of the nobility. Of these, some account may not unfitly accompany that of the singular hackney conveyances of Russia.

In our own country, some little importance is attached to the number of horses employed on occasions of state; but, in Russia, this forms one of the most important distinguishing badges of rank. "The equipages," says Mr. Bremner, "seen in this seductive quarter are most singular, and, to an English taste, most amusing. We do not speak of the active little droskies, gliding along in thousands at every hour of the day, but of the great lumbering equipages of the higher classes, seen only at the fashionable hours. In Russia, a man's rank is known by the number of horses he drives. One order of nobility, for instance, can drive two or three horses; but these are persons of very low dignity indeed. Another order can sport four; the one above it, six; and so on. A merchant, however rich he may be, cannot go beyond the small number allowed to his guild. The great point, therefore, is to have number, not quality; and four bad horses are thought much more of than two good ones worth treble the money. If a poor prince were to drive one less than his right, he might be taken for a rich count, which would be disgraceful. The consequence is, that you may often see the most singular mixture of steeds to one carriage dissimilar in colour, size, paces. One thing, however, there is always sure to be-black straggling traces between the different pairs, shaking

most clumsily up and down, and so long, that Ducrow might leap his whole stud across the interval without troubling their noble master to stop.

"The coachman intrusted with this sorry squadron would appear to be selected by the size of his beard; in the same way that, in London, this functionary is chosen, as the French maintain, by the bulk of his person. He occupies a lofty seat, commanding a view of his whole charge; but the front pair is generally managed by a youth, seated on what we would call the wrong side, who has not yet acquired the honours of a beard, but tries to borrow dignity from a round black hat and long flowing blue coat— the most awkward garment possible for sitting on horseback with.

"The carriage itself is as uncouth as all the other parts of this untidy display. In fact, with their inclination to imitate everything foreign, it is surprising that the Russian nobility have not long since discarded their unseemly equipages, and adopted our English style, as most other nations are trying to do. Four horses abreast, which are often seen, look very well; and we were still better pleased with four abreast and two in front.

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They have one kind of vehicle which looks extremely smart-a sort of drosky, but very different from the common one; in fact, a cabriolet without the head, on four low wheels, drawn by two, sometimes three horses abreast; of which, the one in the shafts is always kept at a furious trot, while the others are

advancing at a gallop. These latter, being trained to bend the head and curve the neck outwards, give a most graceful look to the concern, as they bound along, with their long manes floating about them. None but the finest horses are ever seen in this gay vehicle. It is the favourite equipage of the young noblemen and rich officers, and is also much used by the Emperor in his flights about the city. An attempt has been made to imitate it at Berlin; and it is likely to become fashionable in other capitals."

CHAPTER XII.

RELIGION IN RUSSIA.

MOST travellers who have described minutely the Russian people, speak of them as presenting many traits which appear to the stranger to have more of an Oriental than a European air. The same, also, may be said of their religious worship. It appears to engraft on the customs and practices of the Romish Church many things closely resembling those which may be witnessed in the Mohammedan mosque.

Some interesting reflections on this subject are recorded by Charles Boileau Elliott, in his "Letters from the North of Europe," published in 1832. "The religion of the Greek Church," says he, "was adopted by the Russians in the tenth century; being established without opposition by an order of the

Grand Duke Vladimir, the first convert to Christianity, who sent emissaries to various Churches of Christendom, for the purpose of observing the forms of each. Since his object was to influence the ignorant through the medium of the senses, his choice was not injudicious; for there is something in the service of the Greek Church that rivets the attention far more than that of the Roman Catholic. There probably is not more real religion, but there is a greater appearance of devotion. The devotees seem to be more in earnest, and to have more personal faith in the virtue of the rites they celebrate. This may arise, in part, from the ignorance and intellectual debasement of the Russians, compared with that of the Catholics one has seen in more enlightened countries; but it is, doubtless, attributable also to a certain something difficult to describe, but in which no one who has been in the habit of attending Greek and Romish services can fail to sympathize. Is it that, in the former, instrumental music is excluded, while words of prayer and praise arrest the mind, chanted in the deep sonorous voices of the priests; and that, to sounds of definite import, we are loth to attach ideas which impugn the reality of feeling and the veracity of sacred functionaries: while, in the latter, full bursts of the organ overpower the voices, and give to the whole the effect of a display of sacred music? Or is it that, in the Greek Church, the service is performed in a language intelligible to the congregation; while, in the Romish, a learned jargon

is adopted, always incomprehensible to the people, and often to the illiterate priesthood? Or is it, possibly, that here there is no bowing down to carved and graven images: and though worship scarcely inferior is paid to highly-wrought designs on tapestry and canvass; yet, being familiar with such productions of art exhibited in our own temples, and regarding them with an interest which the subjects render almost sacred, we are reluctant to believe that the Russian devotee converts his gaze into sin by the admixture of an irrational and idolatrous sentiment? Or is it, that we are more disposed to resign ourselves to sacred feelings inspired by the ceremonies of a church tolerating our own dissentient creed, than to those that might otherwise result from the services of one which marshals our strongest prejudices in array against itself, by denouncing us as heretics and accursed? Something, perhaps, is due to each of these causes; much to the union of all; and not a little to the fact, that the Greek Church, though itself scarcely purer, holds in equal abhorrence with ourselves the abominations of that apostacy against which our own has protested, and still maintains an incessant spiritual warfare.

"The doctrines of the Russian Church are precisely those of the Greek; and so is its constitution, except that the former has cast off all allegiance to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and acknowledges no head but the Emperor. This secession from the Eastern Church took place under Peter the Great,

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