452 
APPENDIX, N" I. 
a Petersbourg, ces Messieurs la peuvent faire 
remettre par la poste, et elle sera rendue en 
toute surete.” 
TRANSLATION. 
“ Count Soltijcof is concerned that he cannot 
gratify Messrs. Cripps and Clarke in obtaining 
permission for them to pass the frontiers, since 
that depends solely on his Majesty the Emperor. 
As to the conveyance of the letter addressed to 
the English Minister at Petersburg, those Gen- 
tlemen may send it by the post, and it will be 
delivered in perfect safety." 
As a comment upon this curious communica- 
tion, it may be necessary to add, concerning the 
pretended security of letters entrusted to the 
post in Russia, that few of them ever reached 
their destination: they were all opened and 
read by the police; and often destroyed, or sent 
back to their authors. We had, at that time, 
no other means of intercourse with our Minister, 
than by sending a messenger the whole way 
from Moscow to Petersburg; a distance nearly 
oqual to five hundred miles ; and it was in this 
manner we obtained his instructions for attempt- 
ing an escape by the southern frontier. 
