MOSCOW. 
1/2 
chap, not possible to mix in company, without seeing 
■ - t - i many persons adorned with the badge of the 
knights. The price of it, when purchased' of 
the Crown, was three hundred peasants. In 
the changes befalling Orders, as well as Govern- 
ments, that which has happened to this class 
of society is worthy of admiration. Formerly, 
the oath taken, upon admission to the fraternity, 
was a declaration of poverty, chastity , and obe- 
dience. What the nature of the oath now is, 
we did not learn ; but the opposite qualifications 
in candidates for the Holy Cross were manifest. 
The extravagance of the Russian nobility has 
no example. They talk of twenty and thirty 
thousand roubles as other nations do of their 
meanest coin ; but those sums are rarely paid 
in cash: the disbursement is made in fur- 
niture, horses, carriages, watches, snuff-boxes, 
rings, and wearing-apparel. 
Minerals of Visiting the mineralogical cabinet of Count 
GMin. Golovkin with a dealer in minerals, he informed 
us that the arts and sciences obtained true 
(1) As wo were informed .—Mr. Heber states it at twelve hundred 
roubles . 
“ At present, indeed, there is a new method of acquiring rank. 
Persons who have not served either in a civil or military capacity, may, 
for twelve hundred roubles , purchase a Cross of Malta ; but this is con- 
sidered as no very proud distinction.** Heber' s MS, Journal • 
