dangerous to their neighbous, so that it was found necessary to flatter them, and to gain them by presents, to prevent them from committing depredations and driving away the flocks in time of peace, and in war to secure the aid of such brave and serviceable troops. At present all the Cossacks pay implicit obedience to the crown, and are as faithful subjects as any in the empire. Content with little, they patiently endure every kind of hardship; but they are the first in war wherever there is an opportunity for plunder. Their country is not, strictly speaking, a Russian province, but has its peculiar government and constitution, and is under an Atainan or commander in chief, who on all occasions that arise communicates directly with St. Petersburg. This has inspired them with a manly love of freedom which unfortunately is not to be found in the other Russians; but nevertheless perfect submission to the orders of their superiors prevails among them.

The fertility of the country, and their whole establishment, render them but little disposed to pursue agriculture with assiduity, and they grow only just so much corn as they require for their own consumption. On the other hand the vine is largely cultivated along the whole of the Don, and they make several truly excellent sorts of wine, which when not adul terated are equal to the light French wines. Here is likewise produced a kind of champagne, which under the name of Symlianskij, is sent all over Russia; but it is commonly debased with potash, and produces head-ache

and disorders of the stomach. I here drank a light sort of red wine, which nearly resembles the Petit Bourgogne, and was of excellent flavour. Of this I took with me at my departure a half-anker; but it froze at a temperature of no lower than five degrees, so that I could use it no other way than mulled.

The women of Tscherkassk may upon the whole be pronounced handsome, and appear very showy, especially on holidays, with their half oriental costume. The use of paint is common at this place, as it is all over Russia; but here I think I observed this disguise on the faces of middle-aged females only. The young women and girls have a fresh complexion, and seem to employ few artificial means of improving their natural beauty.

The principal church is one of the most remarkable objects in the town, not only on account of its architecture, but for the prodigious quantity of gold, silver, and jewels, especially pearls, which it contains. All these treasures, formed part of the booty which the Cossacks have made in different wars, and particularly in Poland. Besides a multitude of images of saints wrought in gold, or overlaid with that metal, which are adorned with the largest and most costly stones, you here see an altarpiece of considerable height and breadth, studded all over with pearls, many of which are of the largest size and finest quality. There is likewise more gold and silver coin among the Cossacks than any where else in Russia. Many of the widows of people of distinction have whole pots full of ducats lying in their houses,

which pass from father to son un diminished, and commonly without ever being counted.

Since the foundation of the university of Charkow, the Gymnasium at Tscherkassk has been placed on a better footing; and I must own that I scarcely expected to find so good a seminary among the Cossacks. During my stay there was a public examination which was highly creditable to the institution; and truth obliges me to declare that it may vie with any other in Russia. The Cossacks are quick of apprehension; they have shrewd understandings, and are not deficient in Asiatic acuteness. This circum stance of itself evinces that they are not of pure Russian descent. They are much addicted to intoxication, but are ashamed to suffer its consequences to be publicly seen, which is not the case in the rest of Russia; for there, when a man of quality reels along the streets after a debauch, no one takes the least notice of it, neither does it cast the slightest imputation on his character. The people of Tscherkassk choose rather to drink to excess at home, and the fair sex make no scruple to partake in these Bacchanalian orgies.

The little town of Nachtschiwan, built since the year 1780 by the Armenians who have emi grated from the Krym, is only 28 wersts from Tscherkassk. The road thither crosses the Akssai, and theu leads on the right side of the Don past dangerous ravines, in which run small streams that are dry in summer. I cannot describe what an agreeable impres sion was made upon me by this perfectly regular and handsome

set

place, and the great order which prevails there; it were to be wished that many such Armenian towns might be founded in other: parts of the Russian empire. Nachtschiwan signifies new tlement, and has been thus named after a town of Armenia, where, says tradition, Noah, on descending from Mount Arrarat, first built himself a habitation. The shops here are particularly worthy of notice; they form a long row, and are stocked with all kinds of commodities. In front of them, runs a broad and completely covered passage, which is lighted from above by windows, and has, on account of its height and elegance, an imposing appearance. cording to the Asiatic custom, the mechanics work in their shops, and all the persons of the same trade live near one another; so that you here see a row of goldsmiths, there another of bakers, tailors, &c. Nachtschiwan is moreover a very populous and lively place.

Ac

My host, who was then chief magistrate (Golowa), took a pleasure in conducting me about every where, and showed me in the town-house the licence for building the town confirmed by the empress Catherine 11., which, written in the Armenian language and in large characters, adorns the Court of Justice. Colonel Awramow, an Armenian by birth, has rendered great services to the town, and was one of the original founders. At his house 1 met with two Armenian archimandrites, who were on the way to the celebrated convent of Etschmindsin, near Eriwan. At night we had a truly cheerful ball, at

which however but few Armenian females were present, because they live very retired, and seldom show themselves to strangers.

I returned the following day from Nachtschiwan to Tscherkassk, where I stayed but a few hours, and immediately inade an excursion among the Calmucks settled on the opposite shore of the Don. These, like the Don Cossacks, to whom they are accounted to belong, are divided into regiments of 500 men, each of which is under a colonel and major (Jessaul). Only one company of these Calmucks, under a Ssotnik, was encamped here in their ordinary felt tents or jurtes, and they appeared to be in indigent circumstances. These Calmuck Cossacks have by right their pasturage between the Don, the river Ssal, and the great Manytsch, and are totally distinct from the Wolga Cossacks in the government of Astrachan.

On the Distribution of the Inhabitants of Russia. Translated by T. C. Hermann, from the Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburgh.

Distribution according to the Na

tions.

The total population of a country makes us acquainted with its physical force; the distribution of that population gives us its moral force.

Those people who are sprung from the same origin usually speak the same language, and have the same manners and customs. They understand one another, resemble

one another, and consider them selves as members of the same family. The more savage or barbarous a people is, the more does this difference influence its conduct towards strangers. It is very difficult for Government to efface these characteristic distinctions, in order to establish the necessary union in a political body composed of different nations. The progress of knowledge certainly diminishes the effect of these national distinctions. Hence it happens that the higher ranks in all nations have a considerable resemblance to each other: but knowledge is not easily diffused among the lower orders of society. The most enlightened governments have endeavoured to destroy these distinctions. Russia has at all times followed this great principle. The new divisions of France had the same object. England has at last admitted the Scotch and the Irish into her Parliament.

Religion for a long time had a striking effect upon politics. From the end of the 15th century to that of the 17th the character of the politics of cabinets was religious. The 18th century bears the character of the mercantile system and that of the 19th is revolutionary. Various governments have adopted the principles of toleration: but in some states it is political, without being religious; in others religious but not political. It is only in France, in Prussia, and in Russia, that it bears the double character of religion and politics.

The distribution of population according to the nations is one of the most interesting statistical inquiries. The farmer is attached

to his fields, because upon them he has lavished his labours and the fruit of his savings. These fields are the only sources of riches, and consequently the possessors of them become by degrees the absolute masters of those that have none. Manufactures and commerce open a new source of riches independent of the territorial property. A third class of citizens interposes itself between the labourer of the fields and the proprietors of estates. They are justly called the third estate. They belong to the whole world. Knowledge and the arts friendly to liberty, comfort, and tranquillity spread with the greatest facility in this class. The want of the third estate stops the progress of knowledge among a people of slaves; and the German nations, notwithstanding their feudal system, were only more fortunate in possessing this third estate some ages before other nations. The nobility and the clergy form a political body between the sovereign and the nation. Their number, their property, their privileges, require the greatest attention in order to be able to judge of the moral force of monarchies. The great armies kept up by all nations have established a military system in the midst of peace. This system, brought to perfection since the time of Louis XIV. and Frederick II., has destroyed the finances, and overturned several states.

Formerly there were various states in Europe in which the sovereign was limited by the privileges of the people. Those provinces which had preserved particular rights sometimes rendered

the operations of government more slow and more difficult.

The origin of nations, then, religion, the different orders of society, and the particular rights of certain provinces, are the principal points of view under which we are about to contemplate the total population of Russia.

Ethnography makes researches into the origin of people, and the smallest tribe is classed apart, provided it exhibits national diffe

rences.

The writer on political statistics attends to these differences only when they have a marked effect upon the happiness of the state.

Under the first point of view Russia contains nearly a hundred different nations; under the second, European Russia includes only three nations, the Sclavonians, Finns, and Tartars. We might indeed include the inhabitants of Caucasus; but they are not numerous. Siberia, besides the Finns and Tartars, includes likewise the Samojedes, and the people of the Mongole and American race. But this population is

only in its infancy.

1. The centre of European Russia is inhabited by the Russians. On the west and south-west are found the Poles. We shall not uselessly multiply the subdivisions of the Sclavonian race by stating particularly the inhabitants of Great and Little Russia, the Cossacks, Serbes, Wlachians, Albanois, Arnautes, Bulgarians, &c. which occur as foreigners or colonists in the governments of the south. How many subdivisions of this kind might be made in France and England.

2. All the north of Russia, from Finland, by Archangel, Olonetz, Petersburgh, Novgorod, Wologda, Waetka, and Perm, is inhabited by Finlanders. Their numerous tribes are spread over the west and the east. In the west, by Esthlande and Livonia, as far as Courland; in the east, by Kasan, Nigegorod, Sibirsk, Resan, Tambow, Orenburg, Saratow. They have passed the Oural, and are spread in the government of Tobolsk.

3. The Tartars occupy the south of Russia and of Siberia; the Tartars of Kasan, of Astracan, of the Crimea, of Caucasus; the Tartars of Tobolsk, of Tschoulym, Buchares, Teleutes, Abinzes on the Ob, the Tschoulym and the Tom; foreign Tartars of Chiwa, of Persia, of Turquestan; Noga. ens in the Crimea and on the Couban, Baschkines, Metscherjaeques, and several other tribes mixed with the Tartars and the Finns.

The inhabitants of Caucasus are classed apart, but chiefly for the purposes of ethnography.

1. The Samojedes are the first nation of Northern Siberia. Their tribes extend from the Frozen Ocean along the Jenisei, as far as Baikal, and stretch from the Ob very far into the eastern parts of Siberia.

2. Their neighbours are the American tribes, the Tsuktsches, the Kamtschadales, and the inhabitants of the Aleoutes and Couriles Archipelagos.

3. In the south of Siberia occur different tribes of the people called Mongoles.

with the same accuracy as in Aus→ tria, where the different nations have different privileges. The Russian government having given to all its subjects the same privi leges, and imposed on them the same duties, never requires from the governors information respecting the national differences. Of consequence the statements of the population in 1796, 1803, and 1804, and several other particular reports which I have consulted, give us no information on the subject. Their principles of division are financial and military. statements of the population of Siberia have more of this kind of facts, because they are necessary there in a financial point of view. I ought to repeat here that all my calculations are founded on the statements drawn up by order of government, which are always the most probable. I know well their imperfections; but I am aware also of the vagueness of all other calculations.

The

The most interesting question is, How much may we estimate, with the greatest degree of probability, the population of the nations not Russian ?

I. Poles.

Poland in 1772, according to the researches of Count Tschatzki, a learned Polish author, had a population of 14 millions. Poland was entirely divided 23 y years after between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.