Féte at Petersburg. 
as renders them unlikely to be got on 
float again. - Here are about 2,000 
pieces of cannon mounted, some of 
them very large; these are the neatest 
guns I ever saw, and all of Russian 
make. The canal, cut here by Peter the 
Great, is entirely constructed of red 
granite, and supposed to be one of the 
finest in the world. To this place go- 
vernment. send persons convicted of 
minor offences, who sweep the streets, 
and perform any kind of labour; the 
major part of them have an iron collar 
rivetted round their necks; and they 
are always under the care of the mili- 
tary. Here all our luggage was taken 
possession of by custom-house officers, 
and we were compelled to get new 
passports for Petersburgh. All the 
peasantry and sailors, except those be- 
longing to the government, wear their 
beards, some of them of an enormous 
length. In fact this is the custom with 
all the native Russians, whether car- 
penters, smiths, tailors, shoemakers, 
shopkeepers, or merchants, and even 
priests. 
We left Cronstadt in a steam-packet, 
and arrived at Petersburgh about two 
in the afternoon. The streets here are 
wide and handsome in the extreme, 
being admirably laid out. The public 
buildings are numerous, and the most 
shewy I ever saw. The churches are 
elegant in the extreme; most of them 
have from two to four domes, resem- 
bling that of St. Paul’s Cathedral, com- 
pletely gilt, with a blazing gold cross 
on their summits; some of them have 
gilt spires of an enormous height. The 
whole, when the sun shines, has a most 
dazzling appearance; and the interior 
of these edifices is generally striking. 
One of them contains about thirty pil- 
Jars of beautiful red granite, their bases 
about five feet in diameter: the whole 
are polished as smooth as glass. In 
one of these churches we saw about 
forty or fifty French eagles, or colours ; 
some of these bearing the visible marks 
or impressions of the bloody hands that 
grasped them. Some of the priests 
have their hair half down their backs, 
and their beards pending before their 
bellies. Here many of the streets have 
beautiful canals running through them, 
besides bridges, out of number,’ over 
the Neva, The horses here are small, 
but very handsome and fleet; and on 
Tuesday last there was a race here be- 
tween two Cossacks and two English 
blood horses, for a considerable sum. 
They were to run, on the high road, a 
i 
483 
distance of thirty-nine Russian miles 
and back again, equal to fifty-three Eng- 
lish miles—when, much to the -morti- 
fication of the Cossacks, the race was 
won by the English. 
Petersburgh contains about 50,000 
soldiers, and, in fact, every thing here 
is military. The troops are fine look- 
ing men, and many of them you may 
see with one, two, or three shot-holes 
through the brass plates on their hats. 
As to the Emperor, you may meet him * 
in the streets as plain as a private gen- 
tleman, unencumbered with courtly 
splendour, fawning sycophants, or nu- 
merous guards; he has no fear, he is 
too well beloved by his people to. fear 
them. The Wednesday after our ar- 
rival at Petersburgh, there was a grand 
annual féte at one of his palaces in the 
country. Here the whole empire are 
invited to meet him and the imperial 
family at a ball. All foreigners, pro- 
vided with tickets, are admitted here, 
whilst beards are sufficient recommen- 
dations for the natives. We were in- 
vited by a gentleman, and proceeded in 
a steam-packet belonging to him. We 
took tea in the purlieus of the palace. 
We saw the Emperor and Empress, 
with all the Grand Dukes and Duchesses, 
the Empress Dowager, wife of the late 
Emperor Paul, &c., and could have 
touched some of them: I was quite 
delighted to: witness the reciprocal con- 
fidence between the imperial family and 
their subjects. We were all over the 
gardens; there were two bands of mu- 
sic, and brilliant illuminations. The 
devices were of every description that 
imagination could suggest, and, as the 
lamps were nearly 500,000 in number; 
upwards of 25,000 tons of tallow were 
expended, exclusive of spirits of tur- 
pentine. Besides these, there was’ a 
grand display of water-works. About 
twelve at night all the imperial family 
left, but not till they had rode through 
the gardens for the purpose of giving 
every person an opportunity of seeing 
them. Several ships of war lay 
off the front of the gardens, illu- 
minated and dressed in their colours. 
When we returned to the steam-packet, 
about two in the morning, a handsome 
supper was provided for us. Upwards 
of 100,000 persons are supposed to 
have been present at this fete. The 
gentleman, from whom we had letters 
of introduction, is the superintendant 
of a large cotton manufactory, esta+ 
blished by the Emperor for the employ- 
ment. of orphan children: it is like a 
3Q2 large 
