the place more flourishing for, excepting some public buildings which have been repaired for the use of the university, no change of consequence has taken place here, and the number of inhabitants, amounting to 6,000, has not increased in any considerable degree. Among the professors of Charkow I found some Germans well known by their works, but who seemed to me not to be exactly in their element here. This observation applies to most of the Germans, who, when no longer young, emigrate to Russia and enter into the service of the Crown, if they are not appointed to situations in Petersburg and Moskwa. It is however in some measure their own fault. Many of them, for instance, neglect to learn the Russian language, under the idea that they have no occasion for it, and expect the natives to converse with them in a foreign idiom. This is unreasonable; for, when a man resides in a country and receives a salary from the government of that country, he ought certainly to take the trouble to learn its language. Again, the Germans would have every thing to proceed in Russia just as it does in their own country, and most of them insist on this point with such obstinacy as to excite the hatred of the Russians. They also in general think themselves wiser and better than their new countrymen, and in betraying these sentiments to the latter they prove that they are neither the one nor the other. This conduct occasions circumstances extremely unpleasant to themselves; but in the Russians, who are accustomed to take things more easily, it creates contempt and aversion for these strangers. I have often wondered in silence at the blindness of selfconceited foreigners, who fancied themselves esteemed by all, and perceived not that wherever they appeared they were the objects of universal derision. In my opinion, therefore, only such young Germans should go to Russia, as are yet capable of adapting themselves to the way of thinking and acting in that country. The building appropriated to the university is spacious, and according to report is about to be still further enlarged; but the number of the students would be very small had it not been augmented by a recent ordinance of the emperor, according to which no person shall be appointed to any civil employment unless he has studied at some Russian university, nor any individual without a previous examination in the sciences be promoted to a staff officer, or from a collegiate counsellor to a counsellor of state... The idea of founding an university at Charkow was not of itself a bad one, because many opulent gentry whose sons might have benefitted by it resided in that vicinity. But in Russia there is yet too, little taste for learning, and the old French mode of education is still too fashionable; on which account people of rank and fortune very seldom avail themselves of the advantages offered by universities and other seminaries. It was likewise an exceedingly injudicious step to attempt to introduce knowledge into Russia by means of foreigners, and to raise a fabric which requires the labour of ages, as expeditiously as a triumphal arch may be patched up. The only method of effectually promoting the diffusion of science in Russia would have been to have sent young Russians who had distinguished themselves in the ordinary schools to some good seminary in Germany, and thence to an university where they might have prepared themselves for their "destined career. Such persons as these, at their return, would certainly have furnished the best teachers for the institutions for the promotion of learning. in another way, into persons who are in the service of the state and such as are not. To the latter belong the vassals and tradesmen, who have neither inclination nor opportunity to cultivate their minds. The others are much too anxious to obtain honours and titles, which the service alone confers, to devote much time to the sciences. Every one strives at as early an age as possible to procure an appointment under the crown, for which he needs nothing but a good recommendation, and an acquaintance with the Russian style of ba He has no encouragement to study the sciences, of which he knows nothing, and for which he thinks that he has no occasion. Till, then, a middle class of citizens shall arise in Russia, no real diffusion of knowledge can be reasonably expected. At present, on the contrary, the whole course of instruction from the normal schools upwards is radically faulty, because the encyclopedian method of teaching so pre-siness and the laws of the country. valent in Germany has been introduced; by which method the pupil learns a little of every thing but nothing thoroughly, and at most acquires an historical notion of each science, which in the end proves of no further use to him, and which he very soon forgets. As long as the sciences have been cultivated in Russia, the mathematical have been considered as best adapted to the diffusion of knowledge in the country; but it was long since justly remarked by Schlözer, that no nation in the world was ever yet rescued from barbarism by the mathematics. Nature changes not her course; and it is by the arts and sciences, by the belles lettres and poetry, that the Greeks and Romans, the Italians, French, Euglish and Germans attained to so high a degree of civilization. Another almost insurmountable obstacle which will long prevent Russia from making any progress in the sciences, lies in the political constitution. As there is no middle class in this country, the whole nation is divided into two parts, masters and slaves; and at present ACCOUNT OF TSCHERKASSE, AND From the Same. Tscherkassk, the capital of the Don Cossacks, is seated on the right shore of the Don, upou an island formed by the Akssai branch. We arrived at this place towards evening of the 1st of November, and took up our quarters in a roomy wooden house, the owner of which behaved with great civility. Since our departure from St. Petersburgh we had travelled 1,947 wersts or 257 German miles. Tscherkassk differs from all other towns in the mode of building; for, on account of the annual inundations, which commonly last from April to June, most of the houses of the town are erected upon high poles, so that when the inundation is over, there is a space under each where cattle are frequently kept. In most of the streets are lofty wooden bridges which run along the middle of them, and to which a smaller bridge leads from the door of each house. Where this is not the case the inhabitants are obliged, during the time of the inundation, to step immediately out of their houses into a boat, when going about their ordinary business. Hence it is evident that this town is by no means adapted to riding either in a carriage or on horseback. On the Don itself, where the ground is rather higher and where nothing is to be feared from the water, are situated the Gymnasium, some other buildings belonging to the government, and the principal church. The shops are very spacious and well arranged, and furnished with all sorts of domestic commodities, as also with most of the foreign productions that are subservient to the convenience of life. In consequence of the proximity of Taganrog and the Krym the place is in particular abundantly supplied with articles of Greek and Turkish merchandise, which are sold at very moderate prices. I remarked many shops with iron and brass wares, woollen cloth of home and foreign manufacture, tea, sugar, coffee, wines and other strong liquors. To a stranger visiting Tscher kassk for the first time, it is a striking spectacle to find a city peo pled by Cossacks alone, and where all the male inhabitants wear the same costume, which consists of a blue Cossack coat turned up with red. Even great part of the foreigners resident here adopt this dress, which looks very neat. Be sides the Cossacks, properly so. called, the Tartars, who are upon the same footing as the Cossacks, occupy a whole suburb, and have likewise a well-fitted-up wooden messdshet. 'The inundations, which leave behind in the streets a great quantity of mud, and in many places large standing pools, whence issue pernicious exhalations, render the situation of the town extremely unhealthy; for which reason New Tscherkassk has been begun on a branch of the Don, a German mile from the present town, and is said to be at this time ready for the reception of inhabitants. Those of the old town, who will be in some measure indemnified for the expense thus occasioned, are all to remove to New Tscherkassk; so that in half a century, perhaps, no vestiges of the present place will remain. Tscherkassk was founded in 1570 by the Cossacks, the year after the Turks had undertaken their fruitless expedition from Asow against Astrachan, and the former town had been almost entirely destroyed by the explosion of a powder-magazine set on fire by lightning. The origin of the Cossacks themselves is an historical problem which has hitherto been by no means satisfactorily solved. This name first occurs in Constantine Porphyrogenneta (about A.D.948), who places the province of Kasachia among the countries lying beyond the Ckuban, as appears from the following passage :-"On the eastern side of the Palus Mæotis several rivers empty themselves into it, as the Tanais, which comes from Ssarkel; the Chorakul, in which the Oxian fishes (To BepTIZOV) are taken; likewise some other rivers, as the Bal, Burlik, Chadir, and many more. But the mouth of the Palus Mæotis is also called Burlik, and goes into the Pontus. Here is the Bosphorus, on which stands the town named Tamatarcha. The above-mentioned mouth is eighteen miles broad. In the middle of these eighteen miles lies a large flat island called Atech. The river Ukruch which separates Sichia (Znxia) from Tamatarcha, is 18 or 20 miles from the latter. Sichia extends about 300 miles from the Ukruch, to the river Nikopsis, on which also is situated a town of the same name. Beyond Sichia lies the country of Papagai, beyond Papagia Kasachia, beyond Kasachia Mount Caucasus, and beyond the Caucasus the country of the Alans." The inhabitants of Kasachia were consequently neighbours of the Sichs or Eastern Tscherkessians, and themselves Tscherkes sians; for this nation is still called by its neighbours, the Ossetes, Kasach or Kessek. Ibniel Vardi, an Arabian geographer, who lived and wrote about 1230, mentions a people called Keschek in the Caucasus, and cannot sufficiently extol the beauty of their women, which subject he breaks forth into the warmest praises of the Almighty. This exactly applies to the Tscherkessian women, who are still accounted the most beautiful in all Asia. Massudi, another Arabian, who wrote near two centuries earlier, about A.D. 947, says that many Mohammedan merchants came every year to Trebisonde, on the sea of Constantinople, from Rum (Anatolia), on Armenia, and the land of Kaschek ; but it is a question whether the Tscherkessians are here meant, as he has not more precisely described the situation of their country. It might be that at this early period they carried their slaves thither to market, as they lately did to Anapa, Dsugodshuk-Ckala, and other ports of the Black Sea. Be this as it may, so much at least is certain, that the Tscherkessians first bore the name of Kasach, and it is very probable that from them it may have been transferred to other neighbouring nations who led the same kind of life as they did. Some writers have indeed asserted that Ckasack in the Turco-Tartar dialects signifies a robber, but this is erroneous; a sledge indeed is called Ckasack, but it will scarcely be contended that the name can be thence derived. It is likewise remarkable that in later times the Russian Cossacks were termed Tscherkessians, and that both appellations were indiscriminately employed. Of all the different Cossacks those of Little Russia are the most ancient; for their origin dates from 1340, after the Poles had reduced Red Russia under their dominion. It is probable that, on this event, many Russians emigrated from that country in order to seek an asylum lower down the Dnjeper, where they intermingled with the Tartars and Tscherkessians; for, in general the Cossacks are of a much more slender make than the other Russians, and their features upon the whole more handsome and expressive. invasions of Russia by the Tartars, and in particular the destruction of Kiew in 1415, increased the number of these refugees, who now exẹ The tended to the Bug and the Dniester. Those who resided beyond the cataracts of the Dnjeper now received the name of Saporogians, and these were the most powerful tribe. Thus, though the Little Russian Cossacks had long existed, it was not till late that they were distinguished by this appellation. During the reign of the grandprince Iwan Wassiljewitsch I. the Tartar Cossacks first make their appearance: they were afterwards divided into those of Ordinsk and Asow. There were likewise Cossacks who were in the immediate service of certain Tartar princes; and it is possible enough that they may have been originally bodyguards of Tscherkessians. Thus Wassili Iwanowitsch, son of the prince just mentioned, had in his service Cossacks, whom he often employed in missions to the Krym. The Ordinsk Cossacks had their name from being dependant on the Great Orda, the chief settlement of the Tartars on the Wolga, as were the Asow Cossacks on Asow, consequently on the Turks, who in 1471 made themselves masters of that town. In 1500 Agus Tscherkass and Karabai were the chiefs of the Asow Cossacks, who inhabited the country between Asow and the Russian frontiers; and these seem to have intermingled most with their neighbours the Tscherkessians; for from that time the terms Tscherkessian and Cossack became synonymous. It is not surprising that they should retain their language and religion, for the Russians seem still to constitute the greater part of the nation. In later times we have a striking instance of a similar intermix ture; for about sixty years ago the Grebensk Cossacks on the Terek had so blended themselves with the Tschetschenzes and other mountaineers as scarcely to be distinguished from them; but they still retained the Russian language, although they had taken foreign' wives. The origin of the state of the Don Cossacks dates not much earlier than 1570, for many refugees had some time before settled on the Don and its branches; but it was not till after the building of Tscherkassk that their political constitution was settled. The Zar Iwan Wassiljewitsch, on occasion of the expedition of the Turks against Astrachan in 1569, is said to have ordered out against them 5,000 Saporogians from among the Tscherkessians (Cossacks) residing on the Dujeper, under the conduct of Prince Michael Wyschnewetskii, who, in conjunction with those established on the Don, gained a complete victory over the Turks. It is related that the greater part of these 5,000 men remained near the Don, and in concert with the Cossacks there founded the city of Tscherkassk; where, after the manner of the Saporogians, they lived a long time without wives. Their losses were supplied by stragglers and unmarried men from the first colonies of the Don Cossacks. The troubles which soon afterwards broke out in Russia contributed to augment their numbers; they extended their possessions to the Donez, the Medwediza, the Choper and the Busuluk, and made the town of Tscherkassk their capital. These Cossacks soon became |