guests. One of the most gratifying things that I always saw upon the table, was a large vase of ice broken into small pieces, with which the guest cools his wine and beer. In the rd every Russian house has two large cellars, one warm for winter, and the other filled with ice for the summer. The soup, and coffee, and chocolate are frequently iced. One day at dinner, I sat by a lovely Russian lady, that is, born in Russia but of German parents: the explanation will save me a remark embarrassing to gallantry, and which I wish to avoid, respecting the beauty of the proper Russian women, at least of those whom I saw. This accom plished woman, in my own language as pure as ever it fell from English lady's lips, requested some salt; upon my presenting it she said, "Whenever you give salt, "never fail to smile; it is a superstitious custom in "Russia." A smile is in this country considered as a charm against poison. Heavens! surely they have not yet to learn that

"A man may smile, may, smile, and be a villian.” They have a beautiful proverbial expression:

"Banter, but never make the cheek red."

Nature has less to do with climate than library gossips suppose, at least I thought so when I committed the following blunder: "You never saw my Sophinka before," said Madame L, pointing to a fine little girl at table, about ten years of age; "She is your daughter, "I presume?" Madame L's daughter!" exclaim

ed a gentleman, surely that cannot be, she is more "like your sister." The fact was, the child was nei ther daughter nor sister, but a little visitor. The result was, that the principal part of Madame L's enchanting conversation during dinner was withdrawn from me, and addressed to the gentleman whose error was the most fortunate. After a few glasses of delicious wines, champagne included, the lady rises, and the company retires to coffee in the drawing-room. The rooms of respectable houses are never papered, but where the

sides are not covered with silk or cotton, they are colored in a brilliant and beautiful manner to resemble papering, In this act the natives are uncommonly tasteful and rapid.

The hospitality of this place cannot be surpassed: When a stranger is introduced, the family mention the days of the week when they receive their friends, and expect that he will include himself in the number : the invitation is frank and cordial, and is seldom repeated; where it is understood there is no occasion for it. The frippery and formality of forced, and frequently treacherous ceremony, is not known here.

In

At the back of the Gastinnoi dvor are the fruit, bird, and poultry markets, in a street of wooden sheds like those at a fair in England. Apples, pears, rasberries, currants, peaches, excellent melons and pine apples, are temptingly presented to the eye, and are all intolerably dear, even when you are permitted to buy for half the price at first demanded, for the custom of asking double the sum intended to be taken prevails in all this neighborhood; but as it is well known, it seldom answers. the bird quarter were pigeons, sparrows, hawks, birds of the rock, and a few others, in greater numbers than variety upon a beam in this place was suspended the image of a favorite Saint, with a lamp burning before her. In the poultry department very fine geese, ducks, and fowls were in great abundance. The bank next attracted my attention: it is a large and very beautiful building of brick stuccoed, containing a centre and two. wings, and adorned in front by a very handsome and elegant iron-railing. The whole of this neighborhood is filled with kabacs and public-houses, where dinners are dressed, and beer, and mead, and brandy sold.

At the end of the Gand Perspective, the church of the Admiralty, with its lofty spire, plated with ducat gold, having a vein in the form of a ship, presents itself, and, like a haughty female, ashamed in her proud attire of her mean origin and humble relations, seems scornfully to lift herself above the long gloomy line of low brick buildings which, with the yards behind, constitute the Admiralty, and disfigure this part of the capital.

Time has proved that Peter the Great acted wisely in chusing the situation for his city. The shallowness of the Neva presents an insuperable barrier to the fleets of Sweden, and a noble river, so clear that it is drank without filtration, divides and enriches the quarters of the city with the beauty and purity of its waters: but, with the powerful facilities of building ships at Cronstadt, a large impregnable island at the mouth of the Neva, in the gulf of Finland, and the grand naval arsenal of Russia, I must confess, in my poor opinion, he has not been equally judicious in establishing an Admiralty at Petersburg. So little is the depth of water at the latter place, that whenever a ship of war is launched, she is obliged to be floated down to Cronstadt upon camels. Of the trouble and expense of such a removal let the reader judge, when I inform him that I saw this stupendous machinery mounted upon thousands of wedges of wood, in a meadow, about half a mile from any water in which they could be floated. My astonishment could not have been exceeded, had I beheld a first rate seventy-four upon the top of St. James's palace! Suppose the clear shell of a larger ship than ever yet was built were cut in two, and each part put into an outer case, but at such a distance from it as to leave throughout a hollow space of from eight to ten feet: such was the appearance of the camels. But how they are removed from the place where they lie in ordinary, supposing any number of men were employed, surpasses my imagination; however, like every thing else in Russia, when they are wanted they make their appearance, and come when they are called to the Admiralty, where each takes its station on either side of the ship which they are destined to carry to Cronstadt. By the means of vast moveable weights, and by opening several apertures in the external sides of this mighty section of a ship to admit the water, they are sunk, drawn close together under the curve of the ship, and braced with cables; a work fit for a race of giants! To see them moved and directed by men, must present the image of the recumbent body of Gulliver covered with Lilliputians. But whilst the frame of man becomes diminutive by the side of his

own works, his soul expands, and rises with his labors. The Admiralty is a vast oblong square: the side towards the river is open, and far from being ornamental to the adjoining palaces that toward the city is defended by earthen ramparts, fortified with cannon, and secured by draw-bridges. The store-houses appeared to be well arranged there were two ships, one of seventy-four and the other of sixty guns, ready for launching. An Englishman cannot fail being struck with the prodigious waste which occurs in the dock-yards, in consequence of the carpenters using their hatchets instead of the saw in dividing timber. The chips form the perquisite of the workmen; but the government would save an immense quantity of valuable timber would it give an equivalent, and insist upon the use of the saw. In the naval constitution of Russia there is a regulation which cries aloud for reform; it is balloting for rank, and the right of black-balling; terms which sufficiently explain the nature and abuses of an arrangement so degrading and odious to merit, and detrimental to the service. It appears al so injudicious to send a young marine cadet to England to learn navigation, upon a salary of from one hundred and eighty to two hundred pounds per annum, or perhaps to send him at all. Struck with new customs and fashions, he neglects his pursuits, establishes habits of expense, and returns with dissatisfaction to his country upon a pay of twenty-five pounds per annum.

There are several English officers in the service of the Emperor. The late Sovereign made overtures to the celebrated Paul Jones to take the command of one of his ships; as soon as it was known to the British officers, they immediately sent in their resignation. The intermixture of so many English subjects in the naval and commercial departments of Russia, so essential to their advancement, and consequently to the general interests of the empire, must ever preserve a favorable disposition in that country towards the British nation.

CHAPTER XIII.

A caution-The house of Peter the GreatSingular anecdote Police-A traveller's duty An extraordinary purgation—A British court of criminal law-Noisy bells FruitererIce-The sorrowful musician-Drollery and drunkenness Imperial theatre Northern grandees.

WAS much inconvenienced by shipping a trunk containing books and wearing apparel at Stockholm for Petersburg, which, I was assured would be there as soon as I should, yet it never arrived till just before my departure. Let me recommend every traveller to avoid this mode of conveyance, not merely for the uncertainty which always attends a Swedish bye-boat during such a voyage, but on account of the difficulty of obtaining possession of property so sent after it reaches the custom-house at Petersburg. If it should contain books, they must be submitted to a censor, and the owner must pay a duty of thirty pounds per cent. ad valorem upon the things. Whilst I was at Petersburg, a book called the Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg was prohibited. The author was a French emigrant, and had been cherished by that court whose secret intrigues he had ungratefully exaggerated to the world. This man, a short time since, had the audacity to request permission of the Emperor to return to Petersburg, which he had quitted some time before. The Emperor, with his accustomed sound sense and liberality, sent him word, "That his dominions were open to every body, but he was not so much his enemy "as to recommend his entering them."

The house, or rather cottage, in which Peter the Great resided during the foundation of Petersburg, a city which is the growth of little more than a century, stands on the left of the Emperor's bridge in the road to the fortress. This little building, so sacred to the Russians, was covered over with a brick building of arcades by the late Empress, to protect and support it against the ravages of time. The rooms are three, all upon the ground floor, and very low: it was in this very cottage R