318 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



cudgels, beat the deified log, which 

 was afterwards thrown into the 

 river. Nothing can more strongly 

 mark the character of Vladimii' than 

 this conduct, alike brutish in wor- 

 shipping a mishapen block, and in 

 thinking to punish the insensible 

 mass for the adorations he had la- 

 vished upon it. 



People in a low state of civiliza- 

 tion have too few ideas for acquir- 

 ing a strong attachment to any re- 

 ligion. Thus the Russians easily 

 abandoned the worship of their 

 idols : for, though Vladimir caused 

 it to be published that those Avho 

 should persevere in idolatry should 

 be regarded as enemies of Christ 

 and of the prince, it does not ap- 

 pear that Russia underwent any 

 persecutions, and yet it soon be- 

 came Christian : of such force was 

 the example of the sovereign. At 

 Kief he one day issued a proclama- 

 tion ordering all the inhabitants 

 to repair the next morning to the 

 banks of the river to be baptized ; 

 which they joyfully obeyed. " If 

 it be not good to be baptised," said 

 they, " the prince and the boyars 

 would never submit to it." 



Such a change was wrought in 

 Vladimir afterwards, in this and 

 many other respects, that the histo- 

 rians of that time are at a loss for 

 words sufficiently strong to express 

 their admiration of it. If before he 

 had, besides five wives and eight 

 hundred concubines, taken also 

 women and girls wherever he 

 would, yet, after his baptism, he 

 contented himself with his Christian 

 spouse alone. If, as a conqueror, 

 he had caused many drops of inno- 



cent blood to be shed, and set a 

 very low value on the life of a man, 

 yet, having adopted the religion of 

 Jesus, he felt uneasy at sentencing 

 one highway robber to death, of 

 whom there were many at that time; 

 and, as we read in the chronicles, 

 exclaimed with emotion on such 

 an occasion, " What am I that I 

 should condemn a fellow creature 

 to death !" As his delight had 

 been before in storming towns 

 and obtaining battles, he now 

 found his greatest pleasure in build- 

 ing churches and endowing schools. 



Anecdotes of Mr. Robert Bloom.' 



field, Author of the Farmer's 



Boy, a Poem.* Abridged from a 



Letter from his Brotlier George 



to Capel Loft, Esq. 



ROBERT was the younger 

 child of George Bloomfield, 

 a tailor, at Honington.t His fa- 

 ther died when he was an infant 

 under a year old.J His mother 

 was a school mistress, and instructed 

 her own children with the others. 

 He thus learned to read as soon as 

 he learned to speak. 



Though the mother was left a 

 widow with six small children, yet, 

 with the help of friends, she ma- 

 naged to give each of them a little 

 schooling. 



Robert was accordingly sent to 

 Mr. Rodwell, of Ixworth, to be 

 impi'oved in writing : but he did 

 not go to that school more than two 

 or three months, nor was ever sent 

 to any other; his mother again mar- 



* Of which we have given a specimen in the poetical part of this vohnne. 

 t This village is between Eustqn and Tioston, ^nd about eight miles N. E. of 

 Bury. 

 I Our author was born Dec. 3, 1766, 



