tercourse. At Easter, and other festivals, by the order of the empress-dowager, they take a ride, round the city, to see the diversion of sliding down the ice-hills, or the various festivities incident to the occasion and season. The empress-dowager takes great pleasure in visiting this institution; and whenever she appears, the young people crowd round her, to kiss the palm of her hand, as if she were their common parent. In other countries there may be institutions upon the same principle, but not one of the same magnitude; there the sovereign thinks he has discharged a splendid duty if he allot a sum of money for its support, without seeing to its appropriation, or cherishing the establishment by his presence; but here the empressdowager, the empress, and other branches of the imperial family, are personally and actively assistant. When madame Bredkoff was sent to Moscow, to organize an institution there, similar to that of St. Catherine's, the empress-dowager, during her absence, took possession of her chair, and discharged all her functions. It is with great pleasure I mention another instance of the munificence of the dowager empress, in an establishment called the Institute of Marie, which is wholly supported out of her private purse, and costs one thousand five hundred pounds per annum. In this seminary, which is under the able direction of madame Luky, fiftysix girls are clothed, maintained, and educated in French, German, Russ, arithmetic, drawing, and embroidery. In the latter, the young pupils have attained to such a high state of perfection, that the state dresses of the imperial family are frequently made by them. At eighteen, the fair élèves are provided with respectable situations in genteel families, or married, when a little dowry is presented to them. The qualifications required for the admission of a pupil is, not that she should have interest or friends, but that she should be destitute and friendless! The whole resembled a large, genteel, and happy family. When the money of an empire is thus expended, it is like the sun drinking up the exhalations of the earth, to return it in refreshing showers of dew. By the same gracious order of the empress-dowager, we were admitted to the foundling-hospital, one of the most extensive and superb buildings in the residence. In this establishment, six thousand children, the offspring of shame or misery, are received, and protected. Sublime idea! but let us examine whether the end of this great and benevolent design is answered. The children are classed according to their age: in the first room were several little 'creatures who had been left one, two, or three, days before, at the office of secrecy, where the wretched mother at night, if nature will admit, with a trembling hand rings the bell, resigns her child to a porter, receives a ticket of its number, and in agony retires. When we entered a large room where the nurses were suckling the infants, the result of our enquiry and observation, in which I was much indebted to a very intelligent lady, who was herself a mother, and who accompanied us, was that, although the nurses, generally the wives of boors, were examined by surgeons, and bathed upon their admission, yet many of them displayed the effect of invincible habit, and were very dirty, notwithstanding the greatest vigilance and care to keep them clean; and, as many of them had nursed their own children seven or eight months before upon wretched fare, their milk was neither rich nor copious; a circumstance which was visibly proved by the meagre and unhealthy appearance of the nurslings. The difficulty of procuring an adequate number of nurses is great indeed; and with a sufficient quantity of milk, utterly impossible. The mortality is very great: out of two thousand five hundred infants received the preceding year, five hundred perished! The conclusion is plain. Whilst the principle of this infant asylum is unquestionably propitious to libertinism, its present constitution and economy are ungenial to population. If this establishment were upon a smaller scale, it might possibly answer; but, extensive as it is, it seems to overstep its object by too large a stride, and to countenance an opinion, that the cause of humanity and policy would be more efficaciously promoted even were no other barriers opposed to infanticide than nature and the laws. We repeatedly observed that the boys did not look so healthy as the girls, which may be owing to the nature and hours of their labour being somewhat greater: indeed, eight hours toil is too much for boys of tender years. The gardens are very extensive: we there saw a recreation which is a great favourite with the young Russians. A broad flat board, about eight feet long, was placed centrically over another of the same size and shape: a girl, about fourteen or fifteen years of age, stood at one extremity of the upper board, and at the other end two smaller girls, who, by alternately springing up, tossed each other to the height of five or six feet, from which they descended with uncommon skill and steadiness. A gentleman of the party, at the great hazard of his neck, unsuccessfully endeavoured to partake of the pastime. From the windows of the foundling-hospital, in a sequestered part of the city, we saw the top of a private lying-in-house, where only the patients and nurses are admitted, and the offices of tenderness and humanity are discharged, without curiosity, enquiry, or development. I was very fortunate in being at Petersburg during two great causes of national festivity: the name day, as the Russians call it, of the empress-dowager; and the nuptials of one of her daughters, the grand duchess Maria, a beautiful and amiable princess, about seventeen years of age, to the only son of the reigning prince of Saxe Weimar, a young man of twenty. It was the wish of the empressdowager that these events should be celebrated on the same day. This marriage, unlike the severe policy which state ceremony imposes on such occasions in other countries, had been preceded by a course of attentions and tenderness for two years preceding, during which period the young prince had resided with the empress-dowager, who wisely thought with Shakespeare, that "Marriage is a matter of more worth On the third of August, N. S. I went with a party of friends to the winter palace, the vast area before which was covered with carriages; on our arrival we proceeded up the grand marble staircase, through a suite of superb rooms, to an apartment of the foreign ministers, who were splendidly attired. In this room was the lady of the British ambassador, who in her dress and person did honour to the magnificence and beauty of the British empire. All the rooms were uncommonly crowded with people in full gala dresses, and about one o'clock the procession moved from the empress dowager's apartment: after a long line of marshals and state officers, vying with each other in the splendour of their dresses, appeared the emperor, in a plain suit of regimentals, leading the empress dowager by the hand, the empress, in a superb dress covered with diamonds, walking by his side (the former always takes the precedence of the latter, by an ukase of Paul); then followed the beautiful grand duchess, between the young prince of Weimar and the grand duke Constantine, in a blaze of jewelry: upon her head was a crown of diamonds, upon her shoulders a long robe of crimson velvet lined with ermine, the train of which was supported (and the intense heat of the weather called for all the support that could be afforded her) by several peers of high rank, and in her bosom she wore a most superb bouquet of flowers in diamonds; then followed the rest of the imperial family, and a train of lords and ladies closed the whole. As they passed through the guard-room, which was lined with a detachment of gigantic guards, it was amusing to see how these colossal images curled their stiff whiskers with delight as their emperor passed. When the procession entered the Greek church in the palace, the priests and choristers commenced an anthem: the young couple stood upon a cloth of scarlet fringed with gold, whilst two officers of state held a crown on each of their heads, which part of the ceremony is observed towards the commonest Russians; then walked three times before the altar, each holding a lighted taper, exchanged rings, and drank three times out of the sacramental cup, after which the metropolitan exhorted them: when he had concluded, the bride saluted the archbishop and her family, and the procession returned. Upon the close of the ceremony a rocket was discharged from the granite terrace in front of the palace towards the Neva, when discharges of cannon announced the happy tidings to the people. About two hours afterwards a splendid banquet, for the whole court, was served in the grand marble hall, a room, according to my own stepping, two hundred and fifty feet long, and about forty feet high, having arched galleries for the accommodation of spectators, at the end and on the side opposite the windows: the imperial table was covered with vases of gold, filled with the rarest flowers, pyramids of pines, and the finest fruits, elegantly arranged. Soon after the nobility were seated at the tables, which were covered with every delicacy, the grand master of the ceremonies made a buzzing noise, when the greatest silence immediately followed, the folding-doors opened, and the imperial family entered, attended by a suite of state officers, and took their seats; when the pages in waiting, richly attired, each having his right hand covered with a napkin, served the imperial dinner: a noble band of music played, and several fine airs were sung by a distinguished singer, which, on account of the vastness of the room and the frequent roaring of the cannon, were very imperfectly heard. When the emperor rose and drank felicity to the young couple from a vase of gold, if my sight erred not, a tear bedimmed the eyes of the beautiful bride. During the banquet one of the pages, from excessive agitation, spilt some soup upon her robe, which she returned with a most gracious smile. In the hall were several running footmen who have the privilege of wearing at all times and in all places their caps and feathers. With great difficulty we reached our carriage, through rooms crowded with cooks, and a great number of sailors in their best dresses, who, upon this occasion, were assistant scullions. Whilst we were at dinner at the hotel, we received a note from our ambassador, informing us that the emperor had appointed half past six o'clock in the evening for our introduction to him, previous to the ball; this honour, at such a time and on such an occasion, we were told, was against the usual etiquette of the court, and therefore the more flattering. A short time before the imperial family appeared, the nobility retired from the room where the presentation was to take place; the names of our party, amounting to six, of whom four were English, were given to the emperor by count Sherametoff, who introduced us. Upon the folding doors opening, a procession similar to that in the morning commenced: when the emperor approached us the whole halted, and the count, calling each by his name, introduced us to the emperor, the empress dowager, and the empress, by whom we were very graciously received. An Italian nobleman, who was presented with us, fell at the feet of the emperor and endeavoured to embrace his knees, which the sovereign recoiled from, with a look that indicated how little a manly generous mind, like his, could be gratified with such servility. After this ceremony, the procession, which we followed, moved to St. George's hall: this magnificent apartment, more rich, though not so vast, as Potemkin's hall, is entirely gilded with various coloured gold, and illuminated by a profusion of richly gilded lustres: on each side were galleries crowded with spectators: on either side of the grand entrance were two enormous mirrors, rising above some exquisite statues of alabaster ; and at the end, raised upon a flight of steps, stood the throne. As soon as the imperial family entered, the band struck up an exquisite polonaise, which is rather a figure promenade than a dance, the weather being too hot for such exercise: the emperor led out the |