38 



RUSSIA. 



ground reversed his attainder. Owe condemned, 

 such a victim was too agreeable to the court, and 

 to the vindictive feelings of the duke of York, to 

 meet with mercy ; and the offer of a large sum of 

 money from his father, whose only son he had now 

 become, to the duchess of Portsmouth, and the 

 pathetic solicitations of his wife, proved in vain, 

 and he obtained remission only of the more igno- 

 minious parts of his sentence. He was too firm to 

 be induced by the divines, who attended him, to 

 subscribe to the doctrine of non-resistance, then the 

 favourite court tenet of the day ; and it is to be 

 regretted that he was induced to write a petitionary 

 letter to the duke of York, promising to forbear 

 all future opposition, and to live abroad, should his 

 life be spared. It is presumed that this letter was 

 written in compliance with the solicitations of his 

 friends, for he nobly refused the generous offer of 

 lord Cavendish to favour his escape by exchanging 

 clothes ; and, with equal generosity, declined the 

 proposal of the duke of Monmouth to deliver him- 

 self up, if he thought the step would be serviceable 

 to him. Conjugal affection was the feeling that 

 clung closest to his heart ; and when he had taken 

 the last farewell of his wife, he exclaimed, that the 

 bitterness of death was past. He was beheaded in 

 Lincoln's-inn fields, July 21, 1683, in the forty- 

 second year of his age. To the character of this 

 regretted nobleman for probity, sincerity, and pri- 

 vate worth, even the enemies to his public princi- 

 ples have borne ample testimony. Of his talents, 

 Burnet observes, that he was of a slow but sound 

 understanding. Lord John Russell has written a 

 life of lord William Russell. 



Lady Rachel Russell, his wife, by the affectionate 

 zeal with which she assisted her husband, and the 

 magnanimity with which she bore his loss, obtained 

 the respect and admiration of the world. Upon 

 his trial, she accompanied him into court ; and when 

 he was refused counsel, and allowed only an ama- 

 nuensis, she stood forth as that assistant, and ex- 

 cited the respect and sympathy of all who beheld 

 her. After his death, she wrote a touching letter 

 to the king, in which she asserted that the paper 

 delivered by him to the sheriff, declaratory of his 

 innocence, was his own composition, and not, as 

 charged by the court, dictated by any other person. 

 She spent the remainder of her life in the exercise 

 of pious and social duties. A collection of her 

 letters was published in 1775 (4to.). This ex- 

 emplary woman died in 1723, aged eighty-seven. 



RUSSIA. The Russian empire stretches, over 

 half Europe, and the whole of Northern Asia, from 

 the Baltic to the Pacific, and includes vast terri- 

 tories on the north-western coast of North America. 

 It lies between lat. 38 and 79 N., and Ion. 19 

 E. and 130 W., extending through 211 degrees of 

 longitude. It is bounded N. by the Northern or 

 Icy ocean; W. by Norway, Sweden, the Baltic 

 sea, Austria and Prussia ; S. by Turkey, the Black 

 sea, Persia, the Caspian sea, Independent Tartary, 

 China, and the United States of North America; 

 and E. by the British possessions in North America. 

 The total superficial area is estimated at 8,000,000 

 square miles, of which about 1 ,500,000 are situated 

 in Europe, and 5,600,000 in Asia. The southern 

 boundary of the American possessions of Russia 

 was fixed by the convention of 1824, between Rus- 

 sia and the'United States, at 54 40' N. lat. The 

 Russian dominions compose about one seventh of 

 the habitable globe. European Russia is for the 

 most part level, but in the southern parts the face 



of the country is somewhat uneven. Between the 

 Black and Caspian SIMS is the Caucasus; in the 

 south-west fire branches of the Carpathian moun- 

 tains, and in the north-west the elevated plain of 

 the Wolchonski forest. In the east is the Ural 

 chain, dividing Europe from Asia, and terminating 

 at the Frozen ocean. Several branches of this 

 chain shoot off into Asiatic Russia, among which 

 are the Schooget, with its salt mines, the Sok 

 mountains, the Little Altai, the Baikal mountains, 

 the Apple and Stanwowoi mountains, which form 

 the Chinese and Russian boundary, and extend 1o 

 the Tchutschian peninsula. The south-western 

 part of Russia consists of steppes, which are either 

 uninhabited, or furnish pasture-grounds to nomadic 

 tribes. The climate is various. In the south, the 

 winters are short and mild, the spring early, the 

 summers long and hot, with little rain, and a late 

 autumn. In central Russia, the winters are longer 

 and more severe, particularly in the eastern parts, 

 and the summers shorter ; in the north, quicksilver 

 freezes so as to be malleable even in a warm room, 

 and the waters are frozen from October to the end 

 of May. In central Russia corn is raised in consi- 

 derable quantities, but in the northern parts the 

 crops are small and uncertain. Washed by the 

 Frozen ocean, which forms the White sea and the 

 basins of the Obi, Yenissey and Lena, on the north ; 

 by the Pacific ocean, with Beering's and Cook's 

 straits, and the gulfs or bays of Anadyr and Kamt- 

 schatka or Okotsk, on the east ; by the Black sea 

 on the south ; and by the Baltic, with the gulfs of 

 Bothnia, Finland and Riga on the west, Russia 

 has two great declivities, the one towards the north- 

 east and north-west, and the other towards the 

 south. Down these flow the Dwina, with the Jug 

 and the Suchowna, the Petchora, the Obi, the 

 Yenissey and the Lena, in the north ; the Duna, 

 the Niemen, and the Neva, in the north-west ; and 

 the Don, the Dnieper, the Cuban, the Volga and 

 the Ural, in the south. Besides numerous salt 

 springs and small lakes, Russia contains fourteen 

 large bodies of water, among which are the Caspian 

 sea, lakes Ladoga, Onega and Peipus, lake Sak, in 

 the Crimea, and lakes Baikal, Aral and Altin. 

 Artificial water communications are constantly in- 

 creasing on a systematic plan. The canals of 

 Vishney-Volotchok, connecting Petersburg with 

 Astrachan, the Novgorod canal, the Beresina canal, 

 connecting the Baltic and Black seas, and the 

 Ladoga canal, by which the navigation of the tem- 

 pestuous Ladoga is avoided, are among the most 

 important. A system of water communication ex- 

 tends through Siberia, from the Chinese wall to 

 Petersburg, Archangel and Riga, so that European 

 wares can be procured at moderate prices in Koly- 

 van, Tomsk and Irkutsk. 



Russia raises much more corn than it consumes. 

 Fruits and wine are produced in abundance. The 

 forest also yields important articles of export, be- 

 sides supplying the consumption : mulberry trees 

 have been planted to a great extent. The raising 

 of cattle, horses and sheep, the keeping of bees 

 (600,000 pounds of wax and honey can be annually 

 exported), and silk-worms (furnishing 16,000 pounds 

 of silk yearly), are profitable occupations. Camels, 

 buffaloes, and wild animals of all sorts, are also 

 numerous. The annual product of the fisheries is 

 reckoned at 15,000,000 roubles. Gold (from the 

 Beresov mines), silver (from the Kolyvan and 

 Nertchinski mines), platina, copper, iron, zinc, 

 quicksilver, alum and salt (to the yearly amount of 



