tivity; as for grace, it has not yet gravitated so low. You will frequently see a couple of huge hulking fellows with greasy grisly beards, kissing and smacking, locked in each others arms, as if they were meeting after an interval of ages.

Indeed there are many sights exhibited in this country very strange to a British eye; and none more so to me than when I look from the great Russian noble in all the power of wealth, to the poor vassal in his train; who has not even an hour's liberty at his own command. Although I have been in this part of the world upwards of six months, I cannot yet prevail on myself to consider the Russian servant like the helots of the Spartans, as of a species so different from their masters, that to treat them like a horse or any other useful animal, is to pay them respect enough. There is something in the air of Britain which infuses into the generality of her sons as great a repugnance to make a slave, as to be one. Blessed, then, be the land of liberty! for it dispenses the good it enjoys; and by leaving every man free, allows him the rank in creation nature intended. Genius, industry, virtue, all find their proper spheres: and easily pass from the lower stations, into which accident might have placed them, to regions better calculated for the exercise of their powers.

That the Russian peasantry and servants are slaves, does not imply that their owners are tyrants. In most cases their comforts are very properly attended to; and cruelty or oppression is very seldom suffered to embitter their existence. You never hear them complain: and in fact they rarely have any cause of complaint; for, perfectly ignorant of the advantages of liberty, they desire it not; are quite content to be considered as much their master's property as his ox or his ass, provided they be foddered and fed as well.

The houses of the nobility are filled with these vassals, or servants, both male and female, who line the halls, passages, and entrances of the rooms in splendid liveries. In almost every antichamber some of these domestics are placed, ready to obey the commands of their lord or his guests; and continually your cars are saluted with the theatrical call of "who waits?" when two or three run in at the instant, as promptly as I ever saw the

gentlemen-in-waiting answer the like summons from the boards of Drury-Lane or Covent-Garden. What with the dwarf pages, fools, numerous attendants, and customs of hospitality practised here, I cannot but be struck with its resemblance to the establishments of our old English barons; and sometimes almost fancy myself transported back to the feudal days of Britain. You, who are as romantic as myself in these particulars, can easily understand how these antiquated usages affect my imagination and set it to work: and indeed I find it no unamusing train of thought to pursue the progress of different nations through various stages of civilization, till I can with ease point out the periods in each when their customs and manners have exactly paralleled. Thus the present manners of some countries are only correspondent with what were the manners of a neighbouring nation a century ago. And so I go on, when I have nothing else to do, making the world pass before me, as we whirl about its effigy on a globe, with our finger.

But to return to my slaves. Frequent instances have been mentioned to me of the cruelty with which some owners treat this unfortunate race. But I always found the anecdotes thus related were of very old date; and if not exaggerated, time has so altered the minds of the Russians, that such barbarities very seldom, if ever, now occur.

The boors are all slaves. Each estate has its native boors by hundreds, who perform all its agricultural duties. They are extremely industrious; and when under a good owner, daily improve and become more valuable. Their attachment to their lord, when well treated, is generally as warm, as their enmity on the reverse. Indeed, I was told the other day of a gentleman, who, possessed of a large village with its inhabitants, and wanting money, was going to sell it and them. His slaves, who loved him, hearing of this intended transfer of them to some new, and perhaps less amiable proprietor, went in a body to him, and offered to collect amongst themselves all the little savings their labours had amassed; and if the sum were inadequate to supply the deficiency, several volunteered to be sold, if he would but consent still to remain master of the village. Happy was this man's temporary poverty, since it showed him

his own worth, and proved to him the virtue of his slaves. From that day he must have considered them rather as his sons than as his vassals.

Uncultivated minds having nothing to restrain their passions, these ill starred men are very vehement in their hatred; and sometimes, though seldom, they have no little provocation. When their owner exacts from them the produce of their earnings, after having perhaps received from them an exorbitant sum for allowing them to work at their respective trades, then, very frequently, they are wrought up to such resentment as to form formidable conspiracies against the life of their oppressor. One instance I can give you, which happened a few months ago. A gentleman having by some severities disobliged his slaves, they laid hold of him, and threw him into a large boiler of hot spirits in one of his own distilling houses. He was not discovered for some days; but when the murder was known, ten or fifteen of the perpetrators were knouted and banished for ever to Siberia. Before I leave this subject, I must repeat another anecdote which is more singular than the former, and marks the simplicity of the one party, and the ingenious treachery of the other.

A German general, who had by his amiable qualities and military abilities risen to the highest rank in the Russian army, married a lovely woman of this country, by whom he became possessed of several estates and their appropriate slaves. He was a man of the best heart, being most susceptible of the sufferings of others, and eager to relieve them. On visiting one of these estates, he found a thousand impositions and acts of tyranny exercised on the poor boors, by six or seven farmers who rented great part of the property. His humanity was awakened; and, by degrees,' he endeavoured to correct all these abuses, and gave orders to the junto of earthholders to curtail their possessions, and to separate. As this sentence, if carried into effect, would have put an end to their avaricious plans, they saw no other chance of keeping their ground than by ridding themselves of their new master; which diabolical act they accomplished with the most ingenious cunning.

They found a boor who, with the savings from his daily toil,

was anxious to buy a horse, thinking by that acquisition he would be enabled to extend his merchandize, and double his profits. The conspirators persuaded this unfortunate man to undertake the death of their enemy, and promised, in reward, twenty-eight rubles and the animal on which he had set his mind. Any scruples he might urge against the murder were overruled by the argument, that as the general was of a different religion from them, it was no greater sin than killing a dog. This decided him, and being counselled by his employers, that as soon as he had effected their wishes, he was to conceal himself for some time (after which they engaged more largely to reward him), he prepared himself for the assassination.

On the morning of the first anniversary of the marriage day of the general and his bride, the happy pair having determined to celebrate it with a fête, ordered certain dispositions to be made in a neighbouring wood for that purpose. That all should be worthy the commemoration of an event which had been so felicitous to him, this amiable husband mounted his horse, and rode towards the thicket to inspect the arrangements for the entertainment. The peasant had secreted himself amongst the bushes: on the sight of his victim he levelled his too well directed gun: the contents were lodged in the general's heart, and he sunk to the ground, murdered by one of the very wretches whose wrongs he had sought to redress. The terri fied horse flew back to the house of his master: the blood on his coat, and the report of the gun, gave the alarm; and the fears of the unhappy lady were soon realized by the sight of men bearing in her husband's corpse. The perpetrator of the act was caught before he could escape: he confessed, and betrayed who were his accomplices. They were all seized, knouted, and sent to Siberia, and their houses burnt to the ground.

The lovely widow was inconsolable. She erected a mausoleum to her departed hero; and paying it diurnal and nocturnal visits, there wept over his murder and her grief, till the source of tears was dry. But time, that obliterator of most sorrows; and chance, whose neverfailing fund of circumstances so often presents our weal or wo, threw in her way another soldier, amiable as brave, and in a fortunate hour she saw her mourn

ing weeds, by love's talisman changed into nuptial roses. She is now living and happy! So, dear friend, ends my dismal story. And that all dismal stories of which you and I, unluckily for ourselves, know so much, may terminate as comfortingly as the sorrows of this lady, is most devoutly wished by your faithful, &c. &c.

LETTER XXI.

Mosco, May, 1806.

I HAVE just returned from a delightful walk on the terrace of the Kremlin. In a former letter I spoke of the wide and magnificent prospect from the tower of the great church: this which I now enjoyed in strolling along the brow of the hill that fronts the palace, and which borders the river, commands a home view of most interesting particulars.

The granite quay stretches to a vast length at the base of the fortress: the Moskva, forested with vessels from the Volga, and other rivers of the interior: the foundling hospital, the various palaces of the nobility, as well as the gilding and many coloured domes of several hundred churches, extend themselves, till the horizon and its woods seem to unite the city with the sky. The fore ground is formed of the religious buildings; and the ancient wall of the Kremlin, whose eastern battlements give a striking air of romantic grandeur to the whole. The large scale on which the enfans trouvées presents itself, fully conveys the nobleness of its plan, being perhaps the best endowed charity in Europe. A few months ago I wrote largely to you on the subject of this institution; or rather on one of its scions at St. Petersburgh, which in every respect resembles its parent tree, excepting in the solidity of its foundation.

The hospital at St. Petersburgh is almost entirely dependent on the voluntary support of its august patroness; but this at Mosco has other sources whence it draws the wealth that