RUSSIA. 



805 



cordage, cutlery, felt, candles, and soap. But during the last 10 years great progress has been 

 made in all the branches of manufacturing industry, and the more delicate productions of the 

 loom and the furnace are made in great perfection. In addition to the articles above mentioned, 

 silks, fine broadcloths, glass, porcelain paper, jewelry, and cotton, are among the principal. 

 The governments of Moscow, Vladimir, Nishni-Novogorod, Tambov, Kaluga, and Olonetz, 

 are the chief manufacturing districts. The cotton manufacture in particular, has of late ex- 

 tended itself with great rapidity, owing principally to the substitution of free and well-paid 

 workmen for slaves ; in a single village in Vladimir there are 15,600 looms, employing 24,300 

 laborers. 



18. Commerce. The inland commerce of Russia is not impeded by tolls nor staples, and is 

 facilitated by navigable rivers, canals, and lakes, and by the snow in winter. Great fairs are 

 held in dhlerent places. The foreign inland trade is with China, Persia, Bucharia, the Otto- 

 man Empire, Austria, and Prussia. The maritime commerce is chiefly in the hands of the 

 English, the foreign inland trade is carried on by Armenians, Jews, and Bucharians. The 

 American Company has factories at Kazan, Irkutsk, Kamschatka, &c., and settlements in 

 America. The Steam Navigation Company has been formed with the design of introducing 

 steam vessels upon the Volga, the Caspian, and the Kama, and the Russian Company to extend 

 the navigation upon the Baltic and Black seas, and the great rivers of the interior. The for- 

 eign commerce of Russia has doubled within 25 years. 



19. Fisheries. The seal and sturgeon fisheries of the Ural, the Volga, and the Caspian and 

 Black seas, are extensive and highly ])roductive. Upward of 10,000 fishing-boats are em- 

 ployed on the Volga, and isinglass, caviare, and oil are made. Salted and smoked mackerel 

 form an important article of the commerce of the Crimea. The Cossacks repair to the Ural 

 to prosecute the sturgeon fishery, in great numbers. Thousands appear on the ice in sledges, 

 armed with spears, poles, and other instruments. As soon as the leader sets forward, the fish- 

 ers, who have been drawn up in regular ranks, dash after him ; the ice is cut, the spears cast, 

 the ice covered with fish, which the fishmongers, assembled from all parts of the empire, carry 

 off, in all directions, in a frozen state. 



20. Religion. No distinction is made in favor of any religious sect in Russia. The great 

 majority of the inhabitants belong to the Greek church. In the Pohsh provinces the inhabi- 

 tants are Catholic or United Greeks. There are many Lutherans in Finland and Esthonia. 

 The Calmucs are Mahometans. The government of the Greek church is administered by the 

 Holy Synod, or college of bishops and secular clergy ; under the Synod are the 4 metropoli- 

 tans of Moscow, Petersburg, Kazan, and Kiev, the archbishops, &c., and 560 convents. The 

 service consists chiefly in outward forms ; preachint^ and catechizing being little regarded. 

 The clergy are generally little more enlightened than those whom they aspire to instruct. 

 Every house has a painting of a saint, or of the Virgin, before which the inmates ofier prayers, 

 and perform many ceremonies. Most of the clergy are permitted to marry once. There are 

 many fasts, and festivals are kept with great rejoicings ; many pagan superstitions are still 

 cherished. 



Thus doves are not eaten, as they are considered sanctified, or emblematic of what is holy. 

 The marriages of the nobility are solemnized nearly as in other parts of Europe, but the court- 

 ship of the peasants is singular. The suitor applies to the mother, saying, " Produce your 

 merchandise, we have money for it." Should the bargain be concluded, the bride at the 

 wedding is crowned with a chaplet of wormwood, not an inapt emblem for the wife of a Rus- 

 sian boor. Hops are thrown over her head, with the wish that she may prove as fruitful as the 

 plant. Second marriages are tolerated ; the third are considered scandalous, and the fourth 

 absolutely unlawful. The dead are buried with a paper in the hand, as a passport. It is signed 

 by the bishop or other dignitaries. 



21. Government. The government is an unlimited monarchy ; all power emanates from the 

 emperor, who is considered to derive his authorlt)' from God. His title is Samoderjetz or Au- 

 tocrat of all the Russias ; he is at once the supreme head of the state and of the church. 

 There are, however, some difl'erences in the administration of difi^erent parts of the empire ; 

 thus the kingdom of Poland, and the grand-duchy of Finland, have distinct constitutions ; the 

 Cossacks of the Don, and those of the Black Sea, form a sort of military republics, &c. 



22. Jinny and JVavy. The army of Russia is estimated to amount to about 680,000 men, 

 exclusive of the military colonists. The military colonies are a peculiar institution of this 

 rountiy ; in these, the peasants or boors, who belong to ilio rrnv.n, are stibjected to a military 



