canal near the lake of that name. -The latter canal, which is sixty-seven. miles in length and seventy feet broad, we are informed by Mr. Tooke, was intended to avoid the dangerous storms and whirlpools which the vessels had to encounter in passing from the mouth of the Volkof across the Ladoga lake.-It was begun by the czar Peter and was finished by the empress Anne in 1730, under the direction of count Munich, and completes the navigable communication between the Baltic and the Caspian. Nothing can give us a grander or more advantageous idea of commerce than the effect of it in this instance. By the completion of these canals, which were much improved by the empress Catharine, a communication was formed not only between the northern and southern provinces of Russia, but between Europe and the extreme parts of the east. By means of them, with the intervention of somewhat more than 200 miles of landcarriage, the inhabitants of each quarter of the globe were mutually accommodated with each other's product and manufactures.-We may form an idea of the extent of the trade carried on by these canals from the following statement of Mr. Tooke. "The number of vessels," says he, which, according to a ten years average, from 1774 to 1784, came by "the Ladoga canal to Petersburg was 2,861 barks, 797 half-barks, 508 "one mast vessels, 1,113 chaloups-in all 5,339. Add to these 6,739 "floats of balks." PUBLIC WORKS AND UNDERTAKINGS, AND INSTITUTIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE. The Russian monarchs, in the course of the last century, have shewn a very laudable zeal to improve their subjects by knowledge and civilization; and to promote their welfare, whilst they derived honour to themselves, by affording them the means of information. In the year 1753 an university and two seminaries were founded at Petersburg under the auspices of the empress Elizabeth. In 1764 the empress Catharine, improving upon a plan projected by Elizabeth, of founding a convent for noble ladies, instituted an academy for the daughters of her nobles and others, and endowed it with an income of 16,000 per annum. The foundation is for 200 children of nobles and 240 of the lower orders. (Voyages.) The Russians have shewn a very enterprising spirit in their voyages of discovery in the North Seas. The voyage made by Bearing and his companions, in 1740, for the discovery of a north-east passage, although it proved fatal to that bold adventurer, had the good effect of leading to discoveries in the North Seas. "The inhabitants of "Kamtschatka," says Levesque, "were less deterred by their misfortunes, "than they were tempted by the beautiful skins of sea otters, which they "found on these seas, and sold at a high price to the Chinese.”—The chain of isles, situated between 56 and 60 degree of latitude, called Lissié Ostrova, or Isles aux Renards, were discovered in 1758; and three years after, a cluster of isles were discovered, lying on the north of the Aleoutiennes, and making, together with these and the Isles aux Renards, a chain extending almost from Kamtschatka to the continent of America.* From the commencement of her reign, the empress discovered a determination to prosecute the laudable design formed by Peter the Great, of diffusing knowledge among her people, as the only effectual means of civilization. The sciences were the peculiar object of her patronage. Her illustrious predecessor had, in 1724, founded an academy of sciences at Petersburg. The plan was completed by Catharine the First, his dowager; who settled £.4,982 per annum for its support, and placed the two Bernoullies and other celebrated foreigners at the head of it.-The empress Elizabeth augmented its income to £.10,659.-And Catharine, considering it as the centre of that system by which she meant to disperse light throughout her dominions, made it the object of her peculiar care and her bounty. Under her auspices several of the most celebrated naturalists in Europe were employed in researches respecting the geology, natural history, and geography of the Russian empire. Gmelin, Guldenstaedt, Pallas, and Lepekin, names most honourable in themselves, will ever reflect honour on their patroness. That they might pursue these investigations with greater effect, the empress repeatedly bestowed large sums on the academy to enable it to Levesque. 8. 108. send send men of science into the remotest parts of her empire, which were yet imperfectly explored." In 1768 doctor Gmelin visited the borders of the Caspian, and the neighbouring province of Shirvan. But, as he was passing through the territories of Usmei Khan, a petty Tartar prince, he was arrested and thrown into prison, where he soon died. Guldenstaedt, who left Petersburg the same year, was more fortunate. -After he had explored the borders of the Caspian, he carried his scientific researches into the neighbouring parts of Asia, and visited the court of Heraclius prince of Georgia; and was enabled by the hospitality and friendly offices of that prince to pursue his inquiries with much success in his dominions and the parts adjoining.-After that, he revisited the country near the Euxine and Caspian seas, and paid a particular attention to the regions of Mount Caucasus.-Having passed through the Ukraine, he returned to Petersburg in 1775. The empress expressing a desire that her astronomers should make their observations on the transit of venus, which was to take place in 1769, Pallas undertook to conduct the expedition for that purpose in the south. -This not only afforded him an opportunity of investigation in natural history, which was his particular province, but of making remarks on whatever is deserving of notice in the south-eastern provinces of the empress's dominions.-In this expedition he visited the rich silver mines of Kolyvan; where he was gratified with an opportunity of seeing the natural phenomenon of the freezing of quicksilver.-The character, languages, manners, and other particulars relating to the inhabitants of the countries. through which they travelled could not but attract the notice of a philosopher. The Mongols made an especial object of his curious remarks. He differs in opinion from those who class them indiscriminately among the Tartars; and proves satisfactorily, from their features, language, and government, that they are a distinct race. He supposes that when the dominions of Zinghis Khan fell to pieces under his successors in the sixteenth century, the Mongol and Tartar hordes, who had composed one empire, again separated, and have since continued distinct.-Pallas did not return to Petersburg till 1774.-Any person who is desirous of further Coxe. 3. 190. с Idem. 3. 273. 81. information Idem. 3. 260. 67. information respecting these expeditions may find it in Mr. Coxe's northern Tour; from which valuable repository the writer has drawn some of the most interesting particulars relative to the northern states. Catharine's endeavours to acquire information relative to her own dominions, and to make new discoveries, did not terminate here.-In 1785 baron de Valchen Stedtz was sent to explore the country in the regions near the Euxine and the Caspian, particularly Mount Caucacus: and, that the naturalists, engineers, and draftsmen who accompanied him might accomplish the purposes of their expedition without being exposed to the same danger which others had experienced, they were attended by 810 chosen men. The ensuing year, || colonel Blumayer was dispatched, with a number of navigators and artists, to make further discoveries on the eastern coasts. With that view they were to embark at the mouth of the river Anadyr, which empties itself into the Eastern Seas near the straits which divide America from the extreme north eastern point of the Russian empire. The discoveries already made exciting a desire of prosecuting them, an expedition was undertaken in 1787, by advice of Mr. Pallas, to explore that Archipelago which had been so often the object of their researches, lying off the eastern coast of Kamtschatka, and between that peninsula and Japan.-It was conducted by captain Billings, an Englishman, who had accompanied captain Cook.-Agreeably to his instructions, he made choice of a place for a harbour and dock, where vessels might be built for those who might in future be led to traverse those seas, either for discovery or with mercantile views.-A fact said to have been ascertained by this navigator is well deserving our notice, because, if admitted, it is decisive of the question of a practicable north east passage. Regularly every spring immense herds of reindeer, thousands and ten thousands strong, come over to the open plains on the Asiatic side, to avoid the "insects of the close, damp American woods, and as regularly go back every august, feeding on the moss of the intermediate islands in their 66 passage. 66 Now, as that is the very time when the continued action of the In 1786. 66 summer's Tooke. 3. 131. 33. "summer's heat must have opened the sea, if ever it did thaw; an open 66 passage is out of all probability; and indeed Billings gives it as his opinion, that the thickness of the ice, every where, (except just about "the mouths of large rivers, whose warmer waters make a partial opening "as far as they extend,) is such, that a ten years continued summer would scarce reduce it to a fluid state." " Nothing sets the strength and greatness of the empress's mind in a more striking light than the number of important objects to which she gave her attention. Whilst the great affairs of foreign politics, the means of forwarding the welfare of her dominions by her arrangements with other powers, and her schemes of aggrandizement, seemed to engross her thoughts, she was attentive at the same time to the execution of the grand design which she had formed for the better regulation of the civil government of her dominions and the administration of justice. This was done by dividing her empire into forty-three governments or viceroyalties; whereof thirty-eight were in Europe and the remainder in Asia, each of which is subdivided, and has its subordinate magistrates." Each viceroyalty has a general governor, a governor, and a government adminis"tration; in which, beside these two personages, two counsellors have. Subordinate to these, are a court of justice, a finance chamber, a superior country-court, a viceroyalty magistrate, &c. The circle has "also its court of judicature; likewise a ward or guardian office, a landsurveyor, a rent-master, a physician, a surgeon; in the cities are magistrates; in the towns, common-councils; in both, oral-courts of judicature, &c." 66 "seats. 66 66 Whilst she was thus providing for the better governing her people, she was endeavouring at the same time to make them capable of being governed, by giving them information, and gradually wearing away that ferocity of character which had marked their ancestors." The public "institutions for national improvement now flourishing," says Mr. Tooke, "owe their origin, for the greater part, but all of them without exception "their enlargement and melioration, to the late empress Catharine. "The following list shews the revenues of the public places of educa"tion, and the number of pupils boarded, clothed, and taught at the |