passing it; in causing wonder and derision, pleasure and regret. Let me conduct the reader back with me again to the gate by which we entered, and thence through the streets." Numerous spires, glittering with gold, amidst burnished domes and painted palaces, appear in the midst of an open plain for several versts before you reach this gate. Having passed, you look about, and wonder what is become of the city, or where you are; and are ready to ask, once more, How far is it to Moscow; they will tell you, "This is Moscow !" and you behold nothing but a wide and scattered suburb, huts, gardens, pig-sties, brick walls, churches, dunghills, palaces, timber-yards, warehouses, and a refuse, as it were, of materials sufficient to stock an empire with miserable towns and miserable villages. One might imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building, by way of representative, to Moscow; and under this impression the eye is presented with deputies from all countries, holding congress: timber huts from regions beyond the Arctic; plastered palaces from Sweden and Denmark, not white-washed since their arrival; painted walls from the Tirol; mosques from Constantinople; Tartar temples from Bucharia; pagodas, pavillions, and virandas, from China; cabarets from Spain; dungeons, prisons, and public offices, from France; architectural ruins from Rome; terraces and trellisses from Naples; and warehouses from Wapping.. 'The description often given of the splendour of the equipages in Moscow but ill agrees with their appearance during Lent. A stranger, who arrives with his head full of notions of Asiatic pomp and eastern magnificence, would be surprised to find narrow streets, execrably paved, covered with mud or dust; wretched looking houses on each side; carriages drawn, it is true, by six horses, but such cattle! blind, lame, old, out of condition, of all sizes and all colours, connected by rotten ropes and old cords, full of knots and splices; on the leaders, and on the box, figures that seem to have escaped the galleys; behind, a lousy, ragged lackey, or perhaps, two, with countenances exciting more pity than derision; and the carriage itself like the worst of the night-coaches in London. But this external wretchedness, as far as it concerns the equipages of the nobles, admits of some explanation. The fact is, that a dirty, tattered livery, a rotten harness, bad horses, and a shabby vehicle, constitute one part of the privation of the season. On Easter Monday the most gaudy but fantastic splendour fills every street in the city. The emperor, it is true, in his high consideration for the welfare and happiness of his subjects, deemed it expedient to adapt the appearance to the reality of their wretchedness; and, in restraining the excessive extravagance of the people of Moscow, manifested more wisdom than the world have given him credit for possessing. The second grand ceremony of this season takes place on Thursday before Easter, at noon, when the archbishop washes the feet of the apostles. This we also witnessed. The priests appeared in their most gorgeous apparel. Twelve monks, designed to represent the twelve apostles, were placed in a semicircle before the archbishop. The ceremony is performed in the cathedral, which is crowded with spectators. The archbishop, performing all and much more than is related of our Saviour in the thirteenth chapter of St. John, takes off his robes, girds up his loins with a towel, and proceeds to wash the feet of them all, until he comes to the representative of Peter, who rises; and the same interlocution passes between him and the archbishop, which is there recorded to have taken place between our Saviour and that apostle, "The third, and most magnificent ceremony of all, is celebrated two hours after midnight, in the morning of Easter Sunday. It is called the Ceremony of the Resurrection, and certainly exceeded every thing of the kind at Rome, or anywhere else. I have not seen so splendid a sight in any Roman Catholic country; not even excepting that of the Benediction by the Pope, during the holy week. At midnight, the great bell of the cathedral tolled. Its vibrations seemed the rolling of distant thunder; and they were instantly accompanied by the noise of all the bells in Moscow. Every inhabitant was stirring, and the rattling of carriages in the streets was greater than at noon-day. The whole city was in a blaze; lights were seen in all the windows, and innumerable torches in the streets. The tower of the |