together six thousand feet. The middle line has seven compartments,' that is, three thousand more, making in the whole length nine thousand feet! Here, again, the doctor blunders egregiously in his measurement, as, appears from what immediately follows. The whole range of hot and green-houses, taken in a continued line, measures three thousand six hundred and twentyfour feet, being little short of three-fourths of an English mile in length.' Either dimensions are gigantic enough, but the only value of figures is their accuracy, and, for aught we know, many others in the doctor's book may, like this, be two or three times too great or too small. There is, he says, besides, out of doors, a nursery for trees and shrubs, and a systematical arrangement of hardy plants, and such as are employed in the materia medica. In this there must also be some mistake; at least we are assured by a gentleman just returned from Petersburg, that he saw little or nothing growing out of doors but the common matricaria, or wild camomile.

Professor Fischer has great merit in being able to force his plants to a magnitude corresponding with that of the buildings which inclose them. Thus, we are told, an Acacia speciosa had grown eighteen feet in the space of two years, and an Eucalyptus five and twenty feet in the same period. But these are trifles. A specimen of the Lobaa candens maxima, in the green-house of creepers, had ascended to the height of thirty-two feet, and covered with its main stem and feeders, a space of seven hundred feet, though struck from a cutting under a hand-glass only two years before! And this wonderfully exuberant vegetation is in a green house, under the parallel of 60° latitude. A shoot of bamboo had reached nearly the top of the house, but what that height is we are not told; it is stated, however, that during the great heat of 1826, this plant had grown twenty-six feet in the space of eighteen days, or three-quarters of an inch in an hour!'

We have not yet, however, quite done with the giants, because what we are about to notice, we are told, has no parallel, and because there is here also a trifling blunder in the measurement. This is the restored or amended church of St. Isaac; and here we have an instance of that incessant meddling of the successors with what their predecessors had done in the way of palaces, churches, and public buildings. St. Isaac was founded by Peter in 1710. In 1768, Catharine ordered it to be reconstructed in marble, on a more extensive scale. Having reached the height of the entablaturę, Catharine died, and the work stood still. The Emperor Paul entirely changed the plan of the building; and Alexander approved of another plan, in the year 1818, by a Monsieur Montferrand, which is now in progress of execution, provided Nicholas

should

should not take it into his head to alter or demolish it altogether. It has a cupola, which, up to the ball, is to be three hundred and seven English feet high. The interior is to be ornamented with one hundred and eighty-eight columns and pilasters of the Corinthian order, of marble drawn from the quarries of Finland; the capitals and bases of bronze richly gilt.

But the most astonishing, and certainly unparalleled feature of this magnificent edifice, will be the four porticos which are to decorate its exterior; each of which will consist of eight columns in front, and three in the flank, with capitals and bases of gilt bronze. These fortyeight columns of the Corinthian order, unique in Europe, have been cut out of the rock in Finland, each of one solid piece of granite, five feet ten inches in diameter at their base, five feet two inches near the astragal, and fifty-six feet high; consequently much loftier than those of the Roman Pantheon, which measure only forty-six feet nine inches and eleven lines.'-Granville, vol. ii. p. 198.

To see these gigantic pillars raised, it is said that architects of all countries have signified their intention of being present-'an opportunity which,' the doctor says, 'neither times past have offered, nor will future ages, in all probability, again afford, of seeing forty-eight columns, each of one solid block of highly polished bronze and sparkling granite, seventeen and a half feet in circumference at their bases, and loftier than any that the hand of an architect has ever ventured to design.' Indeed! who was it that f ventured to design' Pompey's pillar? As the doctor tells us to a line what is the height of the Pantheon columns, he ought, at least, to have been accurate to an inch in the circumference of those of St. Isaac, which, instead of being 173 feet, are, if our arithmetic be right, 18.333 feet, full ten inches more than he has stated them to be; and when he tells us that each column weighs 288,000 pounds, he again errs the contrary way. The average weight of a cubic foot of close-grained granite is, as nearly as possible, 164 pounds; the contents of the column of St. Isaac are 1990.467 cubic feet; ergo, the weight of the column is 218,197 pounds, or about one-fourth part less than the doctor asserts it to be.

With all the magnificence and oriental splendour of this Northern Babylon, the enormous wealth and extensive establishments of the nobles, the superb furniture of their palaces, and the splendid entertainments which are constantly given, to an extent unknown in other countries of Europe, there is still something that lacks of the delicacy and refinement which prevail among the upper ranks of more civilized nations, and smacks of the barbaWe may illustrate this by two little anecdotes mentioned by Captain Jones. This officer was invited to a grand ball and supper given by the Empress-mother.

rian.

'After

'After we had been about forty minutes at table, the Empress retired, when a most unexpected, extraordinary, but amusing scene, took place a general scramble for the good things which were left, particularly at the Imperial table-Generals, Counts, and Subs, with their gold-laced coats, pocketing without mercy, and struggling to outdo the domestics, who did not appear to pay them much respect, or to be willing to allow them to carry off the spoils quietly; and in five minutes there was a perfect scene of devastation, even the very candles were carried off by the attendants, and, to the blaze of splendour which we had just witnessed, succeeded darkness scarcely visible.'-Jones, vol. i. p. 430.

The grocers, the packers, the dry-salters, et id genus omne, at the annual civic feast, may slily pocket the bon-bons, or hand a piece of plumcake or pudding to their wives or daughters standing behind them; but we are not aware that, even in Guildhall, a Russian scramble is ever permitted. The other anecdote is told of the Grand Veneur Nariskin, who is said to be always doing something magnificent and eccentric.

It is related of him that, knowing the Empress was to pass one evening, he had, by way of surprise, collected skins of all the ferocious beasts of the forests, and by placing either men or children inside, according to their size, gave them the appearance of life, and they were frisking about his grounds, to the astonishment of the Empress, when she passed. By way of further surprise, and honour to his sovereign mistress, he caused an extraordinary display of fireworks and rockets to be let off, when she came in front of the house. Unfortunately, however, not having apprised the supposed animals of the terrible explosion which was to take place, they were most dreadfully alarmed; and, instead of continuing to play their parts as quadrupeds, they attempted to seek flight as bipeds, and by which they rendered the scene truly ridiculous.'-Jones, vol. i. p. 334.

It was shrewdly answered by a foreigner to a Russian, who asked, what could induce his countrymen to adhere to the old style in their calendar, which had been abolished by all other European nations? in order, said he, that your countrymen may imagine themselves only a dozen days behind the rest of Europe, whereas, in fact, they are a whole century of years in arrear.

But we have done with St. Petersburg, and intend to conclude with a few observations on the two remaining works mentioned at the head of this article. Dr. Granville assures his readers, with the utmost confidence, that the good faith of the Emperor Nicholas may be perfectly relied on, in all that regards his engagements to the allies, in the treaty, to which he was a party, of the 6th July, 1827; because his political life has never belied any of those strict principles which, in private life, have by general acknowledgment been known to guide his conduct.' This may or may not be the

case,

case, as hereafter shall appear; but, at the present moment, he labours under something more than a suspicion of a want of sincerity, which has weakened very considerably that'reliance' of which Dr. Granville speaks. On a provocation from Turkey, no matter whether slight or otherwise, he has declared war against her; but, with a generosity for which he obtained adequate applause, he voluntarily offered to waive the privilege of a belligerent in the Mediterranean, and to adhere there strictly to the conditions of the treaty of London, the sole object of which was to liberate the Greeks from the Turkish yoke, in whose fate he pretended to be most deeply interested. No sooner, however, did he find that the Turks were not so easily beaten as he had supposed; that Varna, and Chumla, and Silistria retarded his progress towards the capital, than he sends an order, direct from Odessa, to Count Heyden, who was acting in concert with the other two allied admirals, and passing over the regular channels of communicating his intention to England and France, instituted a blockade of the Dardanelles. Of course he ceases to be any longer a party to the treaty. Having thus broken faith with his allies, and left the Greeks, as far as he was concerned, to the mercy of the Turks, what guarantee have we that he will observe more religiously his solemn avowal against any intention of territorial aggrandizement? Differing as we do altogether from the general views of Lieut.-Col. Evans, we are very much disposed to agree with him in what follows.

With respect to the reigning autocrat-although it is but the other day the diadem has descended to him, has he not already found time to prosecute successfully an aggrandizing policy? The ink is scarcely dry which has signed away to him, by means of a most indefensible exercise of force, the banks of the Araxes, and yet it is concluded that the same hand will gratuitously reject the splendid, and incomparably superior prize that now lies nearly prostrate for acceptance. We presume then, not only that a luxurious court will prefer the frozen swamps of the Neva, with their worse than hyperborean atmosphere, to the superb and unequalled shores of the Marmora ;but also that a young military monarch will be so reluctant to give umbrage to other nations,-that he is so averse to war, so enamoured of peace, and altogether so imbued with a fine sense of abstract right, that although this transcendant achievement (the ultimate aim of all the national conquests) be now ripe for execution, and, as it were, courts him on, he will yet forbear to give it effect. This is to be more than moderate.

It will be to disregard the fervent aspirations of his officers; the desires of his clergy; the wishes of his people (for on this subject even the serfs have an anxious sympathy); it will be to decline what comes recommended to him by every great name of Russia; to be unmindful of his own glory; to contemn the substantial interests of the empire,—

and

and even, not improbably, to hazard what we may well conceive to be one of the chief bonds of union between the throne to which he has been preferred and the chiefs by whom it is upheld and surrounded, and who, it is no more than reasonable to suppose, now ardently and sanguinely look forward, through the medium of this very operation, to the possession in their own persons, or those of their descendants, of high apanages, lordships, and princely satrapies, amidst the softer climes and wealthier and more inviting regions of Southern Europe.' —Evans, pp. 117-119.

A very short space of time must now show what are the real views and intentions of the young autocrat. The public feeling was undoubtedly in his favour when he assumed the reins of government, though even then, Colonel Evans tells us, one of the highest functionaries of the empire thus expressed himself. 'Russia has now an emperor, whose character is marked by much stronger traits, and who is of a far higher ambition than distinguished his late brother; but those qualities will not suddenly reveal themselves. They will gradually be disclosed by his public conduct.' Our decided opinion, however, is, that let who will be the autocrat of Russia, he must follow the general wishes of the army and the aristocracy, not denying that his personal character may give a bias to those wishes.

Lieut.-Col. Evans has acquired in the army the character of an intelligent, sober-minded, and very able, as well as gallant, officer; but, in treating of the Designs of Russia,' we are disposed to think his subject has run away with him, and hurried him on to the very verge of extravagance. He has been answered in part by an anonymous writer, who, we take for granted, is an English merchant trading to Russia. The object of the Colonel is to show that an immediate coalition of all the European powers, England and France taking the initiative, is the only means of putting a stop to the incursions and aggrandizement of this northern barbarian power, and to preserve the civilization of the Old World. The object of the other is the preservation of peace with Russia, and to show that little is to be apprehended from that power, even if she were in possession of Constantinople. Thus it is war against trade; and, as usual in such discussions, each partisan has overstated his case.

We shall barely mention the long list of miseries which Colonel Evans anticipates from the capital of Turkey falling into the hands of Russia. If the Sultan, he tells us, should escape the bow-string, he will be pensioned off, as was the lot of the traitor Stanislaus, and several others. England having first lost Corfu, Malta, and Gibraltar, the island of Sicily will next be coveted as an advanced post. Ferdinand of Spain will at once be taken under the special pro

tection