his employer, redress may be obtained. There not being an absolutely prescribed fare for given distances, strangers are frequently imposed on by these men, who, like the hackneycoachmen in London, are ever ready to over-reach the unwary.

I am sorry to say that this spirit of extortion is very common at St. Petersburgh. And as shopkeepers, and others of the lower orders, make a practice of demanding double the worth of their commodities, travellers, who know not that they will be content with half the sum, are liable either to be defrauded, and leave the place under the impression of its exorbitant expense; or, when they discover the cheat, conceive no very favourable opinion of Russian honesty. But alas! I fear the passion for a hasty accumulation of riches is not peculiar to our northern neighbours. In an ignorant people, just emerging to civilization, we see covetousness without a veil. Eager to share in the good things which are opened to them on every side, they consider not, because they do not yet understand, the superior advantages of character. But are the people who have long enjoyed the privileges of education and polished society, are they exempt from this degrading vice? I am afraid not. With them it is only more modest; aware of its own infamy, it slinks from sight under various masks, while the objects of its contractorships, and the tenantry of the land, are groaning under neglect and oppression. Selfishness is the vice of human nature; and very difficult it is to hold it in the medium between savage avidity and luxurious desires.

Before I reached this city I had been told by many of its great expense. As a single man I did not find it so: but were I to pass a judgment on it from what I have seen, I should say that for a family it would be dear enough. And yet this would not arise from the high charges of any particular articles, but from the customs of society, and the splendor which is here considered as a necessary of life. Under this view it is expensive. But were it fashionable to live here in the simple style which most genteel families do in England, the calculation would be in the opposite scale. It is over-hasty to pronounce a country altogether dearer than our own, because one or two commodities may be so: examine further, and you find a counterpoise in

articles being cheap at St. Petersburgh which are of great price in London: and thus the reasonable merchandise of one country being balanced against the exorbitant charges of another, the equilibrium is kept tolerably even. Provisions are cheap; and so are some other indispensable necessaries: 120l. annually, will provide a good carriage, two horses, a coachman, and every requisite both for it and the sledge. Fifteen rubles a month (25%. per annum), is the common wages for men servants; out of which they board themselves. House-rent is the most chargeable thing here; but the trifling incumbrances entailed on the Russian householder, as national claims, are so small they scarcely deserve mentioning.

In the families of our English merchants resident at St. Petersburgh, you may still recal the simplicity of home, in the chastened elegance of their abodes. Their tables, as well as those of other foreign merchants, are always open to their friends; and the warmest hospitality ever ready to welcome all who bring introductions from their correspondents abroad. This truly estimable order of men are held in the highest esteem by the nobles of a metropolis which they so truly benefit and enrich. Many of them possess little paradises on the road leading to the imperial palace of Peterhoff, to which their families resort for the hot and short-lived months of summer. Since my arrival I have paid several visits to these charming retreats, where every thing around reminded me of dear England. The house embosomed in trees, and furnished in the English style; the gardens planted in the same taste; and the language and manners of the inmates; all would have persuaded me to forget I was in a strange land. But I wanted still something more to complete the illusion: look where I would, I could nowhere see those faces which are ever the dearest objects of remembrance to your friend.

LETTER IV.

St. Petersburgh, 1805.

BEFORE I lead you further into St. Petersburgh, I must make you pause with me on the shores of the Neva; there to contemplate the wonderful industry with which its slimy bed has been turned into the firm earth that now supports such a weight of ponderous walls. The city, with its beautiful suburbs, is built on the banks of this river; the waters of which flow from the vast lake of Ladoga, seventy or eighty versts above St. Petersburgh. As the Neva approaches the Gulf of Finland it gradually expands, embracing within its numerous arms several islands, on which is planted the whole of this immense metropolis. These insular plains are covered with streets, churches, gardens and palaces; and like the Adriatic isles of Venice, are united into one great city, by innumerable bridges.

The manual labour of the early residents in this place, animated by the persevering genius of their glorious monarch, formed the dank and unwholesome marshes into these castellated rocks; and levelling the wilderness on the shore, where once grew the tangled forest, now stands the stately palace and blooms the gay parterre. The most luxuriant cultivation extends for many miles around the city: and could the immortal founder behold its present Arcadian scenes, and the regal pride of encolumned walls, he would acknowledge that his successors had done honour to his name.

The islands of the Neva, which are appropriated to the mansions and gardens of the nobility, are favourite objects of recreation with the inhabitants of the town, who visit their shady banks in light boats; and stepping on shore, enjoy all the pleasures of pure air and enlivening nature in these romantic retreats. The house and gardens of count Strogonoff are the most celebrated, and justly; for I never saw in any place more picturesque beauty guided by such admirable taste. From the uninterrupted flatness of the situation, the views cannot be striking or varied. It is all one verdant, gorgeous plain; here

smiling in the balmy assemblage of trees and gardens; there glittering with golden domes and painted spires. Human industry has done every thing here. The very platform of her work was fixed by herself in the bosom of the ever-shifting waters. On that she planted this goodly frame; and with the aid of ingenuity and taste, has given to it the last strokes of architectural perfection.

One of the most interesting of the structures which were erected in the early times of the city, is the fortress that Peter the Great built from a plan drawn by himself. It stands on one of the islands; and is handsomely faced with granite, being a regularly appointed fort. It is now used as a prison for state criminals. In the church attached to the fortress are deposited the bodies of the imperial family, from Peter the First to the present period. On viewing the tombs of these departed sovereigns, nothing splendid strikes the eye; nothing disturbs the awful solemnity of the scene. Each sarcophagus is covered with a velvet pall richly embroidered; but which is only unfolded on holy festivals, or occasionally to gratify the curiosity of a visitor. In the body of the church are many standards, placed there as trophies of the various wars in which this country has been engaged. Swedish, Turkish, Persian, Polish, French, and those of many inferior nations, stand around like a blighted forest, in thick and mouldering majesty. Between these ensigns of conquest are exhibited others yet more humbling to the vanquished powers. The keys of all the fortresses and cities which the victorious arms of Russia have reduced to subjection! Ishmael, Occhacoff, Warsaw, and Derbent; as well as many colossal bunches from more distant regions, for the transitory possession of which, thousands of brave men have paid with their lives! They were hung up in due order, and named and dated with the greatest exactness. A proud sight for an ambitious and warlike prince! and an inspiriting one for a people who are exposing themselves to the legions of a conqueror that seems to be fortune's minion. Here are the registers of former prowess; and as they look, they grasp the steel with redoubled vigour, and rush to the field, determined to add to the bannered heap, or perish before their own

standards. Man will follow interest to the edge of the precipice, but place honour on the opposite side and he will leap into her arms. When this is the spirit of an army, it is invincible. Such were the soldiers of Peter the Great; such of Suwarroff; and many are now in the armies of the present emperor, who emulate the character and fame of that unconquered general.

The keys of Derbent had been deposited in this church a few days only before I visited it, it being the third time that place had fallen under the Russian arms. Peter the Great was the first to whom it surrendered. Platon Zuboff, in the reign of Catherine II., reduced it a second time. And it is rather extraordinary, in its last defeat, the very man who presented the keys to Zuboff was fated, at a very advanced age, to lay them at the feet of a third conqueror. Here is also the bread and salt which was given with the keys of Warsaw to field-marshal Suwarroff, as a mark of the entire subjection of that kingdom to the imperial arms. The spire of this edifice is high like that of the admiralty, and gilt with ducat gold.

In one quarter of the fortress are extensive buildings appropriated to coining. For the apparatus, the government is indebted to Mr. Bolton of Soho. Several of his people are now here engaged in completing the necessary works.

In the walls and bastions which bulwark this castellated island are cells, or rather state prisons, where many a wretched being has lingered out an anxious life. In one of these places died the son of Peter the First after his condemnation. And here the unhappy and beautiful princess Tarrakanoff met her fate. In 1771 the Neva rose to a tremendous height, and inundating part of the city, entirely overflowed the fortress. All who were in the dungeons perished under the waters; and amongst the number, it is said, was her whose tale so darkly shadows the brilliant career of the great empress.

Take the whole of this fortified island together, with its embattled towers and pinnacles; and when under a setting sun you view it from the long perspective of the opposite street, no object can be finer. The burnished spire burning in brightness, and casting its stream of light over the turrets of the for

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