down by law, to be extremely good. In the towns watchmen are stationed day and night on the tops of high towers, which are built in various quarters, so as to command the town; at the foot of each tower is an establishment of firemen, horses, and engines, which are or ought to be always ready at a moment's notice.

As soon as the watchman on the tower discovers a fire, he rings a bell, which gives the alarm to the firemen below, while at the same time, by a telegraph, which can be used either by day or night, there being in the latter case a certain arrangement of lanterns, he points out the direction of the fire, and warns the establishments in other quarters of the town to send their assistance. As soon as the train of engines is ready, it proceeds at full speed through the streets, neither stopping nor turning aside, being preceded by a horseman, who gallops along, shouting and warning all persons to clear the way. If it is dark, the leading engine carries a bright light high up on a pole, which is easily distinguished, by its position, from the lamps of a carriage as it moves along. When a fire breaks out at St. Petersburg, it is the duty of the aide-de-camp in waiting, immediately to inform the Emperor, even if the latter is asleep in bed; if the fire is at all considerable, the Emperor always gets up and goes to it himself: in other cases the aide-decamp is ordered to go to the spot, wait till the conclusion, and return to report what loss has been sus

tained, and, in short, the general result of the misfortune.

In the country the regulations are very good, and it is the duty of the starosta or bailiff of every village to see that they are enforced, though they are nevertheless, in many cases, totally neglected.

In the villages, where the rules are carried into effect, every house has a small board affixed to it, on which is painted a number, and under the number is a figure of some implement useful at a fire: on one is drawn a bucket, on another an axe, on a third a ladder or a pole with a hook at the end for pulling down burning thatch and rafters. The moment a fire is discovered in the village, the inhabitant of every house is bound to appear with the implement depicted outside his door; and there are various regulations for establishing order in the operations, such as the appointing one man out of a certain number to be the captain of the gang, and to direct their proceedings.

If the rules were always properly enforced, it would not be easy in a country village to contrive better arrangements than these: since ready assistance with a proper number of all useful implements is provided in case of fire, and confusion is as far as possible avoided: it is the duty of the starosta to visit the houses from time to time, in order to see that the implement belonging to each is ready and fit for use, and even that the buckets are kept filled with water.

The necessity for such precautions is unfortunately exemplified, by the frequent occurrence of rural fires. The peasants, as I have already observed, live entirely in villages: their houses and outbuildings are almost universally constructed of wood, and covered with a loose thatch; and, therefore, if a fire once breaks out, it spreads with inconceivable rapidity from house to house, and whole villages are sometimes thus destroyed. The period when these misfortunes are most common is in the autumn, immediately after harvest, when the peasants are drying their corn at fires made in wooden thatched buildings.

If the proprietors are careful in placing their drying houses at a safe distance from one another, and from the dwellings, and also in prohibiting the peasants from stacking the whole of their produce close around them, the worst that can ensue from an accident is the destruction of a drying house with the corn which may happen to be in it at the time: but nothing can exceed the characteristic imprudence of the Russian peasants; the orders of their masters are disobeyed; to save a little trouble, the whole of their produce is brought at once as near as possible to the drying-house; a fire breaks out, and a year's provision is destroyed in an hour: the master may inflict punishment for the disobedience of his orders, but he must to a certain degree make good the loss which has been incurred, for the law requires that if, from a failure of crops or any other misfortune, the peasant is

in want, his master must supply him with the necessary provisions.

The exhibition which introduced this subject was as follows:-I was walking on the Boulevard with M and her uncle, when the latter proposed to us to see the fire-establishment, which was close by; we readily assented, expecting merely to be shewn over the place, and to hear the system explained: as we entered the yard, however, the general made a sign to the watchman on the look-out tower, the latter touched the alarm-bell, and instantly all was in a state of activity. Men sprung out from every quarter, the engines were run out of the houses, horses were brought full trot out of the stables ready harnessed, and put to, and in the space of four minutes and a half from the original signal, fourteen vehicles, with thirty-three or thirty-four horses to them, were drawn up in a line in the yard ready The machines consisted of fire engines, carriages conveying barrels full of water, ladders, and an apparatus for covering the walls and roofs of houses adjacent to the fire, with sail-cloth to protect them: the water-barrels are necessary, since there are no pipes and fire-plugs in a Russian town.

to start.

At a second signal from the Governor, the engines, &c., filed one after another out of the yard, and went slowly down the street, the men having taken their proper places upon them: at the further end of the street they turned, and came thundering back at full

gallop: some of the machines were drawn by two, and others by three horses abreast, all strong and serviceable animals. When we expressed our admiration at the rapidity and alertness shown in getting the horses and engines ready for action, the General assured us, that so far from any preparation having been made, his appearance was totally unexpected, and that the day being a fête, all the men were absent who could be spared from duty; and the truth of this was proved by the arrival of the master of police at a gallop in his droschka, he being the chief of the fire-establishment, and having just been informed that the engines were rattling through the town, though whether for actual service, or, as was the case, merely for inspection by the Governor, he did not know till he arrived on the scene of action.

A few days after this we were invited to see an exhibition of the manner of proceeding and working the engines in case of a fire: but the display on this occasion was not nearly so interesting to me, since every thing was prepared beforehand; while the activity on the former day furnished a proof of the real utility and good organization of the establishment, and of the efficiency and alertness of the men in a case of emergency. The powers of the engines, and the manner in which they were worked as displayed in this second exhibition, certainly could not be compared to the performances of London engines in the hands of London firemen ; but I think that few pro