appeared to care nothing for it. He was coming at full speed down hill, and not having pulled up in time, was obliged to turn on one side to avoid the crowd; in so doing his horse slipped and fell flat on his side. I expected the rider to be considerably hurt, but he was instantly on his legs, urged up his horse, mounted, and set off again at full gallop across the plain. The Cossacks, who appear to be the only Russians much given to horsemanship, ride with snaffle bridles and upon a peaked saddle, with a leather cushion girthed upon it, so that they sit very high. They have a very peculiar seat, riding rather on one side, looking to the right, with the right toe and knee pointing out, and the left pressed closely to the horse. They wear no spurs, but carry a whip, seemingly of pig-skin, like a small flail, in their hands.

Adjoining the space which was occupied by the horse-fair, is a race-course for trotting matches, which are greatly in vogue in Russia at present. Great attention is paid, especially in this part of the country, to breeding these horses, which often command very high prices; they are many of them large and showy, like London cabriolet horses. We saw these horses training every evening on the racecourse; they are driven in light droschkas; the vehicle being simply a board about four or five feet long, covered with a cushion, and placed on four low wheels. On this bench the driver sits astride, with his feet resting on iron bars, which project on

either side for this purpose. When a trotter is in training, a boy on another horse generally gallops by his side to excite him: the art of driving them is studied as jockeyship is in England. In winter a place is marked out with branches of trees on the ice, for trotting-matches, and a light sledge is used instead of the droschka.

I have not much to say in praise of the beauty of Tamboff as a town; from the scarcity of stone, it consists chiefly of wooden houses, and only one or two of the principal streets are paved: in the others, the mud in wet weather is ploughed with ruts axledeep; and frost having now succeeded rain, these roads are as hard as stone, and in a condition to endanger breaking the wheels of any carriage which should venture upon them, or the legs of the horses that drew it.

Being a government town, Tamboff, of course, boasts an archbishop and a monastery; there is also a nunnery there, and a certain number of churches, none of them, however, are remarkable. The Government house has the dismal air of a county hospital; and the only building in the place, of any pretension, is the Hall of Assembly of the nobles, which contains a fine room, with a gallery running round three sides, supported on Corinthian pillars. At the upper end is a marvellously bad portrait of the Emperor under a canopy. His Majesty's portrait is placed in all public rooms, sometimes well and some

times ill painted; but the pictures are all unvarying copies of some original, in which the Emperor is depicted in uniform, with white leather breeches and jack-boots, looking sternly over a green and blue landscape to the right, with his cocked-hat in his right hand, and his left thumb stuck into his sash, apparently to relieve himself from the exceeding pressure of that tightly drawn portion of his costume.

The nobles, that is to say the gentlemen, of every government in Russia, form an assembly, in which every one who owns within the province a hundred peasants, is entitled to vote. They meet once in three years to elect a Marshal for each district, of which there are twelve in every province, and a Grand-Marshal for the whole government. The latter stands next in rank to the governor. He has the title of Excellency and the grade of General while he remains in office, and if he is elected three several times, he retains his precedence for life. After being elected, he must be confirmed in his office by the Emperor, before he can enter on his functions. These Marshals represent the nobles, and meet, from time to time, for the transaction of business, since the General Assembly cannot meet oftener than triennially, except by an extraordinary permission from the Emperor. The business of the Assembly relates chiefly to the management and disposal of funds raised by a voluntary rate among themselves for the establishment and maintenance of

public institutions, such as schools, hospitals, &c. The wardship of minors, lunatics, and even spendthrifts among their own number, is vested in their hands, and, practically speaking, in the hands of their representatives the Marshals. If a noble is injuring his children by wasting his estate, the Assembly have the power, which is often exercised, of taking the management of his property into their own hands for the benefit of his family, and of putting him upon an allowance.

At the meeting of the Assembly, thirteen tables are placed in the great hall, one for the Marshal of the government, and one for the nobles of each district, with their Marshal as chairman. A government in Russia may be considered as a county, and the districts into which it is divided as corresponding to our English hundreds. When the Grand-Marshal proposes a question, he assembles the twelve Marshals at his table, and addresses himself to them; each of them then goes to the table of his district and puts the question, after it has been discussed, to the vote, and having thus ascertained the decision of the majority of his constituents, he returns to the Marshals' table and gives his voice accordingly, and the question is finally decided by the majority of districts.

Any individual may propose a question: in this case, it is first put to the vote at the table to which he belongs; if it is rejected there, it is of course

lost; but if it is carried, the Marshal reports it to the Grand-Marshal, who puts it to the vote of the meeting in the manner which I have described above.

In this way the nobles assess themselves voluntarily for various purposes of public utility according to the number of peasants possessed by each. Their vote receives the ratification of the Emperor, and is then binding on all, and payment of the contributions, though originally voluntary, can be enforced.

The election of the Marshals is by ballot; in case the Grand-Marshal is ill, or from any other cause incapacitated from attending to his duties, the Marshal of the district in which the government-town is situated, supplies his place ad interim. The functions of the Assembly are very narrowly limited, and the discussion in it of political questions is altogether prohibited; its existence, nevertheless, may hereafter prove the germ of free institutions; its powers may be developed, and the habit thus acquired of electing representatives, and of discussing public questions may be extended to more important objects, even to legislation and government.

We have just received accounts of the Emperor having been upset in his carriage in a very dangerous way, near Tifflis, in Georgia. Considering the reckless pace at which he insists upon being driven over all sorts of roads, it is surprising he does not more frequently meet with accidents; two years ago, however, he was overturned, and broke his collar