MOSCOW. 
1 ‘23 
diately descended, and ran to recover it for its CI ^ P - 
owner ; but what was his astonishment, to per- v - ■»— J 
ceive his own name, and the name of his hatter, 
on the lining! It was no other than the iden- 
tical hat which had been stolen by one of them 
from our lodgings, although now metamor- 
phosed into a cap ; and, under its altered shape, 
it might not have been recognised, but for the 
accident here mentioned 1 . 
The love of mimicry, already mentioned as ^ on «nt °* 
characteristic of the nation, has been carried Jerusalem. 
to great excess in the Convent of the New Jeru- 
salem : this building is not only an imitation 
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 
but it contains representations of all the relics 
(1) The prohibition concerning: round hats lmd rendered this kind 
of cap very fashionable in Moscow. A translated extract from the 
writings of one whose pages confirm every characteristic of the Rus- 
sians given in this work, will shew how faithful a picture the state- 
ment of the fact above mentioned offers of the whole nation ; and 
also to what extent the vice of stealing is carried in that country. 
“ Next to drunkenness, the most prominent and common vice of 
the Russians is theft From the first Minister to the General- 
officer, from the lackey to the soldier, all are thieves, plunde-.ers, and 
cheats It sometimes happens, that, in apartments at Court, to 
which none but persons of quality and superior officers are admitted, 
your pocket-book is carried of as f you were in a fair. The King of 
Sweden, after the battle of July, 1790, invited a party of Russian 
officers, who had been made prisoners, to dine with him. One of them 
stole a plate : upon which the offended king ordered them all to be 
distributed among the small towns, where they never again ate off 
silver.” Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg. Lond. 1801. p. 1 70. 
