son forfeited his liberty in attempting to regain it, and was imprisoned for life in a Russian fortress.

Moscow abounds in charitable institutions: of these I only visited two, namely, the Cheremetieff and the Galitzin Hospitals, which are both noble establishments, intended for the same purpose, namely, the reception of sick people, and 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 consequently 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; and around the head were placed three lighted candles. Near the Cheremetieff Hospital, we were shown a singular looking high tower, which is now used for raising water to distribute over the city, but which 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 venturing the remark, 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 being a deficiency of grand arteries, and a great part of the town being filled with a multitude of irregular narrow streets, flanked often, on one or both sides, by a dead wall; there is a rusticity too in the general style of the equipages, which breathes of the province; the principal cause, however, of this impression which Moscow certainly made upon me, 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. Here the case is very different, and the streets of Petersburg, which were empty and de

serted in June, are now crowded with foot passengers, handsome carriages, and sledges; 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, padì, "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 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. Bythe-bye, 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.

273

LETTER XXI.

Thaw-Cold in April-Alexandrovsky-General Wilson-The Imperial Manufactory-Foundlings-English artizans-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. Every body 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 frost, and its continued severity for nearly five months, is heretofore unprecedented even in Russia. 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

* By Reaumur.

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 wove; 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 from twelve years old, at which time they are brought from the hospital where they have been reared, up to twenty-one, at which age the young men become their own masters, may marry, and may quit the manufactory, or remain as paid workmen, according as they please;, the girls are allowed to marry at eighteen.

From the moment of their arrival at the manufactory, these children, in addition to their food, clothing, and lodging, receive small monthly wages, half of which is given to them by way of pocketmoney, 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 foundlings at dinner, which, as it was Lent, the only fast in the year which they are required to keep, consisted of soupe-maigre, fish, rye-bread, and quass-all served in pewter. The day