seaworthy, from being built of green timber, on account of the cheating of commanders, contractors, and subordinate officials.

Passing from the people of Russia, let us briefly consider a few of its principal cities, &c. St. Petersburg, its capital, was built at the commencement of the present cen tury by Peter the Great. It stands on both banks of the river Neva; and although great part of the houses are built of wood, yet its noble public buildings, the width of its streets, and its grand public squares make it one of the finest cities of Europe. Its dimensions, no doubt, contribute to its reputation: it is larger than London, being about twenty miles in circumference. It is, however, extremely cold and damp, and subject to dangerous inundations of the Neva. In one that occurred in 1824, no less than 15,000 lives were lost. It is feared that the city may at some period be altogether destroyed by these terrible floods. population amounts to about half-a-million, and is said to be composed of twice as many men as women. Amongst the noble monuments which ornament the city is the bronze equestrian statute of its founder.

Its

dispositions; quick, elegant, ostentatious, Russian navy speedily rot and become unand polite to excess in their manners. The ostentation and gorgeous luxury of the nobles probably exceeds that of any other country. The profusion of rare flowers, wax-lights, and servants in livery, exhibited at the soirées of the nobles, are almost fabulous. The people are generally handsome, hardy, and brave; Buonaparte once said, that next to the French, they were the best soldiers in Europe. They are exceedingly subtle and cuuning; the ingenuity of the moujik (i.e. serf) exceeds that of the Jew. Peter the Great went so far as to declare, that a single Russian is a match for three Jews. Their greatest vices are their drunkenness and that dishonesty or propensity for theft which prevails throughout Russia, and which the present Emperor Nicholas is making such constant but ineffectual attempts to reform. Venality and corruption pervade every grade of society, but are singularly apparent in the Russian officials. The dishonesty of these functionaries has become proverbial. They scem to be insensible to the guilt or shame of it; and when a general is degraded to a common soldier, or an admiral to a sailor, for peculation of the public money entrusted to them, the usual comment is, "What It stands on a huge block of granite, and fools to allow themselves to be discovered!" It is said, that public functionaries who possess an annual salary of a 100,000 roubles, will sometimes raise it to as much as 2,000,000. A German writer, after remarking that corruption is the worm that dieth not in the Russian empire, relates what follows as the result of his own experience: "One officer, instead of instructing his soldiers, makes them devote all the time they ought to pass in learning their exercise, in labours profitable to himself. Another receives pay for men who have never existed,save on paper. A third sends his horses to grass, and pockets the money intended for forage. A fourth defrauds the troops of food and clothing, without troubling himself about the number of deaths and diseases sive. that result from this scandalous abuse. The In the entrance of the Gulf of Finland, majority put into their pockets the money and about thirty-one miles from St. Petersdestined to repair and complete the matériel, burg, of which it is the defence, stands the which accounts for the frequent and sudden famous island and fortifications of Crondecay remarked in Russian armies. Everywhere you find robbery-organised robbery -hierarchical robbery; for in Russia every officer robs according to his rank: so that a dignity is less valued on its own account and for its honour, than for the plunder it may bring in." The ships comprising the

looks like the presiding genius of the nation. The finest buildings are the Winter Palace, the Hermitage, the Senate, the Admiralty, and the cathedral of St. Isaac. The latter is a building of extraordinary magnificence. For its construction, Finland supplied its beautiful granite and porphyry, Italy its finest marble, and artists of all climates mingled the efforts of their genius. Next to London and Hamburg, St. Petersburg has the most important trade of any city in Europe. The Neva is generally frozen over for six months in the year; and during the winter, the thermometer is sometimes thirty degrees below zero. This bitter time is, however, preferred to the brief summer, which is so hot as to be painfully oppres

stadt. Its harbours, docks, and basins have cost many millions of roubles, and many thousands of lives. Its vast port is divided into three parts: one is the military port, and usually contains the greater part of the Russian fleet; the second is used for refitting ships of war; and the third for

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lading and discharging large merchant ships, | batteries, and military magazines were dewhich, on account of the shallowness of the stroyed; but in consequence of the more water, cannot approach St. Petersburg. All humane principles which guide our modern the ports are strongly defended by ramparts warfare, in comparison with that of past and bastions. In summer, Cronstadt has times, the commercial harbour was spared. a population of more than 50,000 persons. Sebastopol is a strongly-fortified seaport In winter, during several months of which town and arsenal, standing in the Crimea, the port is ice-bound, it is nearly deserted. on a deep and sheltered creek of the Black Moscow, the ancient capital of Russia, Sea. It is defended by a citadel and stands almost in the centre of the empire, batteries. Its large and well-protected harand is still the seat of its nationality. Its bour is the station for the Russian fleet in population is probably at present not less the Black Sea,-a circumstance which will than 400,000. It is the residence of many no doubt lead to the destruction of its fortiof the wealthiest and most ancient families fications. While they exist, the Russian among the nobility. The Kremlin, formerly fleet in the neighbouring sea has ever a the residence of the czars, is at once a for- place where it can retire in safety from the tress, palace, castle, and cathedral. It is a grim threatening mouths and loud thundergiant amongst buildings, with walls sixteen ing of the French and English cannon. feet thick, and from thirty to sixty in height, The population of Sebastopol is about with battlements, embrasures, towers, and 30,000. The port is defended by eleven gates. The Marquis de Custine observes, batteries, mounting 1,500 cannon. No that the Kremlin is the Mont Blanc of for- stranger may approach the city without a tresses. "I have been," he adds, "over special permit, or reside in it without a the public gardens planted upon the glaciers special order, which must be renewed every of the old citadel of the czars. I beheld four-and-twenty hours. The fact that the towers, then other towers; flights of walls, fortifications of this famous port have nearly and then other flights; and my eyes wandered over an enchanted city. It is saying too little to call it fairy-land!" Within the walls of the Kremlin, which is in itself a city, are as many as four cathedrals and thirty-two churches. Within the cathedral of St. Michael are contained the tombs of all the Russian sovereigns to the time of Peter the Great. A railway connects Moscow with St. Petersburg. The former is the most industrious city of the empire, and is regarded as the Manchester of Russia. It has an arsenal, a large public library, an observatory, a botanic garden, an university, and many literary and scientific institutions.

Odessa is a celebrated seaport town on a fine bay of the Black Sea. Late events have secured for it a permanent mention in the historic records both of England and Russia. Odessa, however, has purchased its distinction at a price which has ruined its inhabitants, and struck a doubting tremor to the heart of the arrogant czar. It lately contained upwards of 70,000 inhabitants, exclusive of its garrison; and in 1849, the amount of its export and import trade was valued at about four millious and-a-half sterling. The prosperity of the town is, of course, entirely suspended since the recent bombardment; a part of it being burnt and left in ruins. The fortifications,

all been erected by the present emperor, will make their destruction, should it take place (and we doubt not it will do so), a work of warlike retribution. Sveaborg, Toola, Nijni-Novgorod, Kason, and other great towns do not demand description.

It

The Crimea, however, must not be forgotten; for it will probably be the theatre of some of the sternest, and we trust most brilliant and decisive scenes of the war. is a peninsula of South Russia, formed by the Sea of Azof and the Black Sea. Simferopol is the chief town. In 1837, the population of the peninsular was estimated at 190,063. The soil of the south-east part is rich and fertile, and abundantly produces all the fruits and grain of southern Europe. The north-west forms a vast plain, impregnated with salt, and only fit for pasturage. Enormous herds of cattle are reared in the Crimea: it is estimated to possess more than 7,000,000 sheep; and its honey is much esteemed. Its mountains are covered with noble and valuable forests, and present a beautiful and romantic aspect.

Circassia is now declared independent of Russia; but unhappy Poland still remains subject to it. Circassia has been described as a nation of heroes, whose long-continued and bravely-sustained efforts for freedom against its tyrannic neighbour, have long been the admiration of every well-constituted

mind. On looking to a map, the reader will at once perceive, that to sustain the peace of Europe by wresting the Black Sea from the domination of the Russian flag, the freedom of Circassia must be upheld. The Circassians are regarded as being physically the finest specimens of the human race. Notwithstanding, civilisation is in a very low condition among them, and parents sell the most beautiful of their female children to gratify the sensual plea

sures of the wealthy Mussulmans of Constantinople. The population is estimated at 220,000.

The principal river of Russia is the Volga. It is the largest in Europe, and its course, including windings, extends for 2,000 miles. It is frozen over for 170 days in the year. The Don, the Dnieper, Dvina, and the Neva are the other most important ones. Nicholas would like to add the broad Danube to the number, or choke it up with mud.

HISTORIC VIEW OF RUSSIA AND ITS AIMS.

THE origin of the Russian nation is generally dated from about the year 850. At that time a freebooter of the Baltic, named Ruric, who had been called in by the people of Novgorod to defend them against their | neighbours, seized a great part of their country, and founded a Norman dynasty. In the proceedings of these barbarous people, the modern reader will find but little to interest him.

In the middle of the thirteenth century, the Tartars of Kapchak burst into Europe and overspread the eastern and southern provinces of Russia. After two centuries and-a-half of bondage, the yoke of the Tartars was shaken off, and in 1462, Ivan the Great succeeded to the regal dignity of his ancestors. Some years afterwards he assumed the title of czar, announced himself to the other states of Europe as an independent sovereign, and Russia came to be numbered amongst the nations. Constantinople had but lately fallen into the hands of the Ottomans,—an event much deplored by the superstitious Russians, who regarded it with feelings of religious veneration. To the great delight of his subjects, Ivan married Sophia, the niece of the last of the Greek emperors, and adopted, as the esign of his state, the two-headed eagle of the eastern empire,-that symbol having been replaced at Constantinople by the victorious crescent. The alliance of Ivan with the Greek princess, Sophia, is regarded as an event of great historic importance; for by it Ivan and his successors pretend that they have acquired some sort of claim to be regarded as heirs to the rights of the ancient Greek emperors of Constantinople. This sophism has been used to colour, with at least some faint tint and blush of justice, the many aggressive acts which Russia, in its

growing strength, has from time to time inflicted upon Turkey, in its increasing weakness. From the year that Ivan wedded Sophia, have the Russians kept an evil lusting eye upon the domes and gilded minarets of Constantinople.

The royal family of Ruric at length failed. to produce a prince to wear the imperial diadem of Russia; and in 1613, Michael Romanoff, the founder of the present royal house of Russia, was elected to the vacant throne.

PETER THE GREAT, the fifth sovereign of the house of Romanoff, is regarded as the founder of the present greatness of Russia, and venerated as the father of his country. This extraordinary man succeeded to the crown in 1682. His eccentricities, his disguises, his contempt of all regal conventionalities; his industry, perseverance, energy, and grasp of thought, are familiar to all readers of biography. Con- readers of biography. His first political act revealed his design (as yet dim and shadowy) upon the empire of the East. It was the taking of Azof from the Turks, in 1694. He was recalled from a visit to England by the information that the Strelitzes (a body of troops resembling the Turkish Janizaries) were in rebellion. He speedily crushed the insurrection, disbanded the Strelitzes, and caused 2,000 of them to be executed. Some writers say that he struck off the heads of many of these wretched men himself, and that he was delighted at the dexterity with which he performed this savage and unkingly deed; but this has been denied. In 1701, he struck a heavy blow at the overgrown power of the clergy, by abolishing the dignity of patriarch of Moscow, and declaring himself to be the head of the Russian church. After being several times. defeated by Charles XII., of Sweden, he