color, with the sleeves of the shift appearing. The milkwomen looked very well in this dress; and the manner in which they carry an ashen bow, from the ends of which are suspended little jars covered with matted birch bark, resting upon one shoulder, gives them an uncommonly graceful appearance. When the tradesmen's wives go out, they generally cover the top of their caps with a large rich silk handkerchief, which falls behind; this appeared to be a very favorite decoration.

Prudence demands some little knowledge of a character before we associate with it, and it is with great pleasure that in this early stage I present the Russian.

What of good he has he owes to himself; his foibles, and they are few, originate elsewhere: he is the absolute slave of his lord, and ranks with the sod of his domains; of a lord whose despotism is frequently more biting than the Siberian blast. Never illumined by education, bruis ed with ignoble blows, the object and frequently the victim of baronial rapacity, with a wide world before him, this oppressed child of nature is denied the common right of raising his shed where his condition may be ameliorated, permitted only to toil in a distant district under the protection of that disgraceful badge of vassalage, a certificate of leave, and upon his return compellable to lay the scanty fruits of his labor at the feet of his master; and finally, he is excluded from the common privilege which nature has bestowed upon the birds of the air and the beasts of the wilderness, of chusing his mate; he must marry when and whom his master orders. Yet under all this pressure, enough to destroy the marvellous elasticity of a Frenchman's mind, the Russian is what I have depicted him. If the reader is not pleased with the portrait, the painter is in fault.

CHAPTER XII.

Pedestrians, how considered-The scaffolding of the new -> Kazan church Great ingenuity of common Russians The market The KnoutCruelty of the Empress Elizabeth Punishment of two lovely females.

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S I have described that focus of trade the Gostinoi dvor, I must not omit to mention, that in the continuation of the Perspective towards the admiralty, an Englishman of the name of Owens carries on a prodigious trade, chiefly in English manufactures: his house, which is a very magnificent one, has twenty-five rooms en suite, which are filled with the most beautiful merchandize; each room is a separate shop, and attended by persons who are solely attached to it: the promenade, through magazines of music, of books, of jewels, of fashions, &c. is very agreeable, and I believe perfectly novel. The respectable and enterprising proprietor is said frequently to receive one thousand pounds sterling in one day; it is the constant and crowded resort of all the fashion of Petersburg.

In the streets I rarely ever saw a Russian above the lowest degree walking; the very taylor bestrides his droshka to take measure of his customer, and even many of the officers ride to the parade this may arise from 'the great extent of the city, and the distance which one place is from another. If a gentleman is seen on foot he is immediately considered to be an Englishman, who wishes to examine the city; protected by this consideration, and this alone, he is regarded with tokens of courtesy, should a Russian noble of his acquaintance gallop by in his chariot and four. An Englishman is the only privileged foreigner who may, with safety to his own dignity, perambulate the streets, and investigate the buildings of Petersburg.

As I walked down the Linden footpath of the Grand Perspective, I observed almost every passenger, with whatever hurry he seemed to be moving, stop short before a church on the right hand, a little below the shops,

take off his hat, bow, and touch his forehead, and either side of his breast, and then proceed. This building was the church of the Mother of God, of Kazan, which, although an inferior building, is, in religious estimation, the most considerable of the Greek churches, on account of its containing the figure of the Virgin. Upon all public occasions, the Emperor and court assist, with great splendor, in the celebration of divine worship here. Behind it was a vast pile of scaffolding, raised for the purpose of erecting a magnificent metropolitan church, in the room of the one which I have just named. This place of worship, when completed, will surpass in size and splendor every other building in the residence; and, if I may judge from the model, will be little inferior in magnitude and grandeur to our St. Paul's. The Emperor has allotted an enormous sum for its completion : all the holy utensils are to be set with the richest diamonds; even the screen is to be studded with precious stones. The scaffolding of this colossal temple is stupendous, and most ingeniously designed and execut ed, and would alone be sufficient to prove the genius and indefatigable labor of the Russians. Most of the masons and bricklayers who were engaged in raising the New Kazan, as well as those who are to be seen embellishing the city in other parts, are boors from the provinces. The axe constitutes the carpenter's box of tools: with that he performs all his work. No one can observe with what admirable judgment, perspicuity, and precision, these untutored rustics work, and what graceful objects rise from their uncouth hands, without doing them the justice to say, that they are not to be surpassed by the most refined people in imitation and ingenuity: from me they have drawn many a silent eulogium as I passed through the streets.

Whilst I was gazing upon the New Kazan, the foundation of which, as well as the pedestals of the columns, are already raised, on a sudden all the hats flew off about me, in compliment to the Empress Dowager, and her lovely daughters the Grand Duchesses, who, with their attendants, were passing in two very plain carriages of a dark olive color, drawn each by four horses, with two

footmen behind, in liveries of the color of the carriages, with a red cape, large cocked hats, and military boots: upon the pannels were merely the letter E, and the black eagle. This august family, like that of the sovereign of England, but with less show, frequently ride about the city, and pay friendly visits.

Strolling nearly to the end of the Perspective, I found myself in the market-place, and saw lying near the great market, scales, the apparatus to which delinquents are fastened, when they receive the punishment of the knout, that terrible scourge which Peter the Great and the Empress Elizabeth were perpetually raising over the heads of their subjects, but which the mercy of the present Emperor never, except for crimes of the deepest dye, permits to be exercised with fatal violence. The last man who perished by it, broke into the cottage of a family consisting of five persons, in a dark night, and butchered every one of them with a pole-axe. An act of such wanton barbarity, and so alien to the character of the Russian, did not fail to excite the highest sensations of horror. After a fair trial, the murderer was twice knouted; and, upon receiving his last punishment, was, in the language of the Russian executioner, "finished," by receiving several strokes of the thong dexterously applied to the loins, which were thus cut open: the miserable wretch was then raised, and the ligaments which united the nostrils were terribly lascerated by pincers; but this latter part of his punishment, as I was informed by a gentleman who was present, created no additional pang to the sufferer, for the last stroke of the Scourge only fell upon a breathless body. When a criminal is going to receive the knout, he has a right, if he chuses, to stop at a certain kabac, and drink an allowance of liquor at the expense of government.

I question if the cruelty of punishment is to be determined by the quantum of unnecessary agony which it causes, whether the infliction of death by suspension is not almost as barbarous as the knout sufferers in the former mode have been seen to display, for eight and ten minutes, all the appearances of the most horrible torment. There is no mode of putting a capital offen

der to death so swift and decisive as decapitation. The scaffold, the preparation, the fatal stroke, the blood, are pregnant with exemplary and repulsive horror: the pang of the sufferer is instantaneous all the substantial ends of justice are effected with all possible humanity.

In Russia, ladies of rank have suffered the punishment of the knout the Abbé Chappe D'Auteroche relates the circumstance of an execution of this naturë which took place in the reign of the cruel Elizebeth. He states that Madame Lapookin, who was one of the loveliest women belonging to the court of that Empress, had been intimately connected with a foreign ambassa dor who was concerned in a conspiracy against Elizabeth, and, on this account, his fair companion was denounced as an accessary in his guilt, and condemned to undergo the knout: the truth was, Madame Lapookin had been indiscreet enough to mention some of the endless amours of her imperial mistress. The beautiful culprit mounted the scaffold in an elegant undress, which en ereased the beauty of her charms and the interest of her situation. Distinguished by the captivation of her mind and person, she had been the idol of the court, and wherever she moved, she was environed by admirers : she was now surrounded by executioners, upon whom she gazed with astonishment, and seemed to doubt that she was the object of such cruel preparations. One of the executioners pulled off a cloak which covered her bosom, at which, like Charlotte Cordey as she was preparing for the guillotine, her modesty took alarm, she started back, turned pale, and burst into tears. Her clothes were soon stripped off, and she was naked to the waist, before the cager eyes of an immense concourse of people profoundly silent. One of the executioners then took her by both hands, and turning half rounds raised her on his back, inclining forwards, lifting her a little from the ground; upon which the other executioner laid hold of her delicate limbs with his rough hands, adjusted her on the back of his coadjutor, and placed her in the properest posture for receiving the punishment. He then retreated a few steps, measuring the proper distance with a steady eye, and leaping back.