occupation of Moscow.

And as an integral part of the history of the town, no less than as setting forth the negation of will of the Russians themselves, we would refer our readers to some of the many thrilling descriptions which have been written of this terrific conflagration.

It was the governor of Moscow, Rotopschin, who conceived the great idea of sacrificing the capital to save the country; he set the example by applying the torch to his own magnificent house; and for this noble conduct he was, like so many other Russian patriots, disgraced, and that even under the mild sway of Alexander.

But this terrible conflagration has very little altered the appearance of the town; indeed the Kremlin, where the fire raged most furiously, was but little injured in its external architecture; the stone having resisted the action of the flames, and the town, like all other Russian towns, and indeed too many English, being a victim to periodical colouring, — white wash, and green wash, though in Moscow, in opposition to the universal yellow wash of our London houses.

Schnitzler says,

"The conflagration in 1812 has given Moscow a more modern appearance; but the Kremlin remains with its

peculiar character and strange style, with its massy, white-washed, and uneven walls embattled and pierced with loopholes, surmounted with towers of every style. imaginable, Gothic or Byzantine, and displaying, in its interior, a whimsical assemblage of churches, monasteries, and palaces, crowded together in a narrow space. This ensemble, which calls to mind the intimate union of religion and polity, and of a religion apart - different from that of the West, which is stiff and formal-appeals strongly to the imagination. A vast number of domes, mostly covered with gilded sheet-iron, surmounts this multitude of churches, and on their summits rise innumerable crosses, like a forest of spears, the highest of which, that of Ivân Véliki, seems to be summoning the whole country to prayer. You imagine yourself to be in an immense convent." Secret History of Russia.

This plan of course

Moscow is crowded with churches generally built in stories, the upper story for summer use, the lower heated with stoves for winter. destroying all the effect of internal ecclesiastical architecture. It has good markets, and abounds, in memorials of bygone ages; it being here, especially, that all the national trophies of every kind are laid up. In the Kremlin also are the apartments of the dead preserved; rooms being set apart in which the memorials of the departed monarchs are arranged in order. Petersburg may be the city of the Czar, but

Moscow is the city of the Russians.

An auto

crat's authority may cause the one to be styled the

capital, but no autocrat can drag the other out of the heart of the nation.

311

CHAP. IV.

THE PORT OF SEBASTOPOL.

THE following extracts from "Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c., by Xavier Hommardie de Helle," contain information of an interesting kind relative to a place which has become the scene of important operations:

"A little beyond the quarantine cove, the traveller discovers Sebastopol, situated on the slope of a hill between Artillery and South Bays, the first two ports on the right hand as you enter the main roads. The position of the town thus built is an amphitheatre, rendering its whole plan discernible at one view, and gives it a very grand appearance from a distance. Its barracks and stores, the extensive buildings of the Admiralty, the numerous churches, and vast ship-building docks and yards, attest the importance of this town, the creation of which dates only from the arrival of the Russians in the Crimea. The interior, though not quite corresponding to the brilliant panorama it presents from a distance, is yet worthy of the great naval station. The port of Sebastopol is unquestionably one of the most remarkable in Europe. It owes all its excellences to

nature, which has here, without the aid of art, provided a magnificent roadstead, with ramifications forming so many basins, admirably adapted for the requirements of a naval station. The whole of this noble harbour may be seen at once from the upper part of the town. The great roadstead lies east and west, stretching seven kilometres (four miles and three quarters) inland, with a mean breadth of 1000 yards, and serves as a station for all the active part of the fleet. It forms the medium of communication between Sebastopol and the interior of the peninsula. The northern shore presents only a line of cliffs of no interest; but on the southern shore the eye is detained by the fine basins formed there by nature. Το the east, at the foot of the hill on which the town stands, is South Bay, in length upwards of 3000 metres, and completely sheltered by high limestone cliffs. It is here the vessels are rigged and unrigged; and here, too, lies a long range of pontoons and vessels past service, some of which are converted into magazines, and others into lodgings for some thousand convicts who are employed in the works of the arsenal. Beyond South Bay, and communicating with it, is the little creek in which the Government is constructing the most considerable works of the port, and has been engaged for many years in forming an immense dock with five distinct basins, capable of accommodating three ships of the line and two frigates, while simultaneously undergoing repairs. The execution of the basin seems, however, to be very far from corresponding to the enormous expenses they have occasioned, and it is strange indeed, that a weak and