126 
FROM THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS, 
chap, celebrated Aleksye Musine Puchk'ine' ; and it is 
1U ' i this pic-nic production which now bears the 
title of “ The Antidote .” We received this 
information from one of the party who was 
actually present with her upon that occasion ; 
and one who also added his own share to the 
undertaking. Nothing could be more deceitful 
than the false glitter of the Court of Petersburg 
in the time of Catherine. Pompous plans of 
improvement seemed to be the subject ol daily 
conversation, and were industriously propagated 
in foreign countries ; but they existed only upon 
paper; like the number of the troops which 
Russia has so often affected to muster in the 
service of her allies ; or like the numerous 
governments and garrisons, whose mere names 
serve to occupy the void spaces upon the maps 
of her desolated territories 1 2 . 
(1) The name is here given according to the Russian mode of writing 
it; substituting only English letters ; as it appears in his own account 
of the Taman Stone. Perhaps it may be pronouueed Alexis Mussin 
Pushkin. 
(2) Similar facts are also stated by Caster a, by Segur, by the 
Prince <te fvigne, &c. &c. The Reader is requested to attend to this 
circumstance ; and to add to these authorities, the numerous testimo- 
nies adduced by the author, in the Notes to this work, as vouchers for 
the veracity of his own personal observations. If it he urged, that, 
having viewed the Russians at an unfavourable period of their history, 
and under the galling impression of a temporary tyranny, he has deli- 
neated only the dark shades in their character ; in what manner will 
the corresponding statement be refuted, which has proceeded from so 
many able writers, in different periods, and of so many different nations ? 
