MOSCOW. 
tyrant took the ransom ; and. then told the fa- 
ther, that both the girl and the money belonged 
to him, and therefore she must still continue 
among the number of his slaves. What a pic- 
ture do these facts afford of the state of Russia ! 
It is thus that we behold the subjects of a vast 
empire stripped of all they possess, and exist- 
ing in the most abject servitude; victims of 
tyranny, and of wickedness ; exposed to a more 
unprincipled dominion, and to severer priva- 
tions, than the most wretched vassals of any 
other system of despotism upon earth. 
Traversing the provinces south of Moscow, 
the land is as the garden of Eden ; a fine soil, 
covered with corn, and apparently smiling in 
plenty : but enter into the cottage of the poor 
labourer, who is surrounded by all these riches, 
and you find him dying of hunger, or pining 
the Reader be further informed, that the term Peasant, as applied to 
the population of Russia, does not necessarily imply that part of it who 
are poor. A peasant may be very rich. He may be found in the ester- 
rise of a lucrative trade, or engaged, as a merchant, in commerce ; 
yet, as he belongs to the class of staves, both his wealth and his person 
belong to some particular lord. Sometimes the lords contcut themselves 
in receiving a moiety of the earnings obtained by their staves ; hut very 
frequently they seize all within their power, and hence arises the 
necessity a rich peasant feels of concealing what be may possess. It is 
the agricultural peasant who sustains constant privation, in the midst 
of apparent wealth. 
