810 



RUSSIA. 



the depth of a polar winter, to Siberia, where he is made to change his name, to hunt in tne 

 arctic forests, or delve in the mines, with every species of malefactor. No tidings of him reach 

 home ; there is no transmission of letters, and the tracks point only towards Siberia, as they 

 pointed to the den of Cacus. Many an exile dies on the road, or, if he survives, it were 

 better that he had so died. 



" Alas! nor wife, nor children, more sliall he behold, 

 Nor friends, nor sacred home." 



The roads to Siberia have of late been crowded with the brave and devoted Poles, of all 

 tanks, and of each sex. Victory could not allay the exasperation of the conqueror. At 

 Varna, the capitulation of which was bought, while it was vaunted as a victory, an English sur- 

 geon was taken. The particular resentment of the emperor was directed to him, on the plea 

 that he was an engineer, though it would have occurred to a just prince, to be certain of the 

 fact. The surgeon was, in spite of the remonstrance of the English at Odessa, sent to Siberia, 

 in the depth of winter, so ill in health, and so thinly clad, that he could hardly have survived. 



The peasants are by law subjected to the cudgel of the proprietor, and this " image of au- 

 thority" is seldom at rest. The use of it is universal, and it is related, that when a gentleman 

 asked his slave why he always persisted in folding a newspaper vAlh the title inwards, his an- 

 swer was, " Please, Sir, because you never beat me." The emperors formerly held the same 

 instrument over the nobility, but this has given place to harder punishment : to banishments, 

 confiscations, and imprisonment. The knout is the peculiar punishment in Russia. It is tor- 

 ture in the highest degree. To be " knouted without mercy" is to suffer the extremity of 

 human torture, applied in the most brutal manner. The sufferer is tied to a post by the neck, 

 arms, and knees. His only covering is a pair of loose drawers. The executioner brandishes 

 a whip, with a flat, hardened lash, of dried hide, and every blow smites the flesh from the 

 bones. In the first 10 or 12 lashes, the sufferer shrieks miserably, but he soon becomes weak, 

 and utters only faint groans, and, in a few moments, nothing is heard but the bloody splash of 

 the knout on the senseless body. A full hour is occupied in giving the greatest number of 

 blows (upwards of 200) and the body is taken lifeless from the post. But Russian justice is 

 not yet satisfied ; an instrument like a comb, with iron teeth, is struck forcibly into the temple, 

 and the marks rubbed with gunpowder, as a perpetual mark of shame, should the sufferer sur- 

 vive. Then a pair of pinchers, like curling-irons, are fixed upon the nostrils, and each is cut 

 or torn away for the whole length. This is so painful, that it affords a momentary life to the 

 body in the last stage of exhaustion. The wretched man is then put into a cart, and removed 

 immediately to Siberia. In the execution here described, which took place at St. Petersburg, 

 he died on the second post of his journey. 



35. Antiquities. Russia has no antiquities, except the tumuli or barrows that extend nearly 

 all over the country, though they are the most numerous in the eastern part. They are sim- 

 ilar to the barrows in England, and the Indian graves in North America. Some that have 

 been opened, were found to contain human remains. 



36. Population, Revenue, &c. The population of the European part of Russia, exclusive 

 of Poland and Finland, is about 55,000,000. The revenue of the empire is 65,000.000 

 dollars ; the debt, 180,000,000 dollars. 



37. History. Russia did not acquire importance as an independent state, till the 15th cen- 

 tury. Before this period, its sovereigns were often in a state of vassalage to the Tartan 

 Khans. Peter the Great laid the first permanent foundation of the Russian power, and intro- 

 duced civilization and military discipline early in the 18th century ; Catherine augmented the 

 empire by the partition of Poland, and the acquisition of territory from the Turks. The lim- 

 its of the empire were further extended at the close of the 18th century, and Russia became 

 one of the chief military powers of Europe. She joined the coalition against revolutionary 

 France, but the victories of Napoleon for a while checked her power. The sovereignty of the 

 continent was divided between France and Russia. Napoleon attempted to crush his rival, and 

 the disastrous issue of the Russian campaign shook the foundation of his own empire. The 

 decline of the French power brought the armies of Russia into the west of Europe, extended 

 her territorial limits, and developed her military strength. Russia is, perhaps, at the present 

 day, the most powerful empire of the European continent, and the weakness of her next 

 neighbors in Europe and Asia, (Turkey and Persia,) have lately given her new opportunities 

 for aggrandizing herself in that direction, in which the northern hordes have ever been most 

 eager to make conquests. ,. 



