1799] 
Storch’s Materials: ‘* The cuftom of 
treating guefts with various kinds of in- 
toxicating liquors is fallen into difufe even 
in the villages; the author, probably, 
only meant to intimate, that, except at 
meals, thefe liquors are no longer pre- 
fented to ftrangers, as perhaps formerly 
they were in the place of the tea or coffee. 
ufual among us. I alfg found the ufe of | 
punch very general in Peterfburg.: as far 
as my experience goes, feldom is an even- 
ing {pent in company without a bowl of 
that iquor. However, I never obferved 
any thing that could be interpreted to 
countenance or excufe a flight degree of 
inebriation in perfons of the female {ex ; 
except perhaps that expreflion means no- 
thing farther, than what we find take place 
in other countries. A certain vivacity 
after a few glaffes of chanipagne. cannot 
furely be found fault with even in the mot 
polithed nation of Europe. I muft add 
another obfervation, which fhews that 
perfons of the higher orders in Ruffia are 
gradually becoming weaned from the habits 
of diunkennefs ; for, however prevalent 
the ufe of brandy before meals, yet I ob-' 
ferved that at Mofcow young folks ab- 
itained from it until their 25th year; and 
fuch as allowed themfelves ever fo little, 
were confidered as delerving of repre- 
henfion. Oe 
Neither among the lower claffes have I 
found that gexeral drynkennefs, of which 
they are even now accufed ; with refpect 
either to the number of days, or of the 
number of individuals who are habitually 
addiéted to that vice. Not on all feati- 
days, ef which Meiners, as quoted above, 
enumerates 204, and on the days imme- 
diately following, do we obferve any ftrik- 
ing remains of the formerly reigning cuf. 
tom; but only on fuch as precede or fol- 
low a long faft, as for example, the 
Chriftmas’ and Eafter holidays. During 
Shrove-tide week efpecially, which is pro- 
perly the carnival of the common people, 
many a one is drawn along with the 
fiream, who at other feafons Jeads a very 
fober life. During that time Gmelin was 

quently of a better fort than in Germany and 
France, except during the time when the 
prohibition of all French merchandife ex- 
tended to wines.. This favoured the intro- 
duction of Port-wine, and partly caufed the 
French wine in ftore to be adulterated. —The 
prohibition was fo ftri@tly put in execution, 
that the Champagne that had been ‘feized was 
poured into the ftreets; amd at laft the impor- 
tation of ail red wine was prohibited, becaufe 
French wine had been imported under another 
name,- . 
On the Propenfity of the Ruffians to Drunkennefs. 
obliged to defer the profecution of his 
journey, becaufe it was difficult to find 
any perfon in a ftate of fobernefs ; and 
caution to beware of that week ; and pof- 
fibly fome inconveniences may then arife 
from the drunken poftilions—I fay may 
arife: for, in fa&, it in fome meafure 
happens to the inhabitants of Mofcow as 
to the travellers themfelves: the former 
no lefs than the latter think more of what 
was ten or twenty years ago, than of 
what is at prefent the real {tate of things. 
In the carnival week, and efpecially on 
the Sunday following, I was cautioned 
not to venture on foot, or on a common 
fledge hired in the ftreet, among the crowd 
of innumerable carriages ; whofe confufion 
_and entanglement in the partly very nay- 
row ftreets, could excite no furprife, fhould 
the drivers be ever fo fober. However, 
notwithftanding the remonftrances of my 
friends, I ventured among them ; and did 
not experience, cbferve, or even hear of 
any material accident. - But though dur- 
ing fuch feftivals the common people may 
be even at prefent much addiéted to drink- 
ing; yet muft we thence as little form an 
Opinion of their character and conduét in 
general, as of the mihabitants of the towns 
of France during the carnival, ef the Saxon 
boor from his wakes and. marriage-featt 
of eight days duration, or of the common 
people in England from the drunken ce- 
lebration of the king’s birth-day, for 
which the failor, many thoufand miles . 
diftant from his country, and in the midft 
of the ocean, provides by being for feveral . 
weeks more {paring in the expenditure of 
his money; as Reinhold Forfter fomewhere 
relates. Popular feftivals are in all coun- 
tries accompanied with noife, tumult, and 
drunkennefs: the greater or lefs degree 
conftitutes the only difference : and as this 
is no longer. very ftriking in Ruffia ; we 
mult fix our attention not fo much on thefe 
liregularities, as on their common and ge- 
neral habits of life, and on the confequences 
that either really do, or might be expected 
to, {pring from them. 
Storch, in lis Picture of Rufia, part.i. 
P+ 353, informs us, that betweensthe age 
-of twenty and fixty more perfons die in 
Peterfburg than in London, and that. of 
difeafes which are occationed by the immo- 
derate ufe of fpirituous and other ftrong 
liquors. This however proves but little 
againft the happy change that during the 
Jatt twenty years may have taken place 
with refpeét to the ule of fpirits. For 
fuch a change cannot have any influence 
on thie bilis of mortality, till after ten or 
ws op elie twenty 
even now in Mofcow they give travellers a - 
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