i'ETER'3, ST PETERSBURG. 



499 



German languages. Me adopted the profession of 

 tlie law, in which he obtained early and considerable 

 success, particularly by means of his intimate know- 

 ledge of the land laws of the Commonwealth, and the 

 fluency with which he spoke German. Even in his 

 youth, he was distinguished for wit and humour. 

 His powers of pleasantry were felt even by the In- 

 dians, when he accompanied a delegation from 

 Pennsylvania to the Six Nations. The Indian chiefs, 

 dei'ighted with his vivacity, formally adopted him in- 

 to their tribes. At the opening of the American 

 revolution, Mr Peters became captain of a company 

 of volunteers, but was soon transferred by congress 

 to the board of war, in which lie continued until the 

 year 1781, when he resigned his post, and received 

 from congress a vote of thanks for his services. He 

 was closely connected with Robert Morris in all the 

 exertions and sacrifices which were made for supply- 

 ing the necessities of the American army. No one 

 possessed more curious and instructive anecdotes of 

 the distresses and trials of the American government. 

 Some of these are well related in the sketch of his 

 life by Samuel Breck, esquire. After Mr Peters 

 quitted the war office, he was elected a member of 

 congress. When the new government was organized, 

 under the present constitution, president Washington 

 offered him the place of comptroller of the treasury 

 of the United States. This he declined, but accepted 

 that of judge of the district court of Pennsylvania. 

 He occupied this station for thirty-six years, until 

 his death, always assiduous, and highly useful, par- 

 ticularly in admiralty cases. Agriculture and public 

 trorks formed the chief objects of judge Peters, be- 

 sides his duties on the bench. He was the first 

 president of the company at whose expense the great 

 bridge at Philadelphia, over the Schuylkill, was 

 built. To him its preservation may be ascribed. The 

 country is indebted to him, also, for the use of gyp- 

 sum in agriculture. In 1797, he published a relation 

 of his experiments with it on his own farm, which 

 was widely circulated, and produced important im- 

 provements in American husbandry. He was president 

 of the Philadelphia agricultural society, and enrich- 

 ed its memoirs with many valuable communications. 



PETER'S, ST ; one of the largest tributary rivers 

 of the Upper Mississippi. Its course is in the Mis- 

 souri Territory, and it joins the Mississippi at the falls 

 of St Anthony. The length of the St Peter's is 250 

 miles. It affords good navigation for boats, is 150 

 yards wide at its mouth, and has fifteen feet water. 



PETERSBURG, ST, capital of the Russian em- 

 pire, occupying more space than any city in Europe, 

 except London and Moscow, is situated at the mouth 

 of the Neva, at the eastern extremity of the gulf of 

 Finland ; lat. 59 56' N. ; Ion. 29 48' E. ; 485 miles 

 north-west of Moscow, and about 1400 miles north- 

 east of Paris and London. Petersburg is the seat 

 of the court, of the senate, the holy synod, of a 

 university, &c., &c., and, for beauty and splendour, 

 surpasses every other city of Europe. The stranger 

 wanders with admiration through the broad, regular 

 streets, surrounded with the most magnificent pala- 

 ces, churches with gilded towers, and other massive 

 and colossal edifices ; his eye every where rests on 

 masterpieces of architecture. On entering the im- 

 perial gardens on the Neva, the majestic stream pre- 

 sents a fine prospect, with its ships, boats and bridges. 

 On both banks are rich palaces, churches, and towers 

 glittering with gold, charming islands, and beautiful 

 gardens. Each side of the river is lined with a broad 

 quay for the distance of nearly three miles. The 

 excellent water of the Neva supplies the want of 

 springs. The czar Peter the Great laid the foun- 

 dations of the city during the northern war (1703), 

 when he constructed a fort on an island in the Neva, 



for its defence against the Swedes. To superintend 

 the work in person, Peter built a small wooden hut 

 opposite it, which is still standing, and is now sur- 

 rounded with a stone building to preserve it. Pub- 

 lic and private buildings were soon erected, and the 

 nobles and merchants of Moscow, Novgorod, &c., 

 were induced to settle there, so that, in a short time, 

 the place assumed the appearance of a considerable 

 city, which, during the succeeding reigns, particu- 

 larly in those of Catharine II. and Alexander, reach- 

 ed an almost unexampled degree of magnificence. 

 The environs are level and low, in many places con- 

 sisting of morasses : they therefore suffer from inun- 

 dations, which sometimes occasion great ravages : 

 in 1824, 15,000 persons perished by an inundation, 

 which destroyed many villages, and caused great da- 

 mage to the shipping. Petersburg is an open city, 

 without walls, and only in some places surrounded 

 with a ditch. Among the inhabitants there are a 

 great number of foreigners, particularly Germans, 

 who have intermixed much with the Russians, and 

 fill many civil and military posts. The Neva divides 

 the city into two parts, of which the southern or con- 

 tinental part is the largest and most populous : the 

 northern part is again divided by a branch of 

 the Neva. The city is divided into nine quarters 

 the three admiralty quarters, the foundery, the Mos- 

 cow, the Jaimskoy, the Vasili-Ostrov, the Peters- 

 burg, and the Wiburg qviarters. Each quarter is 

 subdivided into districts, and these into inferior sec- 

 tions, at the head of each of which is a police-officer, 

 usually a retired major. The whole organization of 

 the police is military; and the military judges are 

 too often entirely ignorant of the laws. When they 

 find themselves embarrassed by the contradictory 

 provisions of different ukases, they cut the knot, and, 

 if the parties show any dissatisfaction with the deci- 

 sion, it is sealed by a blow or a kick. These inferior 

 officers of police are subordinate to the police court in 

 the centre of the city, the presiding officer of which 

 is a general. In the admiralty quarter, which is the 

 finest part of the city, is the imperial winter palace, 

 on the banks of the Neva, the interior of which is 

 adorned with statues and mythological figures. 

 Catharine added to it a smaller palace, called the 

 Hermitage. This building contains a rich collection 

 of works of art, among which are a large number 

 of original paintings of the great masters ; and at- 

 tached to it is a garden, in which, as in the garden 

 of Calypso, reigns a perpetual spring. Some hun- 

 dred paces distant, in the splendid street called the 

 Great Million, is the Marble Palace, of colossal di- 

 mensions, which is built on a granite basement, and 

 was given by Catharine to her favourite count Orloff. 

 On the other side of the admiralty, which, towards 

 the land side, is enclosed by a ditch and wall, is a 

 walk planted with beautiful lime trees, and some of 

 the finest buildings of the city, particularly Isaac's 

 church, built entirely of marble (1766 1812), at an 

 expense of 26,500,000 roubles, and which iias, since 

 its completion, been continually receiving additional 

 embellishments. Not far off is seen the palace of 

 the prince Labanoff, a gigantic work, even for Peters- 

 burg, and built at an enormous expense. Farther 

 down, near the Neva, is the equestrian statue of Peter 

 the Great, cast by Falconet. It stands in a spacious 

 square, on an immense block of granite, about the 

 size of a small house, and weighing above 800 tons. 

 In Romanzoff place is a marble obelisk, erected by 

 Catharine, in honour of RomanzofFs victories, and, 

 in Suwarroff place, a bronze statue of SuwarrofF. 

 Among the numerous remarkable edifices and in- 

 stitutions, we shall mention the academy of sciences, 

 to which belongs a very valuable library, a cabinet of 

 natural science, and an observatory ; the new tx- 

 2i * 



