134 
MOSCOW. 
chap, people. In this reign was built the church to 
X I ~ ■ ■ which we have now alluded. The artists arrested 
in Lubech were Germans. The architects em- 
ployed for the Church of St. Basil were Italians ; 
probably obtained by the connexion which sub- 
sisted between the Tsars of Muscovy and the 
Emperors of Constantinople'. From whatever 
country they came, the taste displayed in the 
edifice is evidently Tahtarian. How much the 
manners of the people were so at this period, 
may be shewn by reference to the curious and 
interesting documents preserved in Hakluyt's 
Collection of Voyages. It was during the 
bloody administration of the tyrant who then 
ruled in Russia that the first ambassadors went 
from England to that country. By the accounts 
they sent home, it appears the situation of 
Englishmen in Russia was precisely what we 
experienced two hundred and thirty years after- 
wards, under the tyranny of the Emperor Paul, 
the same disgusting race around them; the 
same dread of being communicative in their 
letters; the same desire to quit a scene of 
barbarity and profligacy. The secretary to 
(l) Some years afterwards, A.D. 1557, the Tsar again made an un- 
successful application to the Court of Vienna for artists ; stating, that 
“ he could easily procure them from France and Italy, hut that he 
gave the preference to Germans: knowing them to he an upright, 
virtuous, and honest people.” See the authors cited in the Mod. 
Univ. Hist. vol. XXXV. p. 217. 
