VI. CHAP. To prevent this, the latter live in cities, remote from their own people, and altogether unmindful of all that concerns their slaves, except the tribute the latter are to pay. Many of the Russian nobles dare not venture near to their own villages, through fear of the vengeance they have well merited by their crimes. In this sad survey, it is soothing to point out any worthy object, whereon the attention, wearied by a uniform view of depravity, may for a few short moments repose. Some noble traits have presented themselves among the slaves. Noble Be haviour of The father of Count Golovkin was reduced to Count Go- the necessity of selling a portion of his peasants, Peasants. in consequence of debts contracted in the lovkin's service of the Crown. Upon this occasion, deputies chosen among the slaves came to Moscow, beseeching an audience of their lord. One venerable man, the oldest of the number advertised for sale, begged to know why they were to be so dismissed. "Because," said the Count, "I am in want of money, and must absolutely pay the debts I have contracted." "How much?" exclaimed at once all the deputies. "About thirty thousand roubles," rejoined the Count. "God help us! Do not sell us; we will bring the money." VI. PETER THE THIRD was a greater friend to the CHAP. Russian nobility, during three months, than all the sovereigns of Russia in the collected periods of their power. While under the oppressive and degrading discipline of PAUL, they kneeled, and kissed the rod. PETER liberated them from slavery and from corporal punishment; he permitted them to sell their effects, and to settle in other countries; to serve, if they pleased, under other sovereigns;-in short, he gave them all they most desired; and they assassinated their benefactor. the No The swarm of servants in their palaces has Servants of been already noticed. A foreigner wonders how bility. this can be maintained. The fact is, if a nobleman have fifty or five hundred servants, they do not cost him a rouble. Their clothes, their food, every article of their subsistence, are derived from the poor oppressed peasants. Their wages, if wages they can be called, rarely exceed in their value an English halfpenny a day'. In the whole year, the total of their daily pittance equals about five roubles, forty-seven copeeks and a half: this, according to the state of exchange at the time we were there, may be estimated at twelve shillings and ninepence. (1) About a copeek and a half. VI. CHAP. But small as this sum is, it might have been Few among the nobles deem it any disgrace to owe their servants so trivial a debt. There is, in fact, no degree of meanness too base for the condescension of a Russian nobleman. To enumerate all the instances of which we were eye-witnesses, would only weary and disgust the Reader. It will suffice that we end with one. omitted; for it is never paid. Few Remarkable Theft. A hat had been stolen from our apartments. The servants positively asserted, that some young noblemen, who had been more lavish of their friendship and company than we desired, had gained access to the chambers in our absence, and had carried off the hat, with some other moveables even of less value. The fact was inconceivable, and we gave no credit to it. A few days after, being upon an excursion to the Convent of the New Jerusalem, fortyfive versts north of Moscow, some noblemen, to whom our intention was made known, during the preceding evening, at the Société de Noblesse, overtook us on horseback. One of the party, mounted upon an English racer, and habited like a Newmarket jockey, rode towards the side of our carriage; but his horse being somewhat unruly, he lost his seat, and a gust of wind carried off his cap. The author's companion imme VI. diately descended, and ran to recover it for its CHAP. owner; but what was his astonishment, to perceive his own name, and the name of his hatter, on the lining! It was no other than the identical hat which had been stolen by one of them from our lodgings, although now metamorphosed into a cap; and, under its altered shape, it might not have been recognised, but for the accident here mentioned'. the New The love of mimicry, already mentioned as Convent of characteristic of the nation, has been carried Jerusalem. to great excess in the Convent of the New Jerusalem: this building is not only an imitation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, but it contains representations of all the relics .... (1) The prohibition concerning round hats had rendered this kind of cap very fashionable in Moscow. A translated extract from the writings of one whose pages confirm every characteristic of the Russians given in this work, will shew how faithful a picture the statement of the fact above mentioned offers of the whole nation; and also to what extent the vice of stealing is carried in that country. "Next to drunkenness, the most prominent and common vice of the Russians is theft. From the first Minister to the Generalofficer, from the lackey to the soldier, all are thieves, plunderers, and cheats. . . . . It sometimes happens, that, in apartments at Court, to which none but persons of quality and superior officers are admitted, your pocket-book is carried off as if you were in a fair. The King of Sweden, after the battle of July, 1790, invited a party of Russian officers, who had been made prisoners, to dine with him. One of them stole a plate: upon which the offended king ordered them all to be distributed among the small towns, where they never again ate off silver." Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg. Lond. 1801. p. 270. VI. CHAP. consecrated in that edifice. It was built exactly after the same model; and within it are exhibited, The tomb of Christ, The stone rolled from the sepulchre, The holes where the crosses of our Saviour and the two thieves crucified with him were placed, The prison where he was confined; together with all the other absurdities fabricated by the Empress Helena and her ignorant priests at Jerusalem. Finding, however, some difference between the original building in the Holy Land, and its model here, we asked the reason of the alteration. The monks replied, "Our building is executed with more taste, because it is more ornamental; and there are many good judges who prefer ours to the original:" thus most ignorantly implying, that the Church at Jerusalem, so long an object of adoration, had been so rather on account of its beauty, than any thing contained in it. But nothing can prove with more effect, to what an abject state the human mind may be degraded, than that the trumpery here, not having even the empty title to reverence which relics may claim, but confessedly imitations, should receive the veneration and the worship paid to their originals. A fat and filthy priest, pointing to some holes in a pavement in the midst of Russia, exclaims, "Here stood the holy cross!" while boorish devotees shed over the spot tears of piety, as |