7800.] - 
and, during the time of their preparation 
for communion, he is obliged: annually to 
ynftrust them himfelf fix weeks. But the 
fame attention is not beftowed on the Ruf- 
fians. Befides that the teachers are them- 
felves far too little inftructed, and vfually, 
in addition to their {cholaftic Jabours, ex- 
ercife fome handicraft; the {chools are 
mot yet common enough to have given the 
greater part of adults an opportunity to 
learn to read and write. In Peterfburg, 
Mofcow, Cafan, Plefkow, Smolen{k, Mo- 
hilow, and feveral other cities of the em- 
pire, better provilions have been made by 
the eftablifhment of gymafia, or learned 
{cheols, where, befides the Ruffian, Latin, 
and French languages, mathematics, natu- 
ral philofophy, hiftory, divinity and ethics 
ave taught. The prefent emperor, in par- \ 
ticular, has founded excellent learned 
ichools in Calan, Aftracan, and Orenburg, 
to which purpofe he has applied above 
300,000 rubles. But in the country there 
are few public {chools of any kind, leaft 
of all fchools for girls. The children of 
the middling and Jower clafles of the peo- 
ple grow up there without any inftruétion. 
Hence the incredible ignorance that pre- 
vails among the old and adults, very few 
of whom can read and write, or are ac- 
‘quainted with arithmetic. Of the duties 
of men ‘and fubjects; of morality, of reli- 
gion, and of Chriftianity, they remain en- 
tirely ignorant. If they be able to make 
the fign of the crofs, to tell by rote the 
names of their faints, and to blare. out 
their Gofpodi pomilui! (Lord, have mercy 
on us!); it is thought that they have 
learned quite enough. 
The tandamental error and chief caufe 
why, even under the government of the 
late emprefs, popular {chools could not be 
more generally eftablithed, was the want 
of feminaries for country-{chool-mafters. 
Sufficient attention is not paid to give them 
the neceflary preparatory education, to 
inftrué&t and exercife them in the art of 
teaching, And even where fuch femina- 
ries already exilted, they are, either through 
negiest, or perhaps intentionally, fuffered 
to fall to decay.\ ‘The vacancies are rarely 
filled up; and when they happen to be 
filled, it is with the moft wretched bung- 
lers, with old foldiers, or with peafants no 
longer fit for fervice. In the fmaller pro- 
vincial towns, likewife, the profpeét is not 
More cheering, The burghers, an order 
of men only juft {pringing up, receive too 
Tittle cultivation for us to expe& any thing 
better from the next generation. © Except 
that at Mofcow, and that lately founded 
‘at Dorpat, there are not in the whole em- 
‘PMC any univerfiiies where the écholars 
Prefent State of Schools in Ruffia. 
the {ciences. 
\ 
332 
from the lower {chools might purfue and 
finifh their ftudies. And in the latter 
{chools they make no very :great progrels 
in learning. Youths.of from fourteen to 
fixteen years of age, without having gone 
through the neceffary preparatory courfe 
of education, and often as ignorant as with 
us a boy of eight or ten years, are fent to 
Gy mnafia whereLatinand Greek, and fome 
of the higher branches of {cience are taught 5 
fo that the profeffors often find it neceffary 
to begin with inftruGting them in the firft 
rudiments of the ancient languages and of 
Thus, in fpite of the ediéts 
and regulationsof the late emprefs, the mode 
of public inftruétion is throughout the em- 
pire, (the German provinces perhaps ex- 
cepted) nothing but wretched, unconnected 
and unfinifhed patch-work: nor can anyim- 
provement take place until regular {chools 
are in{tituted in the country, and able 
teachers are formed in proper feminaries. 
As long as in the interior parts of Rufiia 
the infruction of youth is wholly left to 
the ignorant priefts, who officially impart 
at moft only the fir& elements of religious 
knowledge, fo long will ftapidity, igno= 
rance, and firperftition prevail among the 
common people. Si) 
The univerfity of Mofeow has now for 
a vival the newly-eftablifhed ene at Dor- 
pat; and it is probable that many of the 
profeffors of the former will endeavour to 
be transferred to the latter ; where, accor- 
ding to the Imperial Ukafe, the falary of 
an ordinary profeffor is to be 1500 rubles, 
while at Mofcow he receives only soc. 
The number of the fudents is about 1003 
and of the profeffors about 15, viz. 10 or 
Ginary and 5 extraordinary : to whom may 
be added 4 private lecturers, and fome 
teachers of languages. The revenues of the 
univerfity have likewife been confiderably 
diminithed; for inftead of the annual in- 
come of 45000 rubles, at which it was 
fixed by the emprefs Elizabeth, foundrefs 
of the univerfity, it now amounts to hardly 
35000 rubles in filver, in confequence of 
the depreciation of the paper-money. in 
which it is paid. ‘The theological faculty 
confifts merely of a monkifh fchool, or ra- 
ther is entirely wanting, as there are other 
mfitutions for the fludy of divinity. .The 
courfe of infiruction in jurifprudence is al- 
moft entirely confined to explanatory lec 
tures on the Codex of Ukafes and the In- 
ftitutions. The fiudents are likewile ex- 
ercifed a little in the practical method of 
conducting a procefs.. Lait year lectures 
were read by four profeffors, The me- 
dical and philofuphical faculty are the mot 
numerous; fix profeflors now reading lec- 
tures on medicine, and four on philofopby. 
U y 2 ‘The 












