To fay that this portion of the work is entertaining would be very cold praife. It is written with particular vigour, it abounds with the greatest variety of information, it indicate extraordinary acuteness, ardour of enquiry, and fagacity of remark. From hence we fhall take our firft fpecimen:

66 STATE OF LITERATURE.

"The bookfellers' fhops in Mofcow are better furnished than in Peterburg; but they are very rarely placed upon a ground floor. The convenience of walking into a fhop from the street, without climbing a flight of stairs, it almoft peculiar to England; though there are fome exceptions, as in the Palais Royal at Paris, and in a few houfes at Vienna. A catalogue of Ruffian authors in fome of the fhops fills an octavo volume of two hundred pages. French, Italian, German, and English books, would be as numerous here as in any other city, were it not for the ravages of the public cenfors, who prohibit the fale of books from their own ignorant mifconception of their contents. Sometimes a fingle volume, nay a fingle page, of an author is prohi bited, and the rest of the work, thus mangled, permitted to be fold. There is hardly a single modern work which has not been fubject to their correction, The number of prohibited books is fuch, that the trade is ruined. Contraband publications are often fmuggled; but the danger is fo great, that all the re fpectable bookfellers leave the trade to perfons, either more daring, or who, from exercifing other occupations, are less liable to fufpicion.

"Yet there are circumstances arifing from the ftate of public affairs in the two cities, which gives a fuperiority to the bookfellers of Mofcow. In and near the city refide a waft number of Ruffian nobility. A foreigner might live many years there, without even hearing the names of fome of them; whereas at Peterburg a few only are found, who all belong to the court, and are therefore all known. The nobles of Mofcow have many of them formerly figured in the prefence of their fovereign, and have been ordered to refide in that city; or they have paffed their youth in foreign travel, and have withdrawn to their feats in its environs. Many of thefe have magnificent libraries; and, as the amufement of collecting, rather than the pleasure of reading books, has been the reafon of their forming thofe fumptu ous collections, the bookfellers receive orders to a very large amount*. When a Ruffian nobleman reads, which is very rare,

"These orders are fometimes given in the ftyle related of one of the late Emprefs's favourites, who fent for a bookfeller, and faid, "Fit me up a handsome library : little books above, and great ones below.”

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVIII. NOV. 1811.

it is commonly a novel; either fome licentious trash in French, or fome English romance tranflated into that language. Of the latter, the Italian of Mrs. Radcliffe has been better done than any other; becaufe, reprefenting cuftoms which are not abfolutely local, it admits of eafier tranfition into any other European tongue. But when they attempt to tranflate Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, or any of thofe inimitable original pictures of English manners, the effect is ridiculous beyond defcriptiou. Squire Weftern becomes a French Philofopher, and Goldsmith's Primrote a Fleur de Lis.

"Books of real literary reputation are not to be obtained either in Peterburg or Mofcow. Productions of other days, which from their importance in fcience have become rare, are never to be found. Coftly and frivolous volumes, fumptuously bound, and most gorgeously decorated, conftitute the precious part of a library, in Ruffian eftimation. Gaudy French editions of Fontenelle, of Marmontel, of Italian fonneteers, with English folios of butterflies, fhells, and flowers; editions by Baskerville, Benfley, and Bulmer, with hot-preffed and wire-wove paper; in fhort, the toys rather than the inftruments of science, attract the notice of all the Ruffian amateurs. A magnificent library in Ruffia, on which immenfe fums have been expended, will be found to contain very little of ufeful literature. In vain, among their stately collections, fmelling like a tannery of the leather which bears their name, may we feek for claffic authors, hiftorians, law-givers and poets. A copy of the Encyclopædia, placed more for oftentation than for ufe, may perhaps, in a folitary inftance or two, greet the eye, as the only estimable work throughout their gilded shelves." P. 70.

"6 MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE.

"The true manners of the people are not feen in Petersburg, nor even in Mofcow, by entering the houfes of nobility only. Some of them, and generally thofe to whom letters of recommendation are obtained, have travelled, and introduce refinements, which their friends, and companions readily imitate. The real Ruffian rifes at an early hour, and breakfafts on a dram with black bread. His dinner at noon confifts of the coarfest and most greafy viands, the fcorbutic effects of which are counteracted by falted cucumbers, four cabbage, the juice of his vaccinium, and his nectar, quafs. Sleep, which renders him unmindful of his abject fervitude and barbarous life, he particularly indulges; fleeping always after eating, and going early to his bed. The principal articles of diet are the fame every where; greafe and brandy. A ftranger, dining with their most refined and most ac. complished princes, may in vain expect to fee his knife and fork

changed.

changed. If he fends them away, they are returned without even being wiped. If he looks behind him, he will fee a fervant fpit in the plate he is to receive, and wipe it with a dirty napkin, to remove the duft.”

Here follow fome particulars, which are really too dif gufting to extract; and as we cannot quite conceive them to be poffible, we do not choose to take the adopted responsi bility of reporting them. The author proceeds thus :

"If at table he regards his neighbour, he fees him pick. ing his teeth with his fork, and then plunging it into a plate of meat which is brought round to all. The horrors of a Ruffian kitchen are inconceivable; and there is not a bed in the whole empire, which an English traveller, aware of its condition, would venture to approach.

"In the houfe of young Count Orlof alone, are no less than five hundred fervants; many of them fumptuously clothed, and many others in rags. It is no unufual fight to fee behind a chair a fort of gala footman, like a Neapolitan volante, in gold and plumes, and another behind him looking like a beggar The generation has not yet paffed away, which, at the pleasure of the Tfar, were fent to be whipped as dogs. The short liberty they enjoyed in the reign of Catharine did not fuffice to elevate their minds from the depravity always incident to a state of flavery. Under Paul, the period came again in which they fuffered the indignities offered to their forefathers. Potemkin, one of the meaneft and moft profligate of men, frequently taught them to remember what, they had before been, by chaftifing with his own hand a prince or a nobleman with whom he chanced to be offended and the Emperor Paul exercifed his cane upon the nobles who were his officers. Under fuch government, if we find them fervile, oppreffive, cowardly, and tyrannical, it is no more than may be expected, from their mode of education, and the difcipline they undergo. They will naturally crouch with their heads in the duft before an Emperor or his favourite, and trample their inferiors beneath their feet.

"They confider the English as a mercenary nation, and gene. rally hate them because they fear them, or court them if they want their fupport. One of their princes thought proper to declare in public, at his own table, where we had been in. vited to dine, and where of courfe under protection enjoined by the laws of hofpitality, that in England there is not an individual, patriot, or placeman, who is not faleable to the highest bidder. He inftanced Wilkes, Gibbon, and Burke, with many others; adding, English flavery is lefs justifiable than Ruffian. One is felfishness; the other, fubmiffion to the laws.' ›› P. 91.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF MOSCOW.

"A curious contraft to the fplendour in which we had hitherto beheld Plato, archbishop of Mofcow, was offered, during a vifit we made to him at the Convent of Nicoll na Perrera, a feminary for young priests neat the city. I had long wifhed for an opportunity of converfing with this remarkable man. He was preceptor to the Emperor Paul; and is known to the world by his correfpondence with Monfieur Dutens. Upon our arrival at the convent, we were told he was then walking in a fmall garden; the care of which conftituted his principal pleasure; and the employment characterized the fimplicity and innocence of his life. As we entered the garden, we found him feated on a turf bank, beneath the windows of the refectory, attended by a bishop, an old man his vicar, the abbé of the monaftery, and fome others of the monks. I could fcarcely believe my eyes, when they told ine it was Plato; for though I had often feen him in his archiepifcopal veftments, his rural dress had made fuch an alteration, that I did not know him. He was habited in a striped filk bedgown, with a night-cap like the filk nets which hang down the back, as commonly feen on the heads of Italian poftillions; and a pair of woollen ftockings, with feet of coarfe linen, faftened on with twine in an uncouth manner. He was without fhoes, but a pair of yellow flippers laid [lay] at some distance. By his fide, on the bank, was placed his broad-brimmed hat, fuch as is worn by the fhepherdeffes of the Alps; and in the hat-band, to complete the refemblance, was ftuck a bunch of withered flowers. His white beard, and that mildnefs and animation of countenance which diftinguished him, gave to his features a moft pleafing expreffion. He defired to know who we were; and being anfwered, Englifhmen; What!' faid he; all English? I wonder what your contrymen can find fufficiently interefting in Ruffia, to bring you fo far from home; and in fuch times as these? But having made this obfervation in French, he looked cautiously around him, and began to afk the monks, feverally, whether they underflood French. Finding them per. fectly ignorant of that language, he hade me fit by him; while the rest forming a circle he entertained us with a conversation, in which there was fcience, wit, and freedom, fufficient to aftonish any traveller, in fuch a country, and at fuch a period. Memory has scarcely retained even that part of it, which concerned the manners of his countrymen.

"Well,' faid he, you thought me perhaps a curiosity; and you find me as naturally difpofed for obfervation as you could with' (pointing to his woollen ftockings and his ftrange drefs,) an old man bending with years and infirmities.' I replied, that had the honour to fee him in his greatest splendour, on the night of the Ceremony of the Refurrection, in the cathedral of the Kremlin, And what did you think of that ceremony ?

Clarke's Travels.

493 faid he. I answered, that I confidered it as one of the moft folemn I had ever witneffed, not excepting even that of the Benediction at Rome; and interefting?' added his Grace. Very much fo,' faid I: at which he burst into a fit of laughter, holding his fides, and faying, I had loft a night's rest to attend the ceremony of a religion I did not profefs, and called it interefting!'

We accompanied him round his garden, admiring the beauty of the fituation, and the ferenity of the climate. But do you,' faid he, prefer our climate to yours? I told him, that I had found the Ruffian climate fevere, but the cold weather in winter not attended by fo much humidity as in England; that the atmofphere was clear and dry. 'Oh yes,' faid he, very dry indeed! and it has, in confequence, dried up all our fruit

trees.'

"Afterwards, he inquired where we were going? and being told to Kuban Tartary, and to Conftantinople;- Gcd preferve me!' he exclaimed, what a journey! but nothing is difficult to Englishmen; they traverfe all the regions of the earth. My brother,' continued he,' was a traveller, and educated in your country, at Oxford; but I have never been anywhere, except at Peterburg and Mofcow. I fhould have been delighted in travelling, if I had enjoyed the opportunity; for books of travels are my favourite reading. I have lately read,' and the fignificant fmile by which the words were accompanied could not be mifunderstood, the Voyage of Lord Macartney.'-He laughed, however, at the refult of his brother's education. • The English,' faid he, taught him to declaim, in their way he used to preach his fine flourishing fermons to us Ruffians; very fine fermons! but they were all tranflated from the English. Some of your divines write beautifully; but with inconceivable freedom. It was once difcuffed in an English fermon, whether a people had power to dethrone their King." • Your Grace may fay more,' faid I; we had once a prelate, who, preaching before his Sovereign, felt himself at liberty to difcufs his conduct to his face.

I wish,' faid he, we had fuch a fellow here!'-but, aware of the interpretation which might be put upon his words, and perhaps not daring to end with them, he added, after a pause,

we would fend him, to enjoy the full liberty of preaching in the free air of Siberia.' He was much amufed at a reply he once received from an English clergyman, of the factory at Petersburg, when asked if he intended to marry. If I am fortunate enough to become a bishop, I fhall marry fome rich citizen's daughter, and live at my ease *.'

"He complained much of Dutens, for having published his cor

"The Priefts in the Greek Church are allowed to marry;

but not the Bifhops."