308 
voluminous erudite and meritorious Col- 
Jeftions of Adguftus Ludwig Schloetzer 
relative to Northern Hiftory, which his un- 
rivalled Knowledge of the Arétic tongues 
has for ever confecrated as the fulleft and 
prime fources of information concerning 
the true antiquities of the North, from Ice- 
Jand to Kamfhatka. “A part of his la- 
bours have been Englithed in the Selections 
from foreign literary journals. 
The like difficulty of fale would attend 
Fufius Mofer’s Ofnaburgian Hiftory, al- 
though confpicuous for legal knowledge 
oi feudal times. But, in this latter cale, 
it feems natural to expeét from the pa- 
triotifm.of the Duke of York fome pa- 
tronage of a tranflation, which muft elfe 
be a.mere facrifice of toil and time to the 
Englith undertaker. 
Other names of eminence in the depart- 
ment of civil hiftory might be mentioned; 
as that of Vofs, who has written concern- 
ing the Stuart family; but their works 
feem lefs neceflary in a country not meanly 
fiocked with native hiftoriographers. If, 
however, the Englifh Univerfal Hiftory 
fhould, at fome future period, be reprinted, 
very, important and extenfive improve- 
- ments may be derived from the Germa 
refaccimento of that work. 
he TEUTONICUS. 
Smee eed 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ON THE PROPENSITY OE THE RUSSIANS 
TO DRUNKFNNESS. 
Ey A BETHMANN BERNHARDI, 
of Freyberg. 
N two books lately publifhed, the pro- 
penity of Ruffians to drunkennefs is 
ftill painted in the moft dreadful colours. 
in one-of them it is faid: “As foon as 
the peafant receives any money, he imme- 
diately gets drank : —- Ruflians of every 
_irank and condition are, during one half 
of the.year, in a ftate of intoxication.”*— 
fn another, though fome regard is paid to 
what Storch  fays concerning the now 
greater infrequency of drunkennefs ; yet, 
on the authority of older writers, as if 
their accounts of Rufha were ftill applica- 
ble to the prevent ftate of that country, we 
are told, that ‘* in ladies of even the 
bigheft rank, a flight degree of inebriation 
is mot confidered as unbecoming;” and 
that ‘* the common people, when they 
had money, even now got drunk 204 days 
$ 
ee 
~ 
* Sketches of a picture of Rufia, p. TO4y 
TOS. 
_t Materials towards a complete knowledge 
of the prefent ftate of Rufiia. 
On the Propenfity of the Ruffians to Drunkennefs. -[ December, 
in the courfe of the year.”* So generally, q 
and to an extent fo unlimited, as it there 
is ftated, I fufpect the evil did not in the 
worft of times prevail: for to me it ap=\ 
pears probable, that among the common 
people the dreadful habit of drunk- 
ennefs or bacchic furor was confined 
to the towns ; from the manners of which 
travellers in general, more than from thofe 
of the country,-draw conclufions in form- 
ing their judgments of a nation: and we 
ought always to keep this circumftance in 
view, if' we would avoid too haftily adopt- 
ing unfounded opinions concerning the na- — 
tional charaéter of the Ruffians: The 
traveller who fhould form his opinion of 
the lower orders in England or France 
from the populace of London and Paris, 
would commit an egregious mifiake: but 
certainly much greater would be his error, . 
who ina fimilar cafe fhould draw a-con- f 
clufion concerning the Ruffians in general 
from the inhabitants of Mofcow, at a time 
when refinement and the cultivation of 
the mind bore a fill lefs proportion than at ; 
prefent to the means of procuring the grati- 
fication of their vitiated appetites. “This 
remark will appear to be founded in truth, 
when I impartially Jay before the reader 
what I have feen, heard and calculated 
concerning the fondnefs of the Ruffians for 
brandy. 
Even at prefent, greater quantities of 
fpirituous liquors are drunken in Ruffia 
than in other countries. The well known 
- cuftom of taking a dram before every meal, 
for the purpofe of whetting their appetite, 
is, as far as my obfervations went in 
Mofcow and Peterfburg, ftill predomi- 
nant among perfons of both fexes ; and has 
been adopted even by foreigners refident.in 
thofe cities. At leaft they never entertain 
a gueft without offering him {pirits before 
dinner—even in Riga, where-however they 
are in general-not very partial to Rufhan 
manners and cuftoms. Befides, in the in- 
terior of Ruffia, the ufe of Agqueurs, or {pi- 
rits diftilled with feveral forts of fruit, is 
much more common than in ofher coun- 4 
tries. At the table of a well regulated 
family in Mofcow, I faw feveral forts : 
of fuch fruit-brandies fucceffively handed § 
roynd.+ When, therefore, it is faid in 

* Meiners’s Comparifon af Ancient and 
‘Modern Ruffia, part i. p. 222. GG Se Sage id 
+ On the contrary, they drink lefs wine 5 
probably hecaufe it is extremely difficult to 
obtain any that is even tolerable; at leait the . 
wine that I drank im the interior of Ruffia was 
bad, and in part worfe than I had ever found , 
it elfewhere.—In Riga, indeed, the wine was 
in general. good 3 and the table-wine fre- 
; : quently 
a 

