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to any amount for which they can procure credit; to pay for nothing; and to sell what they have ordered, as soon as they receive it. We should call such conduct, in England, swindling. In Moscow it bears another name; it is there called Russian magnificence.

CHAP.

V.

The children of those who murdered PETER Children of Orlof. THE THIRD resided in Moscow when we were there one of them married the daughter of the Governor. The Princess Menzikof, granddaughter of the favourite of PETER THE GREAT, was also there: we were often in her company; and too much amused by her cheerful disposition, to report the style of conversation she indulges everywhere. However, that which is a proverb in Russia may at the least bear an allusion in England. When the late Empress died, her son, and successor, caused the body of his father to be taken up, and laid in state, by the coffin of his mother, in the palace at Petersburg. It is said there was only one person, an archbishop, who knew where they had buried him; as he was interred without monument or inscription, in the church of the monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky. ORLOF, his murderer, was then at Moscow. An order from Retributive Spirit the Emperor brought him to Petersburg; and of the when the bodies were removed to the church

Emperor.

V.

CHAP. of St. Peter and St. Paul in the citadel', he was compelled to walk in the procession from the palace to the church, following the body of the person he had murdered so long before. It was then the people of Petersburg beheld an interesting scene of retribution. One of them, who was an eye-witness, described the whole of it to us. The bodies were drawn upon low chariots, by horses. Immediately after the coffin of PETER THE THIRD, and close to it, walked, with slow and faltering steps, his assassin, Orlof; having his eyes fixed on the ground, his hands folded, and his face pale as death. Next to Orlof walked the EMPEROR; certainly manifesting, by this sublime although mysterious sacrifice to the manes of his father, an action worthy of a greater character. The ceremony ended, Orlof received an order to quit the empire; and lately was travelling in the South of Europe.

(1) The place where state-prisoners are kept.

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1000

CHAP. VI.

MOSCOW.

State of Exiles in Siberia-Tobolsky-Generous Conduct
of a Citizen-Prince turned Pawnbroker-Picture
Dealers-State of Medicine-Manners of the People-
Opinions entertained of the English-Relative Condi-
tion of Slaves and their Lords-Noble Behaviour of
Count Golovkin's Peasants-Servants of the Nobility-
Theft committed by a Party of the Nobles-Convent of
the New Jerusalem-New Prohibitions-Public Censors
-Convent of the Trinity-Church of St. Basil-
Ivan Basilovich-Tubervile's Letters.

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СНАР.

VI.

IN
N England, we hear of persons being sent to
Siberia, as a most severe punishment; and we
entertain very erroneous notions concerning the Siberia.

State of

Exiles in

CHAP.
VI.

state of exiles in that country. To a Russian nobleman the sentence of exile can hardly imply punishment. The consequence of their journey is very often an amelioration of their understanding and of their hearts. They have no particular attachment to their country; none of that maladie du pays, which sickens the soul of an Englishman in banishment. They are bound by no strong ties of affection to their families; neither have they any friendship worth preTobolsky. serving. Tobolsky, from the number and the rank of the exiled, is become a large and populous city, full of shops, and containing theatres, besides other places of public amusement. Its inhabitants, above two thousand versts from Moscow, have booksellers, masquerades, French hotels, and French wines, with the porter and beer of England. Those who have resided there, either as officers on duty, as travellers, or as exiles, give the highest accounts of its gaiety and population. An officer of considerable rank in the Russian service told us, he would rather have the half of his pay and live at Tobolsky, than the whole of it in residence at Petersburg. Many, who have been ordered home, have wished and sought to return thither. This is no subject of wonder. Tobolsky is admirably adapted to the Russian taste. According to Gmelin, it is a very temple of

VI.

Bacchus and Indolence. Provisions were SO CHAP. cheap when he was there, in the middle of the last century, that a person might maintain himself for ten roubles a year; not two pounds of our money. His account of the Easter festival' proves that there was not much difference between the state of society in Tobolsky and in Moscow at that time; and there is much less at present.

Conduct of

A circumstance occurred during our abode Generous in Moscow, attended by a trait of so much gene- a Citizen, rosity in a Russian, that it is a duty to relate it. On Wednesday the seventh of May, the Sub-Governor received an order for his exile to Siberia. No reason whatever was assigned for the displeasure of the Emperor; no offence was alleged. The whole city flocked to take leave of him, for he was much beloved: and dangerous as such a testimony of affection might

(1) "Les gens les plus considérables se rendoient visites, et se donnoient des divertissemens. Quant au peuple, il étoit comme fou; ce n'étoit jour et nuit que promenades, cris, tumultes, batteries. Il étoit difficile d'aller dans les rues, tant il y avoit d'hommes, de femmes, de bêtes, et de traîneaux." Voyage de Sibérie, traduit par Keralio, tom. I. p. 53.

"On passe gaiement les fêtes de Pâques à recevoir et faire des visites. Le peuple s'amusa à sa manière; ce dont il s'occupa le plus fut le commerce des filles publiques, qui ne sont pas rares à Tobolsk. Je n'avois vû nulle part tant de gens sans nez que j'en vis ici." Ibid. p. 67.

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