MOSCOW. 
12 ; 
the importation of any kind of foreign lite- CI ^ P - 
rature: under this head were included maps, , 1 
music,- and whatsoever might be considered as 
a vehicle of science. Some notion may be Public 
formed of the administration of the public 
censors, by a domiciliary visit the booksellers 
received, during our residence in Moscow. The 
shops were to undergo examination for prints 
or plans of Riga. Every article of their pro- 
perty was of course overhauled. Wherever 
any thing appeared bearing the remotest refe- 
rence to Riga, for whatever purpose calculated, 
it was instantly condemned. If the word ‘ Riga 
chanced to make its appearance in any book 
however valuable, though but on a single page, 
the leaf was torn out. In this manner they 
destroyed, in one day, works of geography, 
history, the arts, atlasses, dictionaries, voyages ; 
ravaging, tearing, and blemishing, wheresoever 
they came. 
That the Russians have talents, no one will 
deny ; but they dare not display them. Since 
the death of Catherine, it seemed to be the 
wretched policy of their Government to throw 
every obstacle in the way of intellectual im- 
provement. Genius became a curse tp its 
possessor; wit, a passport to Siberia. Apathy, 
stupidity, and ignorance, were blessings ; truth 
