123 RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



exceeds that of most other countries in Europe, and is amply suffi- 

 cient, not only to answer all the expenses of government, but also to 

 afford considerable sums for the benefit and embellishment of the em- 

 pire, though the late empress remitted many taxes, and abolished se- 

 veral monopolies. With the further increase of commerce, it will 

 naturally keep equal pace. 



According to JBcetticher, however, Russia has a national debt of 

 nearly nine millions sterling, for the greater part of which interest 

 is paid at the rate of 8 per cent. The annual expenses of the state, 

 according to the same author, amount only to 5,600,000/. 



Army and navy ...The army is generally calculated to amount to 

 from 400 to 450,000 men : according to Busching, it amounted, in 

 1772, to above 600,000; and according to an estimate taken in 1784, 

 it then amounted to 568,901. Mr. Tooke, in his View of the Russian 

 Empire, estimates the whole military force of Russia at 600,000 men, 

 of whom, he says, we may reckon at least 500,000 effective soldiers 

 in actual service. 



The Russian armies are raised with little or no expense, and, while 

 in their own country, subsist chiefly on provisions furnished them by 

 the country people, according to their internal valuation. The pay of 

 a soldier scarcely amounts to thirty shillings yearly ; in garrison he 

 receives only five rubles yearly. The pay of a sailor and a gunner 

 is a ruble a month, and they are found with provisions when on 

 shore. 



The Russian navy in the harbours of Cronstadt, Revel, and Arch- 

 angel, in the year 1792, consisted of 50 ships of the line, of which 8 

 were of 1 10 guns, and the rest of 74 and 66; 27 frigates of 28, 32, 

 and 38 guns ; 50 galleys, 300 gun-boats, 16 fire-ships, and other 

 smaller vessels ; besides a fleet in the Black Sea, consisting of 17 

 ships of the line, and a still greater number of frigates, corvettes, 

 Sec. Twenty thousand sailors are kept in constant pay and service, 

 either on board the ships or in the dock-yards. The harbour at 

 Cronstadt, seven leagues from Petersburg, is defended on one side 

 by a fort of four bastions, and on the other by a battery of 100 pieces 

 of cannon. The canal and large basin will contain near 600 sail of 

 ships. 



Royal title, nobility, orders of knighthood. ...The sovereign 

 of Russia is called the Czar, or more properly Tzar, or if an empress 

 Tzarina, a Slavonic word signifying king or sovei'eign. He takes the 

 title in his ukases or royal decrees, and other public acts, of "Empe- 

 ror and Autocrator of all the Russias." The term autocralor is a 

 compound Greek word signifying self -ruler or sole ruler., and is em- 

 ployed to express the Russian word samoderjetz ; but Mr. Tooke 

 thinks that it does not come up to its meaning, which, perhaps, 

 would be more truly expressed by " uncontrollable ruler." The full 

 title of the Russian monarchs is of considerable length, and enume- 

 rates a great number of the governments of Russia, and the coun 

 tries subject to their sway. 



The distinctions of rank form a considerable part of the Russian 

 constitution. The ancient nobility of Russia were divided into knezes 

 or knazes, boyars, and vaivods. The knezes were sovereigns upon 

 their own estates, till these were reduced by the czar: but they 

 still retain the name. The boyars were nobility under the knezes i 

 and the vaivods were governors of provinces. Those titles, how- 

 ever, so often revived the ideas of their ancient power, that the late 



