MOSCOW. 
the greatest atrocities, in times of anarchy or 
despotism, have been perpetrated by women. 
History, they affirm, has not recorded, nor has 
the severe pen of Tacitus ever described, such 
monsters as were Catherine de Medicis, the 
bloodij Mary, and the females of France during the 
late Revolution. In the revolt of the Strelit7.es, 
the Princess Sophia has been accused of leading 
them to the execution of the most shocking 
enormities. Later writers have undertaken her 
defence ; and, among others, Mr. Coxe has col- 
lected many ingenious arguments to disprove the 
aspersions of Voltaire. Compelled, as we often 
are, to view the characters of illustrious persons 
in the representation of their adversaries, made 
amidst the rancour and cabal of parties, we may 
suspect the justice of a reproach thus cast upon 
the female sex. The unreasonableness of the 
obloquy to which the character of Richard the 
Third was exposed, by writers during the reign 
of Henry the Seventh, is now pretty generally 
admitted: yet long-established prejudice is not 
easily removed. Referring to the history of the 
Crusades, we find the Saracens always branded 
with the name of barbarians; although their 
Christian invaders borrowed from that people the 
first dawnings of civilization. A scene more 
striking, as a subject for historical painting, can 
hardly be conceived, than was exhibited upon 
