516 



K U S S I A. 



The clergy. 



Russia, reckon corpulency very comely in families, and they 

 ^Y^fcp' express their admiration in the strongest manner; and 

 when they see a female with a slender waist, such as 

 in England is reckoned the perfection of a fine shape, 

 they pronounce at once that she is very ill, or that she 

 is in a consumption. Even great-sized feet, and clumsy 

 ankles, are highly praised. 



We come now to the second class of the Russian po- 

 pulation. 



2d, The Clergy. The high clergy, who are all monks, 

 are generally men of considerable information. A few 

 of them are distinguished for their learning in theo- 

 logy, their abilities as teachers, and their zeal in the 

 cause of religion ; some of them are exemplary in their 

 lives, and mix now and then in polite society. The 

 lower orders of the clergy, by far the most numerous- 

 including the popes', or parish priests with a few ex- 

 ceptions, know little beyond the performance of the 

 duties of their calling. Few of them are worthy men ; 

 most of them are dissolute and irregular in their lives, 

 and freely indulge in potations of spirits. They are 

 rarely seen in genteel society, and by no means receive 

 that attention or deference to which their holy calling, 

 combined with a better education, might entitle them. 

 They are in the primitive stage, in so far as regards 

 theology. With respect to customs and manners, and 

 general mode of life, some may be said to be in the 

 imitative stage of civilization, a step more elevated 

 than the peasantry ; while the bulk of them cannot 

 claim that distinction. The late Count Orlof, in a let- 

 ter to Rousseau, among other inducements, held out 

 to him to come to enjoy tranquillity in Russia, made 

 use of the following remarkable sentence: " The pas- 

 tor of the parish neither knows how to dispute nor to 

 preach ; and the sheep, in making the sign of the cross, 

 verily believe that all is done." With such instructors 

 it cannot be expected that the peasants should make 

 much advancement in the knowledge of religion, or 

 that they should be much better versed in the truths 

 of Christianity, than were their more savage ancestors 

 of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This fact is 

 easily explained. The oppressive daily services of the 

 Russo-Greek religion, with its numerous and tedious 

 ceremonies, force the priests to make all possible dis- 

 patch to a conclusion, in the same manner as artists 

 make every exertion to finish their manual labour. 

 They act, in general, like pure machines, in which the 

 passions are quiescent. The people follow the exam- 

 ple of their teachers, and perform their religious duties, 

 crossings, prostrations, and chantings, with perfect 

 lukewarmness. They have been in church, and that 

 is enough ; their peace is made with their Maker, at 

 least they soothe themselves with such ideas. Of late, 

 however, some active and pious clergymen, aware of 

 the above facts, have been in the custom of delivering 

 short sermons to their flocks, especially on festivals, 

 and have anxiously inculcated greater attention to the 

 duties of the moral law. In this respect they are do- 

 ing ' good service ;" for the grand defect in the cha- 

 racter of the Russians, nobles and clergy, merchants 

 and peasants, is an almost total and universal neglect of 

 the duties which that Jaw, happily for mankind, im- 

 poses upon all nations of the earth, and upon all ranks 

 and ages. 



We shall now speak of the third class of society. 

 3d, -The Merchants. The Russian merchants think 

 of little else besides their affairs, and the accumulation 

 and hoarding of money. Very few of them possess any 



The mer- 

 chants. 



knowledge beyond what is necessary for these objects, Russia, 

 and the ceremonies of their religion. They are anxi- ' Y^ ^ 

 ously introducing improvements into all kinds of ma- Merchants. 

 nufactures and trades; they are gradually, though 

 slowly, depriving themselves of their bearris; and they 

 are maki-'g approaches to the modern mode of dress : 

 indeed, ? *'ew of them have altogether adopted it. A 

 number 01 the first, and even of the second guild mer* 

 chants are very rich, and rival the nobility in their style 

 of living. The third guild merchants, and the Mestcha- 

 nins, or burgesses, are less refined ; and most of them, 

 having spent their younger years as serfs, strongly re- 

 tain many of their original habits. The middling ranks, 

 the tiers eldt, which in Britain is chiefly composed of 

 merchants, who are regarded as the pillars of this 

 country, the source of her riches, the guardians of her 

 glory, and the bond of union between the nobles and 

 the people, scarcely have existence in Russia. The 

 sons of the priests, the merchants and their descend- 

 ants, the burgesses, and the free peasantry, (who have 

 either received or purchased their freedom,) though 

 they do not replace that useful body of the community 

 found in some other countries, yet form a kind of mid- 

 dling ranks, comparatively speaking not numerous, 

 who are for the most part in the imitative stage of ci- 

 vilization ; but a very few of them can be said to be 

 completely civilized. 



Dr. Lyall has portrayed at length the degraded 

 character of the Russian merchants, and explained the 

 peculiarities of their nefarious system of commerce, 

 from long and busy observations made in the great 

 theatre of their actions, the Torgoviya Lao/ci, or bar- 

 gaining shops, at Moscow. In succession he speaks of 

 their deceit, in demanding three, four, six, or even ten 

 times the value of an article, or more than they accept 

 of; in the adulteration of their goods and wares; and in 

 the use of false weights and false measures : and then 

 concludes his picture in these strong words, " The 

 Russian merchants, shopkeepers, and dealers, cheat in 

 the quantity, and in the quality, and in the price. If 

 they miss their aim in the quantity, they succeed in 

 the quality ; and if they fail in both, it will be ten to- 

 one that they are successful in the price. The wary 

 even are cheated in one or two of these ways, and the 

 stranger is often duped by stratagem in all the three." 

 Beyond all question, the Russian merchants have 

 adopted the following maxim as the guide of their 

 actions : 



The proper " value of a thing 

 Is just as much as it will bring." 



Throughout the Russian empire, the Goslinnoi 

 Dvores, or the bazars, are the scenes of the refinement 

 of deception and roguery. A set of sharpers, whose 

 very countenances are indicative of their profession, 

 assemble in them every day, and with their flattery, 

 lies, oaths, and villainy, deceive the public to an enor- 

 mous extent, while they fill their own pockets. They 

 seem to forget the saying of our Lord, " With what 

 measure ye mete it shall be measured to you." In their 

 dealings no check is imposed upon their rapacity and 

 fraud, by the fear of detection, the consciousness of 

 shame, the sense of justice, or the love of honour. 

 Speciousness, craft, dishonesty, swindling, lying, and 

 even perjury, form the grand lineaments of the cha- 

 racter of all the guilds of the Russian merchants and 

 of the burgesses ; and the interstices may be filled up, 

 by adding the less prominent and allied vices which 



