MOSCOW. 
137 
or the most gloomy annals of Russia) will prove CI 1 ^ P ' 
the state of society in the country to exist now ' — v — 
as it always has been. The leading testimony 
(even of authors decidedly partial) is by no 
means favourable to the character of its inhabi- 
tants. So long ago as the middle of the last 
century, when the Baron de Manstein wrote his 
Memoirs 1 2 * concerning the interesting aera that 
elapsed between the beginning of the reign of 
Peter the Second, and the marriage of the late 
Empress Catherine with the husband whose 
murder Voltaire found it impossible to methodize *, 
the insecurity of property, the total want of 
public faith, the ignorance and the rudeness of 
the people, were notorious 5 . De Manstein stu- 
diously avoided all opprobrious reflections; attri- 
buting the depreciating accounts, usually given 
of the natives, to the little information strangers, 
unacquainted with the language, can procure 4 . 
It' will therefore be curious to adduce the evi- 
dence, which may nevertheless be derived from 
his work, to validate the description we have 
(1) Memoirs of Russia by the Baron de Manstein, a German , who 
served in the Russian army. He afterwards became a general -officer 
in the Prussian service. These Memoirs contain a history of Russia 
from the year 1727 to the year 1744. 
(2) See the Advertisement prefixed to this volume. , 
(d) “ They were perfectly ignorant of all the rules of good breeding, 
even of the laws of nations , and of those prerogatives of foreign ministers 
which are established in the other Courts of Europe.” Supplement to 
the Memoirs , tyc. p, 416. Second Edit . Land. 1773. 
(4) Ibid. 
