850 
> 
twenty years: befides, the regifters 
which Storch examined, reach no lower 
_ than 1790; and at any rate we ought not, 
from what happens in Peterfburg, or even 
in Mofcow, draw conclufions, concerning 
the whole empire. —How numerous is in 
Peterfburg that clafs of men, who in all 
great cities are not reckoned among the 
beft of the inhabitants,—viz. the fervants 
of every denomination, and who there, 
more than in other places, are tempted to 
relieve by drinking the tedium attendant 
on their idle mode of life. 
their number much greater in proportion 3 
but they are not even able, at leaft a part 
of them, to fpend their leifure hours in 
reading, or i other fimilar enjoyments 
and pafiimes. ‘Fobacco, which in other 
countries contributes to difpel ennui, and 
to lull the mind to repofe, is not in ufe 
here. A fimilar -want of refined, or at 
jeaft innoxious, enjoyments, affects likewife 
the great body of Ruffian fhop-keepers and 
artificers ; and though they have not fo 
much idle time to fill up, yet they have 
ftill leifure enough on their hands, and 
from their proportionally confiderable earn- 
ings more ability to procure to themfelves 
their favourite brandy. ‘To this muft be 
added, that by far the greater part, as the 
fervants of the nobles and gentlemen, are 
either not married, or at leaft have not 
their wives and children refiding with 
them.* All this occurs likewife, if not 
_ wholly, at leaft in part, in the fecondary 
- towns of Ruffia: and therefore the refults 
from the bills df mortality in Peterfburg 
are more applicable to them, than fimilar 
conclufions from the greater to the fmaller 
cities in other countries.— But that in 
Ruffia it may be applied to the whole na- 
tion, I am greatly inclined to doubt from 
the following obfervations and matters of | 
fad. i 
During my journey to and from Mof- 
cow, I never obferved the fmalleft trace of 
drunkennefs among the poft-boys; not 
even one of them ftept on the road to 
drink, though fome of the ftages were 
from 2:3 to 24 miles long. Still more 
ftriking was the behaviour of the coach- 
drivers, with whom I twice travelled for 
feveral fucceffive days. During a dread- 
ful fall of now, and an almoft intclerable 
degree of cold, they fometimes drove for 18 
miles without drinking a fingle glafs of 


* According to Storch’s-Statiitic View of 
the Ruiiian Empire, there were reckoned in 
Peterfburg, in 1739, 148,743 males, and 
only 69,463 females; a proportion which 
probably exitts in nc other city ou earth. 
Not only is’ 
On the Propenfity of the Ruffians to Drunkennefs. [{December, 
fpirits: and only on fome days at dinner 
afked a few copeks for that purpofe. On ~ 
the other days, neither at noon nor in the 
evening did they go to a public houfe. In 
the villages there are no accommodations 
for travellers at thefe public-houfes; and 
they are obliged to take up their quarters 
at the firft beft boor’s houfe. can there- 
fore affirm with a tolerable degree of cer- 
tainty, that the expenditure of each driver 
during two days for fpirits did not exceed 
five copeks, for which only a fmall quan- 
tity can be purchafed in the interior of 
Ruffia ; with that fmall quantity, how- 
ever, they were fatisfied. Nor was their 
abftinence owing to a want of money: 
they performed the journey from Plefkow 
to Mofcow, without demanding in advance 
any part of the hire T had agreed to pay 
them. ‘Yo draw a conclufion of the general 
character of a nation from the conduét of a 
few individuals, may undoubtedly be 
deemed hazardous in moft cafes. But 
when among a clals of men, who are cer- 
tainly more than others expofed to the 
temptation, and who in other countries 
prove the ftrength of fuch temptation, no 
trace of the vice could be found, not even 
in twelve individuals (that was the number 
of drivers belonging to.the company I tra- 
velled with) whom we had an opportunity 
of watching, and of whom onlythe fmaller 
part had been hired in confeyquence of 
fome fort of recommendation, the others 
only by chance ; fuch an obfervation is of” 
itfelf of great weight, and becomes ftill 
more important when it is confirmed by 
other obfervations, fuch as the following— 
In the houfes of the boors, in which E 
ufually put up at mid-day and in the even- 
ing €there were at leaft thirty of them, and 
always belonged to thofe who feemed to be 
in good circumftances)—I only once no- © 
‘ ticed in my hoft an inclination to drunk- 
ennefs, and even here his wife complained 
of it. A fimilar inftance I met with in 
only one {mall town. And the complaints 
of the wife may ferve as a proof, that, on 
the whole, the fentiments of the nation are 
greatly changed for the better; if indeed 
they ever were fo corrupt with refpe& to 
drunkennefs, as is pretended. People do 
not begin to complain of a fault, until 
they are convinced of its really being what. 
iC irs, 
Finally, we may oppofe one calculation, 
to the other; and thereby place almoft be- 
yond all doubt whatever may perhaps re- 
main doubiful. ‘rom authentic as- 
counts,* it appears, that in the year 7789, 
* Hupe’s Stanzsvert. des Ruff, R. part i- 
P. 4i2. 
the 
