master of the house rose from one of the tables, and, coming forward, shook hands with me, and begged me to sit by him till his rubber was ended. When the Prince had finished his game, after talking to me for some time, he proposed to show me his pictures, of which he has a fine collection. A servant was summoned with lights, and we went through the greater part of the house, which is very fine, and on a grand scale, examining the paintings, of which the Prince pointed out the most meritorious and valuable. He talked much of Lord Londonderry, who had visited him the year before; and he asked whether the Marquis' house in London was finer than his own, a question I could not answer. The grand dining-room was a splendid apartment, its chief ornament being a beautiful piece of sculpture; a female figure and a child, the size of life, in white marble, which the Prince had brought from Italy. When we returned from our tour of inspection, I was introduced to two or three persons, with whom I conversed till it was time to take leave. Among others was the Prince of Georgia, the grandson of the last King, who, as I have told you, lost his crown, while his son forfeited his liberty in attempting to regain it, and was imprisoned for life in a Russian fortress.

Moscow abounds in charitable institutions, of which I only visited two, namely, the Cheremetieff and the Galitzin Hospitals. Both are noble establishments, intended for the reception of sick people, and for the maintenance of a certain number of old men and women. Each owes its foundation to the munificence of a private individual, the one having been endowed by Count Cheremetieff, and the other by a Prince Galitzin, uncle to Prince Serge, the present director of it. The former is the richer institution of the two; and, in addition to its other charities, it annually provides marriage portions for a certain number of young women.

It is impossible to speak too highly of the order and cleanliness which appeared in every part of these two hospitals, over each of which I was conducted by the medical gentlemen in attendance. The Cheremetieff has the advantage in point of architecture; but the same system is apparently followed in the interior management of both. There can be little doubt that in many cases the patients derive as much benefit from

the spacious rooms in which they are placed, and the pure and wholesome air which they breathe, as from the medical treatment which they undergo.

In each hospital there is a church for the inmates. I passed through that at the Galitzin while a funeral service was going on. The coffin was placed on a bier in the centre of the church, the lid being off, so that the face of the dead body was exposed. At the head of the corpse were placed three lighted candles. Near the Cheremetieff Hospital we were shown a high tower, of singular architecture, now used for raising water to distribute over the city. It was built in former days by a rich merchant, named Souchareff, for the charitable purpose of furnishing employment to the poor in a time of scarcity.

I will conclude the subject of Moscow by observing that, striking as the Kremlin is, and fine as many of the public and private buildings are, much of the city has more the air of an overgrown country town than of a capital. There is a deficiency of grand arteries; and a great part of the town is filled with a multitude of irregular narrow streets, flanked often, on one or both sides, by a dead wall. There is a provincial rusticity, moreover, in the style of the equipages. The principal cause, however, of the impression which Moscow made upon me in this respect is probably the general dulness of the streets, which, owing to the immense extent of the town in proportion to its population, present none of that thronged and bustling appearance which one naturally looks for in a great capital. At Petersburg the case is very different, and the streets, which were empty and deserted in June, are now crowded with handsome carriages and sledges, as well as with foot passengers. Some of the principal thoroughfares are indeed so crowded that it requires caution to avoid being knocked down in crossing from one side to the other, and the shouts of the coachmen, "pádi, padi," "get out of the way," are incessant. They drive excessively fast, but they will avoid hurting you, if possible, for fear of the punishment, which is to be made a soldier.

I will now conclude this long letter by assuring you that we are very happy to find ourselves at the end of our journey, and not at all inclined to set out upon another until the weather

is a little more genial, and until carriages on wheels can be used instead of sledges, as we have not yet quite forgotten the sensation of jolting in and out of an ouchaba. Some friends who left Tamboff about the same time as ourselves, and who arrived here a few days before us, were upset twice in the course of the journey, so that we may consider ourselves fortunate in having escaped all accidents.

LETTER XXII.

Thaw - Cold in April - Alexandrovsky - General Wilson - The Imperial Manufactory-Foundlings - English artisans - Mr. Law.

St. Petersburg, April 11th, 1838.

WE are in hopes that the winter is now nearly over, as the frost yesterday began to give way, and the thaw is proceeding rapidly. Everybody will rejoice heartily at the arrival of spring, for such a winter as this has been few persons can remember. Greater degrees of cold have been known; but the duration of the frost, and its continued severity for nearly five months, is almost unprecedented even in Russia. So late as this day week (the 4th of April) there were in Petersburg nineteen degrees of cold,* and in the country twenty. The ice on the Neva is from forty-two to forty-four inches thick, and the ground is frozen to the depth of six feet.

We went yesterday to see the Imperial manufactory at Alexandrovsky, about thirteen versts hence, in compliance with an invitation from General Wilson, who, for thirty years, has superintended the establishment, and who is a most excellent and popular person. The articles manufactured here are of various kinds. In one department, cotton is spun; in another, sheets, table-linen, &c., are woven; and in a third are made all the playing-cards which are used in Russia, as the Crown reserves the monopoly of this manufacture. About three thousand operatives are employed altogether; and of these nearly one thousand are foundlings, boys and girls. At twelve years old the foundlings are brought to the factory from the hospital where they have been reared, and they remain there till the age of twenty-one, when the young men become their own masters, may marry, and may quit the manufactory, or may remain as paid workmen, according as they please. The girls are allowed to marry at eighteen.

* By Reaumur.

From the moment of their arrival at the manufactory, these foundlings, in addition to their food, clothing, and lodging, receive small monthly wages, half of which is given to them by way of pocket-money, and the other half is placed at interest in a savings-bank; so that when they come of age, or marry, they have a little fund of three or four hundred roubles with which to begin the world. Immediately after our arrival at Alexandrovsky we were taken to see the young operatives at dinner, which, it being Lent, the only fast in the year which they are required to keep, consisted of soup-maigre, fish, rye-bread, and quass-all served in pewter. The day was an ordinary working-day, and there was no preparation for visitors, our arrival, owing to a misunderstanding, being, in fact, quite unexpected. Nothing, however, could exceed the neatness and perfect cleanliness of these young manufacturers, more especially of the girls, with their well-brushed hair neatly braided on the forehead, and fastened behind with a comb, every head being arranged alike. A wooden screen, about six feet high, ran down the middle of the hall to separate the two sexes. Leaving them at their meal, we were shown through the dormitories, which were clean, airy, and comfortable; a convenient washing-room, well supplied with water, being attached to each set.

When we returned to the hall, dinner was over, and at our appearance a bell was rung, when the whole body, young men, boys, and girls, stood up and sung a hymn; at the conclusion of which the bell gave the signal for departure, and the two sexes moved out of the hall at different ends, in the most orderly manner. I was told by General Wilson's brother that in the thirty years during which he has had the management of this manufactory there has never been more than one instance of a girl misconducting herself; a fact which strongly attests the excellence of the regulations which are observed.

This, like all the other public establishments, such as barracks and hospitals, which I have seen in this country, appears a perfect model of order and cleanliness; a fact the more striking in Russia, since there is usually abundant room for improvement in these respects in private houses. Most branches of the work at Alexandrovsky are under the super