126 NOBTHEBN RUSSIA. 



be as polluted as those of the serfs. The moral leprosy 

 is covered with silk garments, and splendid uniforms, 

 and highly respectable outsides, but there it is, never- 

 theless, in all its vileness. I have never in Austria or 

 France heard, from those best informed as to the state 

 of national morality, of more corruption than exists in 

 Russia. But it is impossible to enter into details on this 

 topic. 



Few things gave me a more painful impression of the 

 morality of the people than the Asylum in Moscow and 

 there is one as great in St. Petersburg for poor 

 children. The building is magnificent, the education 

 given in it excellent, and all its arrangements princely. 

 Any child brought to it is at once received. I witnessed 

 the process. Two women of the working classes brought 

 each a child. The clerk handed a ticket, with a number 

 attached to it, to be tied round its wrist ; a corresponding 

 number was inscribed in the ledger. No questions were 

 asked. 



The women delivered up their children -with more 

 indifference than most people would part with a cat or 

 dog. The children are next day baptized and vaccinated, 

 and though they may be afterwards claimed, yet the vast 

 majority never are. About sixty children are each day 

 thus received at this one institution. There were in the 

 house about 800 infants, under the care of several hundred 

 nurses. The whole number of children under the charge 

 of the institution is 80,000 ! The vast majority are 

 boarded out in the country districts. 



