1830.] Petersburg/^ Moscow, and the Provinces. 567 



a formal acquaintance with individuals whom we are accustomed to meet 

 but rarely , and on ceremonious terms, in society. But their domestic 

 existence the habits which they have acquired, and the arts which they 

 have cultivated during the leisure afforded by a long and profound 

 peace their national character, manners, and public institutions these 

 are topics of which we have hitherto remained totally ignorant, as well 

 from the obstacles interposed by distance and difference of climate, as 

 from the scantiness of published materials on the subject to which credit 

 can be attached. The field, open to the intelligent observer of Russian 

 manners, is very extensive. In taking up a book professing to treat 

 on such matters, we expect to find something better than a description 

 of the public monuments of the Russian capital : we expect the author 

 of acknowledged talent to take a higher flight than that to which the 

 cicerone of a watering-place can soar. We wish to see the national cha- 

 racter of the Russian population reflected in their manners, their laws, 

 their ceremonies, their amusements, and even in their imperfections. 

 On these points M. Dupre St. Maur, the author of " The Hermit in 

 Russia," affords much information. Where the subject possesses the 

 attraction of novelty, it is easy for the writer to claim the merit of origi- 

 nality, and for this reason, although our author has certainly left much 

 unsaid, yet the very subject-matter which he has chosen, like an ada- 

 mantine shield, renders him almost invulnerable to the shafts of cri- 

 ticism. 



As a proof of the universal ignorance which prevails with regard to 

 Russia, we need only observe that the simple mention of a journey to 

 that country awakens scarcely any other idea in the minds of superficial 

 listeners than that of excessive severity of temperature of cold that 

 turns to ice " the lazy current of the blood." The generality of travel- 

 readers hoard with avidity any anecdote that touches upon the rigour of 

 a northern winter, but totally lay aside the consideration of such redeem- 

 ing circumstances as neutralize or counterbalance the evil. We know 

 many a sapient reasoner who can no more conceive it possible to walk 

 the streets of St. Petersburg without wading at every step knee-deep in 

 snow than to pass through the Turkish capital without witnessing at 

 the corner of every street the exhibition of an impaled Mussulman. Were 

 a traveller to relate facts such as they are (a virtue which, by the way, is 

 not the traveller's forte) ; were he to assert that the punishment of im- 

 palement is more rarely exhibited at Constantinople than the disgraceful 

 spectacle of an execution at the Old Bailey ; or that in the summer sea- 

 son the weather is generally finer on the borders of the Neva than on the 

 banks of the Thames none would be hardy enough to credit him ; it 

 is so comfortable to cling to an old-fashioned error it saves a world of 

 thought and argument. 



In the portraiture of national features, the impartial observer should 

 devote his most unwearied attention to the study of the moral characters 

 of a people. The outline of a people is to be traced among individuals 

 among individuals alone can the mass be studied. In this point of 

 view, both " The Hermit in Russia/' and the continuation now offered to 

 the public, will be found replete with judicious reflections on the exist- 

 ence and moral condition of the cultivators of the soil. With regard 

 to the peasants whom self-styled philanthropists delight to represent as 

 groaning under the weight of their chains " the iron of slavery enter- 

 ing their souls" the author asserts, and, we believe, with truth, that 



