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CHAP. then prove, the inhabitants crowded to his house, considering him as a man sacrificed to the caprice of a tyrant. Among others, came an humble citizen, and demanded admission. It was granted. "You are going to leave us," said he," and may not have time to settle your affairs. Do you not want money? I come as your banker." "I have need of some," said the Governor,

Prince

turned

Pawnbroker.

can furnish."

but it is much more than you "How much?"

66

Twenty-five

thousand roubles!" The honest fellow withdrew; and speedily returning with notes to the amount of the sum specified, placed them upon the table, carefully counting them over; then made his bow, and retired.

An Italian architect, of the name of Camporesi, procured admission for us at the house of Prince Trubetzkoy, a dealer in minerals, pictures, hosiery, hats, cutlery, antiquities; in short, all the furniture of shops and of museums. Having squandered away his fortune, this man gained a livelihood by selling, for himself and for others, whatsoever came in his way. His house, like a pawnbroker's shop, exhibited one general magazine, occupying several rooms. Prince presiding over this mart, and practising all the artifices of the meanest tradesman, was a spectacle perfectly novel. Any thing might

A

VI.

be bought of his Excellency, from a pair of CHAP. bellows to a picture by Claude Lorraine. In the same room were handkerchiefs, antique vases, stockings, artificial flowers, fans, Cologne-water, soap, pomatum, prints, paintings, books, guns, pistols, minerals, jewellery, harness, saddles, bridles, pipes, second-hand clothes, swords, stuffed-birds, bronzes, buckles, buttons, snuff-boxes, wigs, watches, boots and shoes. 66 My house," said he, as we entered, "and all it contains, is at your service, or any one's else, who will buy it! I will sell you the house for a single rouble, provided you will pay me also a rouble for each article of its furniture." While we bargained with his Excellency, Prince L. sent a note, which he read aloud. It was to borrow money. Here's a man," said Prince Trubetzkoy, "with a million of roubles in his drawing-room, sends to me for forty-five, to pay the expenses of a journey to his country seat! You see how we go on in Russia."

Dealers.

The number of pictures in Moscow is really Picture astonishing. There are four or five eminent dealers, who have large collections. The palaces of the nobles are many of them filled, and there is not one of their owners unwilling to sell any picture he may possess. It seems as if all Europe had been ransacked to supply

CHAP. such collections.

VI.

At first view, a room adorned by them has an imposing and very splendid appearance; but, upon a nearer approach, the charm vanishes: they are almost all copies, and the major part of them were brought from Vienna. But the Russians themselves are so ingenious in the art of imitation, that a nobleman of skill and judgment in painting has been known to purchase, of a dealer, copies made a few days before by one of his own slaves, who went from his easel to his more usual daily occupation of blacking shoes, and afterwards carried to the brandy-shop the wages of his ingenuity. As the nobles have rarely any money at command, their traffic in the Fine Arts, as in other things, is carried on by exchange. This sort of barter is that in which they take the greatest delight. They purchase a picture for a carriage, or for an embroidered suit of clothes, just as they pay their physician with a snuff-box. In every pursuit the same infantine disposition is displayed; and, like children, they become tired of their toys almost in the moment they have acquired them. In their choice of pictures, they are pleased only with gay and splendid colouring, highly finished, in gaudy frames; " quelque chose d'éclatant!" to use an expression constantly in their mouths. The works of Van der Werf, Watteau, Jordaens,

VI.

Berchem, and Gerhard Douw, bear the highest CHAP. prices; but if productions by any of the Bolognese masters be shewn to them, they are rejected. Nothing of the sombre cast, however sublime, has any value in their estimation. The works of the Caracci, of Domenichino, or even of Michael Angelo, would not meet with admirers. A beautiful head by Corregio, not many years ago possessed by an artist in London, in the course of those adventures to which fine pictures are liable, fell into the hands of a Russian priest. He kept it during a short time, because he had been told it was a celebrated work; but ultimately exchanged it for some wretched copies, with an Italian miniaturepainter. "It had too much shade," he said,

66

and the lights were too pale; it had the air altogether of a head from the guillotine." The method of paying their physicians by trinkets, before mentioned, might seem an inconvenience to the faculty; but it is not so. Dr. Rogerson at Petersburg, as we were informed, regularly received his snuff-box, and as regularly carried it to a jeweller for sale. The jeweller sold it again to the first nobleman who wanted a fee for his physician, so that the doctor obtained his box again; and at last the matter became so well understood between the jeweller and the physician, that it was considered by both

VI.

CHAP. parties as a sort of bank-note, and no words were necessary in transacting the sale of it.

State of Medicine.

Having mentioned the name of this respectable physician, it may be well to say something of the state of medicine in the country. The business of an accoucheur is always practised by women. The Emperor ordered all the midwives to undergo examination, before a board of physicians, a few days before we left Petersburg. In the regulation concerning apothecaries, however well intended, the same wisdom was not shewn it is a reproach to the country. If a stranger arrive, in immediate want of an emetic' or of any trifling drug, he cannot obtain it without the written order of some physician. If this take place in the night, he may die before the morning; for the physician, although sent for, certainly would not attend. In Petersburg, the fee of an eminent physician is twentyfive roubles; in Moscow, only one or two. Persons calling themselves English physicians are found in almost every town upon the continent. Sometimes they have served in apothecaries' shops in London or in Edinburgh; but generally

(1) A remedy almost infallible against those dangerous fevers which are the consequence of passing over unwholesome marshes in hot countries, if taken within twenty-four hours.