224 
MOSCOW. 
chap, may perhaps assign a cause for their inactivity, 
IX . in necessity. Can there exist any inducement 
to labour, when it is certain that a ruthless 
tyrant will deprive industry of its hard earn- 
ings ? The only property a Russian nobleman 
allows his peasant to possess, is the food he 
cannot or will not eat himselt ; the bark ol 
trees', chaff, and other refuse; quass, water, 
and fish oil. If the slave have sufficient inge- 
nuity to gain money without his knowledge, it 
becomes a dangerous possession; and, when 
once discovered, it falls instantly into the hands 
of his lord. 
A peasant in the village of Celo Molody, near 
Moscow, who had been fortunate enough to 
scrape together a little wealth, wished to mairy 
his daughter to a tradesman ol the city, and 
offered fifteen thousand roubles for her freedom 
— a most unusual price, and a much greater 
sum than persons of his class, situate as he 
was, will be generally found to possess 8 . The 
(1) “ A few thousands of their fellows eat wheaten bread, because 
thirty milliuus of slaves browse on herbs and gnaw birch bark, on which 
they feed, like the beavers, who surpass them in understanding.” 
Secret Mem. of Court of Petersburg, p. 268. 
(2) This anecdote of a peasant’s wealth, and the example mentioned 
in p. 109, seem to prove an incorrectness in the description given of 
the hardships sustained by the lower order of people in Russia; unless 
the 
