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style of argument is this! It is merely saying the truism, that evil can proceed only from the evilly-inclined, and therefore a system which admits of the indulgence of such an inclination is not bad. The existence of the ill-minded is the sole necessity for laws, and not a justification of individual impunity and discretion. In this case, the proprietor is the judge of what is refractory and criminal; and how can a poor, ignorant serf complain against a powerful master, to an Emperor some thousand miles distant? But the Russians maintain that two immense advantages arise from this state of the population. The facility of raising troops, and of levying taxes. The Russian style of reasoning upon all such subjects shows that statistics and political economy are but little understood. The police is most pragmatical. Servants are under its "immediate inspection ;" it interdicts plays in excessively cold weather, as if" the beggarly account of empty benches" would not regulate the matter much better. It lights immense fires in the streets, lest the servants of those at the theatre should perish by the cold. The fire-engines are under the police, and the Emperor having by a ukase established a fire-insurance company, Dr. Granville observes, "this establishment being without competition for the present, must necessarily succeed, and ultimately prove very lucrative to the subscribers." We should argue the reverse. It is competition alone that can produce the sagacity, prudence, and activity, which ensure success. theatres are a monopoly, and cost the state 200,000 rubles annually.

The

The Russians have little native talent, nor have they the imitative capacity which Dr. Clarke attributes to them; for, thirty years ago, oneseventh of the population was foreign, and the proportion is now only reduced to one-ninth.

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The patronage of medical and chirurgical science is liberal, and the hospitals are magnificent; and yet we find that the proportion of deaths, compared to that of England, is as two to one. Notwithstanding Dr. Granville's favourable opinion of the climate, the deaths are incessant ; and the hospitals, though numerous, and of a size almost immeasurable, are crowded to excess. Independently of the in-patients, this hospital (Hôpital des Pauvres) admits out-patients, the total number of which, last year, is said to have amounted to 30,000:"-this, out of a population of 320,000, is immense. But, perhaps, this unprecedented ratio may arise from the demoralizing effects of the Government, which throws the poorer orders upon charity in every case of illness.

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In St. Petersburgh, charitable institutions include all classes, from the premier duke to the pauper. The Empress-Mother is the patroness of one institution which boards "about four hundred young ladies of noble families," who are immured for nine years, during which they are denied any access to their parents but under "the strictest surveillance." Dr. Granville calls these "judicious regulations," and says By these means social habits, befitting their sex and station, are imparted."" Corporeal punishment does not enter into the system of discipline adopted in the college." In what college of young ladies does corporeal punishment enter into "the system of discipline?" To what age are we reverting? The Empress-Mother is also the patroness and gouvernante of the Institute of St. Catharine, containing three hundred and ten young ladies, all of" noble blood." Of these young ladies of "noble blood," one-fifth are supported by charity. The knout, or cor

poreal punishment, is not applied to these ladies of noble blood. But these schools are supported partly by a tax upon cards, and the young ladies are admitted by ballot.

The facts relating to the Russian capital are astounding, and baffle all calculation. The Foundling Hospital admits about four thousand children per annum!

We will leave these benevolent but maleficent creations of imperfect knowledge, and direct our attention to the society of Russia.

The travellers who visit Russia, and publish their travels, are of a class who see only "a certain order;" and the Russians, of all people. have the faculty of making their visitors speak "couleur de rose.' The Russians are hospitable in the extreme; but hospitality is indigenous to a state of society in which, without it, the poor must perish, and the rich be destitute of variety, amusement, and the means of gratifying pride by the display of their magnificence. Their houses are built and furnished in a style, and their entertainments are of a profuse and lavish description, which can exist only in a stage of society where the channels of expenditure are few, and where an arbitrary government segregates an idle class, endows it with privileges, and loads it with wealth wrung from the people. The Russians are not as addicted to intoxication as the English; but "the perfume and sapid qualities of their best sort of tea are such as I have never tasted before; and the effect of both upon the nerves is very distressing. The Russians are quite finical about tea-making and tea-drinking, and understand both arts fully as well, if not better than the English. Their tea-urn, or Samowat, is quite a piece of machinery, and admirably adapted for its purpose. The tea reaches the market direct from China over land." The Russian mirrors, like every thing Russian, are the largest in the world. One of them measures "one hundred and ninetyfour inches by one hundred."

The Russians are profuse in their patronage of painting. "There is scarcely a house of any consequence in St. Petersburgh, in which one does not find some valuable pictures as part of its decorative furniture." Dr. Granville, in describing the Grand and Petit Hermitage, says that the first and second rooms are filled with paintings of the Flemish school; then succeed three rooms of the Italian masters, and a fourth, containing the chef-d'œuvres of that school. Numerous other rooms of immense magnitude are filled with the finest specimens of the great masters; and there is a Rembrandt gallery of high estimation. We can only say, that "a zeal without knowledge is not good." The Rus sians have the pride, without the taste and judgment of patronage. The pencil of Sir Joshua Reynolds is totally unappreciated in Russia. Our readers must recollect the irritation of the vain and libidinous Cather rine, who, having given Sir Joshua an order for an emblematical painting of Russia, instead of an allegorical portrait of herself, which she expected, received, to her indignation, the well-known "Infant Hercules." Sir Joshua's portraits of the late King, the Duke of York, &c. painted by the special order of Catherine, to ornament her Lodge of Tschesme, have been allowed to rot upon the walls, a sacrifice to Russian fogs and frosts. Sir Thomas Lawrence's chaste portrait of the Emperor Alexander, in plain clothes, is viewed with great impatience by the Russians, in comparison to a portrait by a French artist, in

which the Emperor is decorated in his military trappings, that shine in dazzling lustre, in noble contempt of the chiaro-scuro

It is amusing to see how the Government degrades, in its attempts to elevate and dignify, the military character. If a manufactory of mirrors be established, a general officer must be its overseer, and the driver of the" unwashed artificers." If the Government patronize a charity, or an establishment for dying broad-cloth, grinding cutlery, building ships, or spinning tapes and bobbins, a general officer must be the grand comptroller. If an English artist be engaged to paint the general officers of the whole army at "so much per head," they are ordered to attend his study in a certain dress, and at a prescribed hour, like schoolboys or lacqueys. In Napoleon's campaigns, the numerous and disastrous errors in time in Russian movements were attributed to the general and staff officers being destitute of watches; but we suppose, from their regularity in attending Mr. Dawe's study, they have been supplied. Dr. Granville has thrown much light upon most subjects, and upon some he has left nothing farther to be known. But it is still difficult to estimate Russia. Is she a huge colossus, overstepping the pigmy world, or like the image of Nebuchadnezzar, of discordant materials, ready to fall to pieces at the first rude shock? When the veteran highly disciplined armies, and scientific generals of Austria were baffled by the Turks, the Russians under Suwarrow, in 1789, annihilated the victorious Ottomans with ease; and yet Suwarrow, in his Italian campaign against M'Donald, showed himself totally ignorant of strategy, and incapable of understanding military operations on a large scale. In the war against Turkey from 1805 to 1811, Russia reaped neither honour nor advantage; and yet, within that period, she was the hope of Europe, and fought the battles of Austerlitz and Friedland. In 1812, she resisted, single-handed, combined Europe, and the mightiest conqueror and the largest and most powerful force that the world ever beheld, and foiled, if not defeated them, in the sanguinary battle of Borodino. We need not dwell upon the savage grandeur of her subsequent sacrifices. And yet at this moment we behold this mighty power foiled, and rendered almost impotent by the rude and undisciplined hordes of Turkey-by a description of force which Napoleon drove like chaff before the wind. All is not right; there's something 'rotten in the state of-Russia." Great discontent prevails, and justly prevails, amongst the slave-ridden and the slave-riding aristocracy; and the disaffection throughout the southern parts of the empire is well founded, extensive, and rapidly progressive. The rivalry between Moscow and St. Petersburgh is alone a nucleus of future mischief. It is impossible for one Government to rule a country of such vast extent, with a population full of antipathies and rancorous prejudices, and possessed of the most opposite habits, wants, and interests. A few years will produce mighty changes in this empire; and Russia must always be at the mercy of England, and more especially of America.

Though our opinions differ from those of Dr. Granville, we are sensible of the value of his judgment, especially upon subjects which he has investigated with no ordinary powers of mind, and upon which he has collected the sentiments of so many eminent persons. We appreciate his work, not only as a luminous and elaborate, but as the most recent account of Russia, and which, in such a perpetually fluctuating

empire, is not a small advantage. His selection of facts is judicious, and he has brought an immense fund of information into a focus useful and entertaining to every class of readers. An amenity of disposition, and an appreciation of his talents and extensive acquirements in Russia, may have led to his too favourable views of some circumstances and objects; but his science and application have enabled him to take advantage of more than ordinary opportunities of knowledge, and his work is most valuable to the English public.

THE DEATH-BOAT OF HELIGOLAND.

CAN restlessness reach the cold sepulchred head?

Ay, the quick have their sleep-walkers, so have the dead.
There are brains, though they moulder, that dream in the tomb,
And that madd'ning forehear the last trumpet of doom,

Till their corses start sheeted to revel on earth,

Making horror more deep by the semblance of mirth:
By the glare of new-lighted volcanoes they dance,
Or at mid-sea appal the chill'd mariner's glance.
Such, I wot, was the band of cadaverous smile
Seen ploughing the night-surge of Heligo's isle.
The foam of the Baltic had sparkled like fire,

And the red moon look'd down with an aspect of ire;
But her beams on a sudden grew sick-like and grey,

And the mews that had slept clang'd and shrieked far away-
And the buoys and the beacons extinguish'd their light,
As the boat of the stony-eyed dead came in sight,
High bounding from billow to billow; each form
Had its shroud like a plaid flying loose to the storm;
With an oar in each pulseless and icy-cold hand,
Fast they ploughed, by the lee-shore of Heligoland,
Such breakers as boat of the living ne'er cross'd;
Now surf-sunk for minutes again they uptoss'd,
And with livid lips shouted reply o'er the flood
To the challenging watchman that curdled his blood—
"We are dead-we are bound from our graves in the west,
First to Hecla, and then to "Unmeet was the rest

For man's ear. The old abbey bell thunder'd its clang,
And their eyes gleam'd with phosphorous light as it rang:
Ere they vanish'd, they stopped, and gazed silently grim,
Till the eye could define them, garb, feature and limb.

Now who were those roamers ?-of gallows or wheel
Bore they marks, or the mangling anatomist's steel?
No, by magistrates's chains 'mid their grave clothes you saw,
They were felons too proud to have perish'd by law;"
But a ribbon that hung where a rope should have been,
'Twas the badge of their faction, its hue was not green,
Show'd them men who had trampled and tortured and driven
To rebellion the fairest Isle breath'd on by Heaven,-
Men whose heirs would yet finish the tyrannous task,

If the Truth and the Time had not dragg'd off their mask.
They parted-but not till the sight might discern
A scutcheon distinct at their pirmace's stern,
Where letters emblazon'd in blood-colour'd flame,

Named their faction-I blot not my page with its name.

C.

WALKS IN ROME AND ITS ENVIRONS.—NO. XV.

The Roman Theatres.

"Vacuam, Romanis vatibus, ædem."-Hor. Ep. lib. ii.

CHRISTMAS opened the Roman theatres, and restored the people once. more to one of their favourite amusements. The position of the ecclesiastical portion of the Roman Government on these occasions is amusing: the State likes the licence well enough; it brings money to an impoverished capital, keeps strangers, and prevents people from thinking of worse thingssuch as the high price of bread, Carbonarism, revolution, &c.; but the Church, par état, is obliged to protest and disavow. A sort of tacit compromise is therefore entered on, grounded on the "levius fit patientia" maxim of the poet, the head and front maxim of all modern_Roman diplomacy. The Impressario of each company is allowed to come to Rome, and, in some instances, to negotiate with the Cardinal Secretary in person; and while the pulpits thunder, as a matter of course, against the abomination of abominations, the scandal, clipped of but a small portion of its horrors, is shrugged and connived at by the Vicegerent ("proh nefas!") della sua Santità himself.* This anomalous opposition of names to things, and of externals to internals, is, however, just as well understood at Rome as in most other countries. The decencies are nowhere more conventional. Every one agrees to take the stage for a stage, and has the good sense and taste not to give himself more trouble than he ought, about what is passing behind the scenes.

There are five theatres at Rome, to a population very nearly as considerable as that of Dublin. Each of these establishments is the property of one of the noble families in the city, who prefer doing by themselves what is usually done in England by committee. The Valle belongs to the Marchese Capranica, one of the four Roman Marquesses who have a right of canopy; the Argentina to the Duke Cesarini Sforza, the descendant of the celebrated ex-dynasty of that name; the Tor'di Nona, so called from an ancient tower near, to that universal man, the Duke of Bracciano (Torlonia). The Pallacorda is a joint concern; and the Aliberti has so often changed masters, that it is difficult to say in whose hands it ultimately remains. The Valle and the

* Opinion on this subject, as on others, has experienced many changes in Italy. It was in the year 1600, when the popular comedy began to degenerate, principally through the introduction of masques, into absolute licence, that St. Charles Borromeo obtained, for the first time, from the government of Milan, the privilege of censorship, over every theatrical production. This privilege has since remained vested in the hands of the clergy, and extended from Milan to every other province in Italy. The first comedies and tragedies were, however, in many instances, performed before the Popes themselves. Nor is this to be considered a matter of astonishment or reprehension. Such productions, usually in imitation of the comedies of Plautus and Terence, were regarded as a portion only of the general literature of antiquity, of which the Popes deemed themselves the especial patrons and protectors. The Clizia," and "Mandragola," of Macchiavelli, were represented with the utmost magnificence before Leo X. and his court, the "Conquista di Grenata," before Alexander VI. &c. Many of the first ecclesiastical officers were themselves composers and contributors; we have the " Fernandus Servatus" of Verardo, Secretary to four successive popes, the "Calandra" of the Cardinal Bibiena, licentious even for the period of life at which it was written; and many others of minor importance. The first theatre known at Rome was erected by the Cardinal Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV.; and the most learned academics did not think it beneath their gravity and respectability to appear occasionally on such boards. The Intronati and Rozzi of Sienna, the Pomponiani of Rome, were in particular addicted to the cultivation of these amusements. The improvement of theatrical representation was one of the objects of their institution. The best performers of the two former were especially invited by Leo X. to Rome, who thus secured for his capital the first company probably in Christendom at the time. The first theatre just alluded to was erected some years anterior to this invitation.

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