges mentioned, taken as a whole, may be described as a vast level plain, partially watered, but by its climate and soil ill adapted for the increase or the comfort of human beings.

The rivers of Asiatic Russia that empty themselves into the Arctic Sea are amongst the most considerable of the ancient world. The most remarkable of these are, 1st, the Obe, whose course is 2170 miles in length, during which it receives the great rivers the Tom, the Kek, the Irtysy, the Tyda, and all their tributary streams. 2d, The Yenisei, which has a course of 3115 miles, with fewer sinuosities than are usually observed in other great rivers. It receives the waters of fourteen large streams, and all their tributary collections. 3d, The Piasana, whose course is 300 miles. 4th, The Taimurskoe, a short stream issuing from a lake of the same name. 5th, The Khatanga, which empties itself into the Bay of Khatangaskoi, on the Frozen Ocean. 6th, The Anabara, an arctic stream. 7th, The Olenek, whose waters only become considerable after entering the arctic circle. 8th, The Lena, one of the largest of the Asiatic Russian rivers. It rises in the Baikal Mountains, to the north of China, in latitude 52° 30', and empties itself into the ocean in latitude 70° 40', and longitude 164° 26', after receiving the waters of fourteen large rivers and their numerous tributary streams. 9th, The Omolo; 10th, the Jana; 11th, the Indigirka; 12th, the Alazzej; 13th, the Kolyma; 14th, the Tchamsa; and, 15th, the Angoniza. The streams whose courses have been traced to fall into the sea of Kamtschatka, between Asia and America, are the Anadyr, the Katirka, the Kamtschatka, the Penshema, the Tilcha, the Ischiga, the Tauna, the Okhota, the Uda, the Argun, and the Shilka. The rivers which descend from the Asiatic side into the Black Sea and Caspian have already been noticed.

The lakes in Russian Asia are very numerous, and some of them very extensive. One of the largest is the Balkai, in Siberia, between latitude 52° and 53°, and longitude 104° 26' and 109° 56', extending over 11,180 square miles. Its water is clear and bright, and the depth varies from eighteen feet to five hundred feet. It is covered with ice from the middle of December till April. The river Angara, which runs to the Yenisei, issues from it. It contains a great number of rocky islands, the largest of which is called Olchon. The lakes next in extent are the Tchani and the Piassenskoe, both in the government of Tomsk. Every province has one or more lakes, several of which are of salt water, and on whose banks a natural crystallization prepares culinary salt for the use of the inhabitants.

There are several plains or steppes of great extent in Steppes Asiatic Russia, the most remarkable being the Kirghis Steppe, between the Irtysy and Orenburg boundary line. It is a very dry and barren district, with some lakes whose water is saline. The few rivers have copious streams in the spring from the melted snows, but in summer become dried up. There is also the Steppe of Bolschei; of Jetish, to the eastward of the Ural; of Ishim, on both sides of the river of that name, between Tobol and the Irtysy; and the Baraba or Barbinska, between the Irtysy and the Ob or Obe. It is about two hundred miles in breadth, and its surface is by no means dry and arid, as is commonly thought, but, on the contrary, rather suffers from an abundance of water, being chiefly covered with large and small lakes and extensive swamps, and also traversed by several small rivers, which partly fall into the Om, an eastern tributary of the Irtysy, and partly into the Irtysy and Obe. Some portions of it present a perfect level, like the ocean in a calm; others are slightly undulating, and covered with grass, some birch, and poplar. Some lakes are salt, and occasionally the surface of the ground is covered with saline efflorescence. In this steppe a peculiar disease is prevalent, called the Siberian plague. To these may be added the Arctic Plain, between the 67th degree of latitude and the Frozen Ocean, whose whole surface is little more than morasses, mixed with rocks, and bound up by frost between ten and eleven months in the year. These extensive plains are sometimes passed by the wandering tribes, who find subsistence on the less sterile spots which are to be met with on the banks of the rivers that bound them. The southern districts, however, possess a great deal of land equally adapted for tillage and for pasture. The forests abound with game; and the rivers are well stocked with fish.

The climate differs little from that of European Russia. The principal productions are wheat, rye, barley, oats, and buck-wheat, which grows wild in the middle of Siberia. The return is small, but the crops have increased with the introduction of more improved methods of cultivating the soil. The southern territory along the upper part of the Irtysy, as well as along the Tobol, the Izet, and others of its tributaries, which are covered with luxuriant pastures, might be made to yield very rich crops, if the inhabitants would change their taste for a pastoral life, and till the ground. For some time past indeed the Kirghises have shown indications of commencing agriculture, especially the poorer classes, who cultivate, upon the borders of the lakes and rivers, fields of corn, rye, barley, and millet. But notwithstanding the general neglect of agriculture, the produce is in some parts extremely plentiful. Immense crops are raised without the aid of manure, so that living is very cheap. In many parts the goats and sheep, and in some the oxen, furnish food for the inhabitants; whilst in others they derive subsistence from the fish with which the seas, lakes, and rivers abound. The rearing of sheep for wool is a branch of industry lately introduced into Siberia, and is likely to thrive.

This part of the Russian frontier, known by the name of "the line of the Cossacks of Siberia," traverses the extensive plains which separate Ural from Altai. The direction of this line, from the redoubts of Siberia to the village of Finalka, situated at the foot of the Altai, is in length 1707 versts, and is marked by four towns, eleven fortresses, fifteen fortified advanced posts, and eighty-four redoubts. The territory which stretches along the Asiatic frontier deserves particular mention, as the most favoured district of Siberia. This vast space is chiefly inhabited by Cossacks, colonised warriors, divided into several regiments; and although other colonists, as peasants, shopkeepers, &c., have established themselves there, the population does not at present exceed 45,000. The Cossacks are privileged to trade with the Kirghises, without paying the taxes of either of the three guilds; in their military capacity they mount guard in turn at the different posts; their leisure time is employed in the rearing of cattle, gardening, hunting, and fishing. The territory they occupy is for the most part very fertile, especially between the forty-ninth and fifty-first degrees of latitude, where the soil spontaneously produces fruit-trees, melons, tobacco, &c.; whilst in the most eastern part, the solitary but picturesque and fruitful valleys of Altai, rich in every description of odoriferous flowers and aromatic herbs, enable the inhabitants to rear innumerable swarms of bees, and to furnish the greatest part of Siberian honey. Several manufactories, especially that of leather, have been established in the towns; but trade is yet in its infancy, and scarcely developed. Its progress and improvement will doubtless hereafter enhance the value of the natural productions of these regions, amongst which must be reckoned the lakes of salt water so numerous in the steppes. Important as they are in relation to trade and commerce, these lakes likewise present to the naturalist a series of interesting phenomena. Their waters hold so great a quantity of salt in solution, that the action of the summer heat is of itself sufficient to convert it into crystals, which, carried towards the banks by the action of the waves, form there shoals of salt of an immense extent. Magazines have been formed upon the borders of Lake Koriak, the only one situated on the right bank of the Irtysk, and the salt therein preserved generally amounts to several millions of poods. Large quantities of this article are annually carried across the Irtysk to Tobolsk. But however rich this lake may be, it is less so than three others, the Karashack, the Kalkaman, and the Djemantos, situated in the steppes on the right bank of the Irtysk. Each of these basins is from twenty to twenty-five versts in circumference; and the action of the solar rays produces in them, during the summer season, crystals of salt so numerous, that by mutual contact they at length form thick solid arches, which, like winter ice, cover the surface of the lakes. These masses are frequently nine inches thick; the action of the air whitens the upper layers; the lower ones preserve a bluish tint, which in some places assumes a beautiful violet hue; and the solidity of these crystal fields is such that horses, chariots, and even camels, pass over them with the greatest safety. Ten other lakes are also found between the Irtysk and Redoubt of Siberia.

The mines of Russian Asia are by far more productive than those of any other portion of the empire, as from them is extracted the whole of the gold, silver, platinum, and lead, nine tenths of the copper, and eleven twelfths of the iron which is brought into use. Zinc, arsenic, and bismuth, together with precious stones, are also found. These mines are situated in the Uralian and Altai ranges of mountains. It is in those parts of these chains which face Siberia, that is, the eastern slope of the Ural, and the northern declivities of the Altai, with its secondary branches, that are found the veins of precious metal. The best account of these mines is that contained in a recent book of travels by Gustav Rose. "The sand containing small particles of gold occurs along the eastern declivity of the Uralian range, in numerous places north of 56° north latitude, and extends beyond 60° north latitude. It occurs in the western declivity likewise, but only in a few places, and contains less gold. On the Siberian side of the range, the sand from which the gold is extracted contains about one and a half or two solotnik of gold in a pood, or from $\frac{3}{2}$ to $\frac{7}{10}$; that which contains less is at present not worked." But Mr Rose says that even sand containing only $\frac{1}{10}$ of gold can still be washed with profit. "The expenses in washing sand containing between $\frac{3}{2}$ and $\frac{7}{10}$ of gold amount commonly to two fifths of its net produce. Sometimes sand is found of which $\frac{1}{10}$ is gold. A small quantity of silver is always mixed with the gold; it amounts to between two and eleven parts in one hundred. Near the Altai Mountains, likewise, gold sand has been discovered in some places, and they have begun working it. The first establishment for working this sand in the Ural was made in 1814, at Berezowsk, near Ikaterinburg, and since that time they have been increasing in number and extent. Last year (1836) the produce of all the Russian mines gave 27,885 marcs of gold, of which more than two thirds were derived from the washing of the sand." The platina mines are situated on the western declivity of the Ural, about the parallel of 57° 40' north. They are six in number, and lie at a short distance from one another. "In the most northern, called Sukhowissimokoi, the discovery of the sand containing platina was made in 1825; and at the other places it was found soon afterwards. The proportion of platina is much larger than that of gold, as it amounts on an average to $\frac{1}{13}$ of the whole mass. Sometimes pieces are found weighing some ounces, and even half a pound and upwards. A small quantity of gold is united with platina. In 1834 platina was discovered in layers of serpentine. The produce of platina in 1836 amounted to 8270 marcs."

The field opened for researches is so vast, that years of methodical and persevering examination have not yet been sufficient to explore all the valleys and summits of these immense chains, a vast extent not having yet been visited by the officers of the Mining Board. The examination of these parts, as yet almost unknown, is pursued with the greatest regularity. The two chains, the Ural and the Altai, are divided into several mining districts. In each of them the officers to whom is confided the direction of the works, send out every summer detachments of discovery, whose duty it is to examine in detail the mountains assigned to them, the point at which the expedition stopped the preceding year being generally that of departure for the new one. We have already stated the quantities of metal which these mines produce annually. With regard to the diamonds, Mr Rose states that only small stones are found, their number up to July 1833 amounting only to thirty-three.

The manufactures are few and unimportant, with the exception of spirits and leather, which are made to a considerable extent at Tobolsk, and the towns in the neighbourhood. There are here 114 tanneries, besides a number of establishments for soap-boiling and the melting of tallow. Cotton and woollen are begun to be manufactured into coarse stuffs in one or two parts. The breweries, but especially the distilleries, are more numerous than any other manufacturing objects. Making corn-spirits is a royal monopoly, but in some of the Asiatic cities it is let to firms by the government. The chief commerce is internal, between the several provinces whose productions are most different from each other. Trade is carried on to a great extent at Tobolsk, the capital of the country. With the exception of the clergy and persons employed in the service of government, almost all are engaged in it, exchanging the produce... Statistics of European Russia; corn, meal, and iron, tools and utensils, for the skins, cattle, caviare, fish salted and fresh, and game brought to them from the interior by the Ostiaks or Tartars. Every year the merchants of Tobolsk, Tumens, and the other towns, send boats laden with flour up the Irtysh and the Obe to Berezoff, and the other small towns situated farther to the north; and these boats return freighted with fish. The clerks and agents belonging to these merchants, and who are established in the small towns upon the banks of the Obe, purchase of the Ostiaks valuable furs, which, together with soap, tallow, and leather, they afterwards export, partly to the fair of Niznei-Novgorod, and partly to the Kirghises of the steppes, who pay them in horses, cattle, and cotton stuffs, purchased by themselves of the Bukharians; the remaining produce of the government of Tobolsk is exported by the way of Kiakhta into China, whence are brought in exchange silks and tea. Kiakhta is the solitary point of commercial intercourse between the two great empires of Russia and China. Almost all the principal houses in Russia have an agent at Kiakhta; while the Chinese traffickers consist chiefly of temporary visitors without their families. The Russians here receive the staples of China, for which they give the productions of their own country in return. The nature and extent of the commerce of Kiakhta will be seen from the following statement.

Exportation of Russian Merchandise in 1835.

| Description | Roubles | |------------------------------------|---------| | Skins to the amount of | 2,299,377 | | Leather | 742,481 | | Linen | 203,115 | | Cottons | 933,876 | | Cloths 718,221 archines | 1,799,691 | | Corn, iron, steel, copper, glass, and other articles | 1,446,148 | | Polish cloths, 206,301 archines | 466,950 | | Transit merchandises | 545,731 |

Total: 7,427,369

Importation of Chinese Merchandises during the same year.

| Description | Roubles | |------------------------------------|---------| | Tea, 199,233 poods, to the amount of | 6,909,149 | | Silks | 208,599 | | Cottons | 122,726 | | Drugs, &c. | 186,895 |

Total: 7,427,369

Or L.324,947.

In 1825 the total exports amounted to 5,501,315 roubles, or L.239,697, so that in ten years there has been an increase in the commercial intercourse between Russia and China to the extent of nearly two millions roubles. The Russians chiefly transport by water the merchandise which they send in summer, or oftener in spring, from Kiakhta to Europe.

Another great commercial line is that which branches from Irkutsk down the Lena, into the heart of the frozen regions and the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Yakoutsk, situated about eight hundred miles down the Lena, is the emporium where the furs and other products of these desolate regions are collected. They are brought from the remotest extremities of the land which borders Behring's Straits, from Kamtschatka, and from the American territory, as well as from the northern wastes. A considerable proportion consists of the tribute which is paid to government; and the wandering traffickers exchange tobacco, spirits, cutlery, beads, and toys, for the remainder.

Asiatic Russia, like the European portion of the empire, is divided into governments or provinces, which are further partitioned into circles, all being under the same species of civil government which we have described as characteristic of the rest of the empire. The names of the governments of Siberia, with the number of the inhabitants, are as follow:

- Yenisei: 193,486 - Irkutsk: 505,118 - Tobolsk: 662,650 - Tomsk: 394,136 - Province of Omsk: 72,545

Total: 1,827,935

There can be little doubt that in this census, which has been recently taken, the wandering tribes have been merely estimated, and that it is only an approximation to the truth. The population consists of two very distinct portions, the foreign rulers and the native tribes. The Russian inhabitants consist chiefly of the unfortunate persons who have been banished to these remote regions for various crimes, more especially those of a political nature. A basis was formed by the Swedish officers who fell into the hands of Peter the Great on "sad Pultava's day," and a regular succession of recruits has subsequently been furnished by the empire itself. Amongst those who have been thus expatriated by a jealous and absolute government, were of course many individuals belonging to the higher ranks of society, men of polished manners and accomplished minds, so that at Tobolsk, where they were chiefly stationed, there is a far higher degree of refinement and intelligence to be found than might have been expected in a settlement of convicts. This great capital of Western Siberia has to a considerable extent acquired the polish of a European city. In 1835 it contained 15,379 inhabitants, two ecclesiastical schools, about twenty churches, and a monastery. The lowest class of exiles are condemned to the mines, where, being closely watched, and with hard work and harder fare, they drag out a miserable existence. A class whose offences are of a milder character are distributed amongst the distilleries. A third class receive grants of land, for which a trifle is paid to government. The individuals composing this class are formed into villages, under the superintendence of a strict police. The native races have been enumerated in our general statement of the various tribes who inhabit the Russian empire. Siberia is under the same system of national education as European Russia, and has its schools, gymnasia, and other institutions of the kind. Public instruction is making some progress at Tobolsk, notwithstanding the many obvious difficulties which obstruct it. There are in this government eleven ecclesiastical schools, with thirty-four masters, and 686 pupils.

Transcaucasian Provinces.

The Transcaucasian territory of Russia is a vast tract of country situated between the Black and Caspian Seas, and bounded by Turkey and Persia on the south. It has been entirely incorporated with the empire since the commencement of this century. Relations had been established with Georgia a long time previously, but it was not till 1801 that it was declared a Russian province. The district of Elizabethpol was seized in 1803; Imaretia in 1805; Persia ceded the Khanats of Sheki, Shirvan, Karabagh, Talish, Baco, Coobo, and Derbend, in 1813; the treaty of Turkmenchay, concluded with Persia in 1828, gave to Russia the Armenian provinces of Erivan, Nanhischevan, and Orduhat, and fixed as its frontier the course of the Araxes; and, lastly, by the treaty of Adrianople Turkey surrendered

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1 Tour in the North of Europe, vol. ii. p. 213. to her great enemy the pashalik of Akhalzik. These acquisitions altogether comprehend a superficies of 154,000 square versts, which is about twice the size of England without Wales. The whole is considered an integral part of the empire, and as such is administered by Russian authorities. But besides these provinces, Russia claims a protectorate over Mingrelia, Abassa or Abhasia, the Lesghian tribes, and several principalities of Daghestan. Some of these countries are entirely under Russian influence; but in Abhasia, even according to Russian writers, it is merely nominal.

The following statistical table is from a work composed and published in St Petersburg in 1836 by supreme authority.

| Houses | Male Inhabitants | |--------|-----------------| | 1. Crusia or Georgia proper contains | 63,001 | 225,395 | | 2. The military district of nominal provinces | 71,565 | 292,951 | | 3. Military district of Daghestan | 19,971 | 63,121 | | 4. Pashalik of Akhalzik, and the Armenian provinces | 36,771 | 102,016 | | 5. Ineretia | 21,797 | 31,014 | | 6. The province of Djuree and Belakani | 13,389 | 46,660 | | **Total** | **227,284** | **726,177** |

Small as this territory is compared with the vast extent of Russia, it is of no trifling importance to her in a commercial, financial, and political point of view. Its geographical position appears to us the happiest possible for such a power, prosecuting gigantic schemes of commercial intercourse or territorial aggrandisement. Climate, soil, natural capabilities, situation, and political relations, all prove that, whatever it has cost Russia to acquire and maintain her Transcaucasian dominions, their value, which as yet is only developed to a small extent, justifies her policy. A commission was appointed in 1828 to draw up a statistical account of these provinces, the labours of which body terminated in 1835. The following is a brief abstract of the results of their investigations, derived from the official sources.

1. **Silk.** The cultivation of mulberry trees is in a very backward state, although the tax levied upon them was abolished in 1830. The whole annual export does not exceed 15,530 poods.

2. **Cotton.** The natural capabilities of the country offer a possibility of increasing the production of this valuable commodity to an immense extent; but its cultivation has greatly decreased since the district where it is chiefly raised passed from the hands of Persia to those of Russia. The whole export amounts annually only to 36,000 poods, of very inferior quality.

3. **Wine.** The vine is indigenous to these regions, and presents a great variety of kinds. The vineyards are numerous and rich, the country being well adapted for the cultivation of the plant. There are produced annually about 3,888,000 vedros of wine, and 140,000 vedros of brandy. The district of Telav alone furnishes to this quota 2,000,000 vedros of wine, and 140 vedros of brandy. Ineretia is not included in this estimate. This quantity of wine and brandy is entirely absorbed by the internal consumption, which is immense. The production of wine of various kinds and most excellent quality might be prosecuted to an extent which might render Russia independent of foreign importations of the article.

4. **Rice.** The cultivation of this plant has not improved since the establishment of the Russians in the country. There is an annual produce, however, of about 130,000 chetverts.

5. **Saffron.** The province of Baco alone produces yearly 1000 poods of saffron, which shows to what an extent this valuable branch of agricultural industry might be carried.

The article has hitherto been very ill prepared, but efforts are making to improve the management of it.

6. **Madder.** This article is produced in great quantities at Derbend, and other places along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

7. **Cochineal.** The Armenian or southern parts of the Transcaucasian provinces produce a kind of cochineal, which is said to yield a dye equal to that of Mexico. The Russian government is doing everything in her power to extend this new and profitable branch of productive industry.

8. **Live Stock.** Extensive herds might be reared in these provinces, which afford great facilities for their maintenance. Great numbers of sheep and cattle are indeed raised, but the wool of the one is bad, and the breed of the other is inferior. But there can be little doubt that Merino sheep will be successfully introduced into this quarter. There is a fine race of horses, and an abundance of camels, asses, mules, and swine.

The natural capabilities of these provinces are very great, affording facilities for the production of the most valuable commodities, which are exclusively furnished by southern climates. These have only been developed to a partial extent; but the Russian government is displaying such laudable zeal to encourage such branches of industry as are peculiarly adapted for the various districts of her vast possessions, that by and by she will be independent of what are called colonial goods, silk, cotton, and the like. The provinces, however, are greatly depressed by a system of most vexatious and unequally levied imposts. These have not been laid on by Russia; they owe their origin to the rapacity of the various petty tyrants who formerly ruled the different parts of this region. Free commerce was permitted to the provinces in 1821, and they soon began to reap great advantages from this liberal system. But it was abolished in 1832, probably because the additional revenue which accrued from it was not a sufficient compensation for such an interference with the general system of Russian policy.

This is not the place to enter into the great and important question relative to the influence which Russia is likely to exercise over the East, by thus firmly establishing her dominion beyond the Caucasus. Although the maintenance of the provinces costs her yearly L16,000, the revenue being about L216,000 and the expenditure about L232,000, yet, by placing the resources of the country under proper management, the former might be increased to a vast extent. But this is of comparatively little moment compared with two other objects of her far-sighted policy, which will be promoted by rendering the Caucasian isthmus a commercial country, securely incorporated with the rest of the empire. These are the creation of a manufacturing industry, which will make her independent of other countries, particularly of England, and the establishment of her power in Asia, whence great advantages are not unreasonably expected. Now these provinces will at once supply the raw material necessary for manufactures, and at the same time open a market for them in the east. It is true, that the Caucasian Mountains almost totally sever this limb from the great body of the empire, the passes of Mozdok being difficult, and the country at the same time infested with predatory hordes. But there are other and much more eligible means of communication, viz. the Caspian Sea on the east, and the Black Sea on the west. Over the former Russia reigns paramount, no other vessels of war but her own being allowed to navigate its waters. Into this vast reservoir the Volga, which is the great artery of Russia, pours its waters, collected during a navigable course of two thousand miles, through some of the most fertile regions of the empire, and, including its tributaries, those most distinguished for manufacturing industry, which is the main object. There is also a communication between this noble stream and the Baltic Sea. Thus, then, there is an easy transport of goods insured from the remotest governments of the empire to the Caspian Sea, and thence to the Transcaucasian territory. There is also on the other side a communication by the Black Sea, but it does not present so many advantages as that by the Caspian. Our space, however, will not allow us to pursue the subject further.

Islands in the Polar and Eastern Oceans.

In the Polar Ocean are the groups of New Siberia and of the Bear's Island. The first consists of four large and many smaller islands. They are covered with snow during the greater part of the year; their surface is generally rocky, and on some of them there are marks of volcanoes. They are chiefly remarkable for the bones and teeth of the mammoth, rhinoceros, buffalo, and other animals, which are found upon and beneath the surface of the ground. It was the search for this ivory which originally induced the Russians to visit these islands; and their first expedition for exploring them was equipped in 1820. These islands do not appear to be inhabited, though traces of human beings have been occasionally discovered by the Russians engaged in the fisheries. The Bear's Island group consists of six small islands, with several kinds of plants and shrubs on them, but no trees, although their shores are found to be covered with large drift-wood. The southernmost point of these islands is in latitude 69° 3', and they extend to latitude 76° 20'. Their longitude is between 154° and 183° 50' east from Greenwich.

In the Eastern Ocean the islands are thus classed:

1st. The islands of Gevoshewy and Nelken, in Behring's Straits, in latitude 63° 4', with about 400 people.

2nd. St Lawrence, latitude 63° 40', and longitude 190° 26', and three smaller islands on the south-east of it.

3rd. St Mathew's, in latitude 60°, in the Sea of Kamtschatka, consisting of three islands, one of which was named by some early British navigators Pinnacle Island.

4th. The Prebelow Islands, in latitude 57°. Two of them have been named St Paul and St George. The former is about twenty-eight miles long and twenty broad, and both are well stocked with animals whose furs are valuable.

5th. The Aleutian Islands. This is a chain of islands extending from the peninsula of Kamtschatka to the American peninsula of Alaschka, between 51° and 55° 10' north latitude, and 167° and 197° east longitude. (See ALEUTIAN ISLANDS.)

6th. The Kurile Islands. This chain extends from north latitude 43° 48' to 50° 56', and from longitude 143° 5' to 158° 30' east. They are evidently of volcanic origin. In some of them good water is found, but others are utterly destitute of it. The few inhabitants are of Japanese origin. Many of these islands have hitherto obtained no European names; but nineteen of the most considerable have been named by the Russians.