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tyrant took the ransom; and then told the father, that both the girl and the money belonged to him, and therefore she must still continue among the number of his slaves. What a picture do these facts afford of the state of Russia! It is thus that we behold the subjects of a vast empire stripped of all they possess, and existing in the most abject servitude; victims of tyranny, and of wickedness; exposed to a more unprincipled dominion, and to severer privations, than the most wretched vassals of any other system of despotism upon earth.

Traversing the provinces south of Moscow, the land is as the garden of Eden; a fine soil, covered with corn, and apparently smiling in plenty but enter into the cottage of the poor labourer, who is surrounded by all these riches, and you find him dying of hunger, or pining

CHAP.

IX.

the Reader be further informed, that the term Peasant, as applied to the population of Russia, does not necessarily imply that part of it who are poor. A peasant may be very rich. He may be found in the exercise of a lucrative trade, or engaged, as a merchant, in commerce; yet, as he belongs to the class of slaves, both his wealth and his person belong to some particular lord. Sometimes the lords content themselves in receiving a moiety of the earnings obtained by their slaves; but very frequently they seize all within their power, and hence arises the necessity a rich peasant feels of concealing what he may possess. It is the agricultural peasant who sustains constant privation, in the midst of apparent wealth.

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IX.

CHAP. from bad food, and in want of the common necessaries of life. Extensive pastures, covered with cattle, afford no milk to him. In autumn, the harvest yields no bread for his children. A selfish and misdoing lord claims all the produce. At the end of summer, every road in the southern provinces is filled with caravans, bearing corn and all sorts of provisions, every produce of labour and of the land, to supply the nobles of Moscow and Petersburg with the means of wealth, and the markets of those two capitals, which, like whirlpools, swallow all that approaches their vortex, with never-ending voracity'.

(1) "A few cities enjoy the pleasures of life, and exhibit palaces, because whole provinces lie desolate, or contain only wretched hovels, in which you would expect to find bears, rather than men." Secret Mem. of the Court of Petersburg, p. 268.

[graphic][merged small]

FROM MOSCOW TO WORONETZ.

Departure from Moscow-Celo Molody- Serpuchof-
Insolence and Extortion-River Oka-Celo Zavody-
Antient Games-Vast Oriental Plain-State of Tra-
velling-Tula—its Manufactures-Imperial Fabric of
Arms-Present State of Tula-Economy of Fuel-
Iron Mines-Road from Tula to Woronetz-Dedilof-
Change of Climate-Boghoroditz-Celo Nikitzkoy-
Bolshoy Platy-Effremof-Nikolaijevka-Celo Pe-
trovskia Palnia-Eletz-Exvoly- Zadonetz - Celo
Chlebnoy Bestuzevka - Celo Staroy Ivotinskoy-
Woronetz.

X.

Ir is now necessary to take leave of Moscow, CHAP, where we passed some pleasant hours, and many others of painful anxiety, exposed to insult, and to oppression, from the creatures,

con'.

X.

CHAP. spies, and agents, of the contemptible tyrant who was then upon the Russian throne. Our situation, and that of every Englishman in the empire, was not better than the condition of prisoners on their parole. We had been allowed to move about, it is true, but always under the vigilant eye of a troublesome and capricious police. We were detained a long time, before we could learn when we might go, or by what route we should be allowed to pass. An escape by the Livonian frontier was Departure utterly impracticable. At last, without any from Mos- passport for leaving the country, but encouraged by the advice and exertions of our excellent and friendly ambassador, who secretly conveyed to us letters from the Governor of Petersburg to the Governor of Moscow, and to General Michelson, Commander-in-chief in the Crimea, we determined to set out for that Peninsula, by a circuitous route, through the country of the Don Cossacks; and, if possible, to visit the more distant regions of Kuban Tartary and of Circassia. Having, by means of these letters, procured the long-wished-for poderosnoy, and placed our carriage again upon its wheels, we left the city on the evening of the thirty-first of May, visiting our banker at his country-seat near Moscow, and proceeding that night only twenty-seven versts, to a place called Molodtzy,

СНАР.

X.

the first station. The next day, June the first, CHAP. we arrived at Celo Molody. Its inhabitants had been once in good circumstances, but since completely ruined by their lord. The tyrant

has a fine house, near the church, which is upon the left hand in quitting the village. He is the miscreant, before mentioned, who refused to a poor girl her liberty, after accepting the price of her ransom, when she wished to marry in Moscow. Between Molodtzy and Celo Molody we passed through Podolsk, pleasingly situate, between two hills, upon the river Mockra. The late EMPRESS conferred upon this place the name and distinction of a town; but PAUL (in his determination to do every thing that she would not have done, and to undo all that she did) made it again a village.

From Celo Molody our journey was performed with very great expedition, and over good roads, to Grischinka, and to Serpuchof: this last place resembles Newmarket, in situation, appearance, and surrounding scenery: and that nothing might be wanting to awaken the recollection of our beloved country, the "Mouse-ear Scorpion Grass" (Myosotis Scorpioïdes), with other British herbs, appeared among the plants then in flower. Exactly in the spot which, with reference to the town, corresponds with that of the Race Course

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