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of Russian marriages are mere matters of business and calculation, in which family interests are chiefly considered, and the feelings and inclinations of the parties most concerned little regarded, the union being arranged by the respective parents, and the principals submissively acquiescing. In the upper classes this may be a necessary and natural consequence of the restraint which is placed upon the social intercourse of the two sexes, the young men and the young ladies having rarely sufficient opportunity of becoming well acquainted with one another. Another reason for the frequency of mariages de convenance, and one which pervades all classes, may be found in the exaggerated notions of parental authority which prevail in this country, and which appear by no means favourable to the growth and development of true filial affection.

Parental tyranny is carried to its highest pitch among the tradesmen and the peasants, and therefore interested marriages, where the affections are in no way concerned, or rather where they are often outraged, are as common among these classes as among the higher orders. Peasants, however, cannot marry without the consent of their master, and he, therefore, has it in his power to a considerable extent to check this evil. If he wishes to do so, when his consent is asked he sends for the two young persons separately, and speaks to each in private, encouraging them to tell him the truth, and endeavouring to ascertain whether the marriage is really their own wish, or whether it has been arranged between their families without their desire. If in this manner the master discovers that they are repugnant to the union, or that their affections are fixed elsewhere, he can easily find a plausible excuse for refusing his consent to the marriage, without betraying to the parents the confidence reposed in him by their children.

The following anecdote is said to be true, and it is rather characteristic of the diamond-cut-diamond propensities of the Russian tradesman.

A marriage had been arranged between two families in the trading class at Moscow. The father of the young lady was rich, and it was agreed that he should provide her with a handsome trousseau, and that he should pay his son-in-law her fortune

of two hundred thousand roubles (about eight thousand pounds) on the morning of the wedding. The happy day at length arrived, and the trousseau or pridannie was, according to custom, packed in handsome chests, which were placed on cars, and paraded through the streets to the bridegroom's house, to display the wealth of the family; it having already, with the same laudable object, been exhibited in the bride's apartments to all who chose to come, whether to admire or to criticise.

Immediately before the wedding the father of the girl presented her intended husband with the promised sum as his daughter's fortune; remarking at the same time to the young man, "You can't carry such a sum of money as this to church with you, so you had better leave it in my charge at present, and you can take it home with you at night." To this proposal the other readily assented; the wedding was duly solemnised, and was as usual celebrated afterwards by a vast deal of eating and drinking; and when the happy couple went home at night, the unsuspicious bridegroom was easily persuaded to leave his money in his father-in-law's care till the following morning.

The next day he was hardly dressed when he was told that there were some men inquiring for him. He at first refused to see them, saying it was not a moment for business, and he would attend to none that day; the strangers, however, persisted, and they were at length admitted. On seeing the bridegroom, they immediately told him they were come for the chests. "What chests?" was the reply. "Why, the pridannie, to be sure." "Pooh!" said the young man, who supposed that the ornamented chests containing the bride's wardrobe had been hired for the occasion; 66 you shall have your boxes as soon as my wife has had time to unpack her things, and put them into their proper places." Upon this the lady, who was standing by, looked very foolish, while the men replied that they must have not only the chests, but also their contents. The indignant bridegroom demanded if they meant to carry off his wife's wardrobe. "Don't talk nonsense about your wife's wardrobe," said the intruders, with a provoking laugh; "you don't really suppose that all those things belong to her? the old gentleman only hired them for the occasion, to look

well at the wedding, and we are sent now to fetch them back." The bride, on being appealed to, was obliged to admit that all the men had said was true. Accordingly they carried off the handsome furs, silks, jewels, and other valuable articles of a Russian trousseau in that class of life, while the husband betook himself in no good humour to his father-inlaw, to complain of his deceit, and to get the money which he had left in his charge. "What money?" said the old man, in pretended surprise. "Why," said the other, "the two hundred thousand roubles which you paid me yesterday as your daughter's fortune, and which I left in your care last night." "Ah!" said the father-in-law, laughing, "you can't pretend to be serious. The money is mine: I gave it yesterday to you to make a show before the company, and you handed it back afterwards, as it was always understood between us that you should."

It was in vain that the young man stoutly denied the assertion, and urged the payment of the money, and the fulfilment of the contract. Argument and entreaty proved alike useless. The old man kept his money-bags, and the son-in-law was obliged to return to his wife with the satisfaction of having been cheated out of her fortune, as well as her wardrobe, by her own father.

LETTER XIV.

Winter quarters Commencement of sledging Arbozes

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railway-The conscription Managed by a board - How constituted Account of the system- What being enlisted means in Russia-Standard of height - How the conscripts are selected - On the estates of private individuals On the estates of the crown Oppressive circumstances occasionally arising - Age of conscripts - Substitutes - Penalty on the Board for enlisting an unfit man — Bribery — A sitting of the Board — Description of their proceedings — Examination of a conscript from a private estate - Meaning of lop and zatillac A Crown peasant · Character of the scene Attachment of the Russian to his familyAnecdote Disposal of the recruits.

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Tamboff, December 16th, 1837. We have now been settled for nearly three weeks in the town of Tamboff, where we are to spend the winter, and where the families of this district are fast assembling. We have had an uninterrupted frost since the 16th of November; but no snow, beyond a mere sprinkling, fell until Sunday last, and even then the quantity was but moderate. It was, however, sufficient to allow of the use of sledges, a few of which were in motion, to the great joy of their owners, before the ground was thoroughly white. By the following morning the droschkas and tilègas had entirely disappeared, and no wheeled vehicles were to be seen except a few gentlemen's carriages, which may be used in the streets of a town all winter.

Our English ideas of a heavy fall of snow are so closely connected with the notion of stage-coaches buried in drifts, mails due but not arrived, and parties imprisoned in countryhouses, that it is a little difficult at first to enter into the feelings of the Russian, who looks forward to the same event as affording him means of traffic and communication which he could not otherwise possess. The rise of the Nile is not more interesting or important to the Egyptian than is the establishment of the trainage or snow-roads to the Russian. If this period be unduly delayed, as sometimes happens, the conse

quences are most injurious to the country, from the difficulty of transporting goods, and from the general interruption to all traffic.

The cross-roads, especially in this part of the country, where as I have already told you there is no stone, become perfectly impassable before winter, being first cut into very deep ruts and holes during the wet weather of the autumn, and then in this condition frozen hard. It may therefore be readily supposed how welcome is the snow which spreads a smooth covering over this broken surface, and enables travellers and merchandise to glide easily and swiftly to their destination, without risk or injury.

The internal commerce of Russia is carried on in a manner quite peculiar to the country. There are no bulky stagewaggons, but all goods are transported in tilègas* or sledges, according to the season, each vehicle being drawn in general by one horse. These travel in trains, which are called arbozes, and their traffic on the principal roads is very great, even in summer. During the whole journey from Moscow to Tamboff we were seldom half an hour without meeting or passing an arboze, the number of tilègas in each varying from fifteen or twenty up to a hundred. In the winter, however, the trains are much more numerous,† from the increased facility of travelling and the consequent cheapness of conveyance. The average load for each sledge drawn by one horse is, I am told, about seven hundredweight, the animals being for the most part small and weak.

Important as these arbozes are to the internal trade of Russia, they are the source of considerable inconvenience to the winter traveller. The horses are under little control, from the small proportion of drivers, so that the line which they keep is but irregular, and the sledges, being on smooth wooden runners,

* Small light waggons.

+ I am credibly informed that in the winter fifty thousand sledges come daily into Moscow, loaded with provisions and goods. The charge in the winter, for conveying goods from Tamboff to Moscow, a distance of about three hundred and sixty miles, is a rouble per pood, or one penny per three and a half pounds, nearly.

The law requires that there should be at least one driver to every three tilègas or sledges, but it is not rigorously enforced.

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