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me; and strolling through its straight and | fying it in good earnest, without waiting interminable streets, I have longed for for the conclusion of peace to establish some of the abrupt turns which one meets his new position, and without fear of the in the older quarters of Rouen, Venice, inundations to which he knew it was exor Nuremburg. I am too much a lover of posed. the picturesque, not to be wearied with straight lines and right angles. However, chacun son goût; and when my first fervors for St. Petersburgh had congealed in the frost-breath, I nevertheless understood perfectly how it was capable of exciting enthusiastic admiration.

St. Petersburgh, or the city of Peter, the first city on the continent of Europe in size, and the second in population, was first thought of by Peter the First, in 1703. In that year he made known his project of removing the capital of his empire from Moscow-from the august sanctuary of the Kremlin to the borders of the Gulf of Finland-to the uninhabited marshy plains of the Neva. Its situation, politically considered, was perhaps not well chosen. Statesmen, who look more at the future than at the present, allege that Peter committed a great blunder. In order to keep the Swedes in check, and to open a direct communication with Western Europe by the Baltic, he removed Russia, or at least her center of action, from the position to which she was suited by her origin and her character, and to which she was called by her designs, her interests, and her necessities. These knowing ones have also asserted that if ever the Czar succeeds in sending his fleets beyond the Bosporus, (which a good Providence forfend!) if ever he places the Greek cross upon the domes of St. Sophia, the Russian empire with its two heads will inevitably be cut into northern and southern divisions, after the manner of the Roman empire, under the founder of Constantinople. All this may be true; but our business is not with politics.

In the spring of 1703 he gave orders for assembling in his new locality great numbers of Russian peasants, Tartars, Cossacks, Finns, &c., and gathered about him workmen from all parts of the empire. At the same time his troops were encamped on both banks of the Neva, the infantry on the north and the cavalry on the south. It was a great undertaking to supply these vast numbers with food. The surrounding country, ravaged as it had been for many years of war, contained scarcely any resources; and contrary winds frequently delayed the convoys, which were sent from the interior, across the lake of Ladoga. Provisions were scarce, and consequently very dear. With insufficient nourishment, exposed to cold and dampness, often nearly to their shoulders in the water, the poor workmen sunk under their fatigues and miseries, and it is computed that about one hundred thousand men perished. But these were small difficulties in the way of Peter the Great. During these preliminary arrangements, the Czar resided in a little wooden house, painted brick color, and hung with canvas. Some twenty years afterward, it was rebuilt in masonry, by order of its imperial occupant, and it is still in good preservation, the object of veneration to his people, and much visited by foreigners. To me, that little Dutchbuilt brick house has been the most interesting spot in St. Petersburgh. This log-cabin of royalty contains three apartments-a dining-room on the left, a lodging-room on the right, and the center for a reception-hall: the latter contains three or four articles of furniture, made by the industrious hands of the Czar himself, who As early as 1700, the Swedes had con- taught his subjects the use of several mestructed a fortress at the junction of the chanical tools. Dressed in a coarse red Neva and the Okhta, which was a constant vest, he here received the officers of his point of attack to the Russians for many army, ministers of his empire, and foreign years. At one time it was partly de- embassadors. Almost the only ornastroyed by an incendiary; but after a siege ment of the establishment, is a crucifix of some days, it was finally surrendered which was carried by Peter at the battle to Peter the Great, in 1703. Though it of Poltava. In an inclosure, by the side had only been regarded as a good military of the house, is a relic scarcely less preposition, he seems immediately to have cious; it is the little boat constructed by formed the project of making it the capi- the royal carpenter at Saardam, which tal of his empire, for he commenced forti- | afterward became the model for his work

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the eye can reach; and many of these edifices are of such a size, that ten minutes time is requisite to walk along but one side of their extent. Several of the public buildings contain a larger population than many respectably sized towns in Europe or America.

men, and is now called the Grandfather | city, temples and palaces extend as far as of the Russian Navy. Tapers and lamps are kept burning day and night, on a kind of altar in the dining-room, and the entire building is completely tapestried with votive offerings. Some of these look singular enough to civilized eyes; the reader will agree with me, when I assure him, that among these were arms, legs, feet, hands, eyes, teeth, jewels, paintings, embroideries, &c. One might easily imagine himself in the chamber of the Virgin at Our Lady's of Loretto. The memory of Peter is preserved with a gratitude and admiration amounting almost to devotion; indeed, the Russians seem to regard him as a superhuman being.

Such is a glance, and we have time but for a glance at the origin of this great metropolis. It is not my intention to detail "Guide Book" items; nor to generalize only for old travelers-my route is novel enough to American readers, and, indeed, to any readers, to admit of some particularity. In some parts of the present

The winter palace numbers six thousand inhabitants. The Hospital of the Infantry has four thousand beds at its disposal. Seven thousand children are in the Foundling Hospital. Some other buildings-such as the Admiralty, the Hotel of the Etat Major, and the Tauris Palace-occupy sufficient ground for separate towns, and yet the streets so wide, and the squares are SO vast, and the arms of the Neva are so extended, that, notwithstanding their grandeur, all these edifices look small. The perfect level on which they are built diminishes their apparent size still more. They are all of the same height. Architectural masses which deserved hills for their pedestals, are limited within the

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same straight lines. Nowhere do you see a picturesque group of buildings. The monotonous aspect of the city is more noticeable in winter than in summer. When river, streets, squares, and houses are covered with their shroud of snow, the white walls of the edifices scarcely appear to belong to the earth; and the Palmyra of the north beneath its leaden sky seems but the ghost of a city.

In fact, St. Petersburgh might be characterized by almost any European national designation but its own. It is French, Italian, English, or German, but not Russian. Moscow alone deserves that appellation, of which more when we revisit it. And yet springing up as we have described it, St. Petersburgh is a somewhat faithful image of the nation and of the effect of its character, history, and institutions upon its society. This great modern European city, rising in the midst of an almost Asiatic country, uninhabited, uncultivated, destitute of laws, manners, arts and sciences, now, as then, presents the two extremes of society, without the intermediate class. There is no transition

between the nobility and the serfs-between excessive wealth and excessive poverty. Civilization is surrounded by barbarism. Science shines forth from the darkness of ignorance; in fact, the nineteenth century is seen in the midst of the thirteenth.

But let us stroll on with our local observations. One of the most striking features of St. Petersburgh, is the number and variety of its spires: upon its large and numerous convents all kinds of belfries, turrets, and steeples may be seen. They amount to a national architecture, and their bright or painted points are a great relief to the monotonous edifices, piercing the air with arrows so sharp, that the eye can scarcely distinguish where the gilding fades into the brown of the polar skies. The spire of the citadel, and that of the Admiralty, are the most remarkable: the latter is gilded with ducats presented to Peter by the Republic of the United Provinces. These monumental needles appeared to me dangerously aspiring. I could not imagine how they were sustained in the air. They are essentially

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Russian ornaments, and doubtless are imitations of the Asiatic. Just picture to yourself this immense collection of domes, (and every Greek church is obliged to have four belfries ;) then imagine the various hues of this multitude of cupolassome silvered, some gilded, some azurecolored, while the roofs of the palaces are painted a deep blue or emerald green; add to this, the magnificent squares ornamented with bronze statues of the emperors and distinguished characters of Russian history; inclose this colossal picture with a river of extraordinary size, which

reflects all these objects when calm, and covers them with its mists in storm, and you will have some conception of the splendor of St. Petersburgh. Over the widest part of the river extends a bridge of boats, between the Champ-de-Mars, (where the statue of Suwarow is lost in space,) and the citadel which contains the ashes of Peter the Great, and his family. Recollect too, that the Neva, which is always full, flows through the midst of the city, inclosing an island bordered with splendid edifices, which are adorned with Greek columns, supported by granite

foundations and modeled from pagan temples. If you can bring all these objects definitely before you, you will understand how picturesque St. Petersburgh must be, notwithstanding the bad taste of its borrowed architecture, the misty hue of the surrounding country, the total absence of inequalities of surface, and its lack of brilliant skies in the dull climate of the north. The houses of St. Petersburgh have, like the public edifices, a monumental appearance. Many of them contain two hundred families. Their appearance from the street gives you no idea of their size. This can only be understood, by observing the several parts of which they are composed, and the courts they inclose, which are sufficiently large for cavalry reviews. The inhabitants of course have little or no acquaintance with each other, and sometimes hours are spent in search of one of them.

Most of the houses of St. Petersburgh are but one or two stories in height, though in the central streets they are somewhat more elevated. The Russians dislike lofty residences. Those of the upper classes have usually but one story. A few years since a speculator built four or five three storied houses, on the isle of Vasili; but it was impossible to let them. No one wanted the upper floor. Rents are exorbitant in the better parts of the city, as land is high, and the marshy nature of the soil renders the expense of foundations very great. Yet buildings are erected with astonishing rapidity; indeed, the time is so short from the commencement to the completion of an edifice, that it seems almost the work of enchantment. Let it be done as soon as possible is the only demand made of an architect. The inconstancy of the people equals their impatience. A dwelling is scarcely well finished, when alterations are commenced. For a dinner, a ball, or a party, the whole interior is sometimes transformed. A wing is added, or the partition removed in less time than more settled homes would demand for the purchase of a new article of furniture. The taste of the governmental authorities is, however, by no means a fixture, and it may be held responsible for much of this apparent fickleness; the window or door which was given as a model to-day may be prohibited to-morrow.

The Russians, like the Yankees, are essentially a nomadic race. The wealthy

classes cannot spend a year comfortably without hurrying from one extremity of the empire to another, just for the pleasure of a change of place. If circumstances make this impossible, they gratify their inclination by removing from room to room in their own habitations.

The streets of St. Petersburgh are not in good order, though immense sums are expended on the repairs which are constantly necessary. The soil is too soft to continue well paved. During the winter, however, nature macadamizes the city better than human agency could do it. The snow and ice tend to form a pavement perfectly smooth and hard. But defend us from the thawing time, which generally occurs in May, that month so celebrated in the poetry of other lands. Horrible lakes of mud then fill the streets through which horses can only ford their way. Any one who has wintered here, sees the impossibility of removing the snow of a winter: as soon as the first breath of spring is felt, openings are made in the thickest and hardest masses for the melting waters, forming quite respectably sized canals. The dust is nearly as insupportable in summer as the mud in its season; the streets are so very wide and the squares such immense paved spaces, that it is impossible to water them, and the winds of Russia are as tyrannical as the reigning powers. No obstacle impedes them, and, like other tyrants, they abuse their authority. St. Petersburgh pays the penalty of its magnificent distances in other inconveniences to which it is subject. In the warmest weather there is scarcely any shade during the day, and it is quite hopeless to illuminate it at night. Notwithstanding the darkness which covers the greater part of the city, it is perfectly safe at all hours; acts of violence against persons or property are as rare as they would be frequent in Paris or NewYork, if these two civilized cities were left in the same obscurity for forty-eight consecutive hours.

To a stranger, the aspect of the winter nights is singular enough; every instant sleighs are darting out from the darkness on one side and immediately disappearing on the other. Gigantic shadows seem pursuing each other over the snows, and voices are heard and shouts are raised to prevent the collision of these unseen travelers. Upon the roofs of the houses,

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