person who, in the reign of Catherine the First, was disgraced by his own brother-in-law, Prince Menchicoff, was afterwards banished to Siberia, and recalled, at the expiration of fifteen years, by the Empress Elizabeth. After having been denchtchick of Peter the Great, he obtained the command of a regiment, was promoted to the rank of major-general, and lieutenant-general, and was at last appointed lieutenantgeneral of the police, which post he held till his exile. The Czar kept so attentive an eye over all that came under the jurisdiction of the police, and it was so difficult for anything to escape his observation, that it was absolutely necessary for the lieutenant-general to be himself very watchful in his department.

One day the Czar, according to custom, went in a carriage towards the admiralty, driving by the side of the Canal of Morika, with Lieutenant-General Desiere in his company. They proceeded as far as the island called New Holland, to the magazines of ship timber. Here they were obliged to pass a little bridge over a canal, which goes from the farm of Golowin to the River Morika. The planks happened to be loose, and so much deranged as to make it dangerous to pass the bridge. The Czar was obliged to alight, while his denchtchicks put the planks in order, and fastened them so as to enable him to pass

over.

During the work he could not avoid expressing his displeasure at the want of attention shown by the police in the preservation of the roads and bridges;

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and as the lieutenant-general himself happened to be there to receive his just reproaches, he administered a sound caning on the spot, as a punishment of his negligence. "This will make you more attentive," said he, as he was leaving off, and teach you to take your rounds, and see if everything be safe, and in good condition." The bridge by this time being repaired, and the Czar's anger at an end, they stepped again into the carriage, as if nothing had happened, Peter saying to the lieutenant of the police, "Sadiss, brat!" that is, "Sit down, brother!"

This anecdote was narrated by the son of Count Desiere, who filled the office of chamberlain to the Grand Duke, and probably thought it rather an honourable feature in the family history that his father had thus suffered personal chastisement from the great Czar! It was otherwise, however, when he treated with the same unseemly violence those who had been accustomed to the civilization and refinement of Western Europe. The death of Le Fort, the distinguished French general, to whose advice and instructions the Czar owed his first knowledge of military tactics, is ascribed to the keen sense of indignity which preyed on his mind in consequence of being subjected to such an assault as the native Muscovite nobles and princes regarded with indifference, if they did not almost esteem such an honour.

CHAPTER IV.

MANNERS AND SOCIAL HABITS OF THE RUSSIANS.

NOTHING gives a truer insight into the character of a nation than the habits which characterize the people in their social intercourse. We have already referred to the free use of intoxicating drinks by Peter the Great. In the latter years of his life he became simple, and even abstemious, in his diet, and extremely moderate in the use of wine and strong liquors; yet he never ceased to take pleasure in witnessing the boisterous enjoyment of others, and encouraged his guests to drink even to excess, while he watched the increasing noise and revelry with manifest satisfaction. This perhaps had its rise, in part, in his extreme dislike to the formal observances of court etiquette; yet, whatever be its source, it is one of the least pleasing aspects in which the imperial reformer appears. The following extraordinary and somewhat ludicrous account of a court banquet in the time of the Czar has been published in the memoir of Peter the Great, from a manuscript narrative by Dr. Birch, preserved among the Sloane Papers in the British Museum. After describing the coarse modes of cookery in use by the Russians, and their employment of onions, garlic, train oil, and other unpalatable accompaniments, he says: "The fowls which are for the Czar's own eating are very often dressed by his grand

Marskal Alseffiof, who is running up and down with his apron before him among the other cooks till it is time to take up dinner, when he puts on his fine clothes, and his full-bottomed wig, and helps to serve up the dishes.

The number of the persons invited is commonly two or three hundred, though there is room for no more than about an hundred, at four or five tables. But as there is no place assigned to anybody, and none of the Russians are willing to go home with an empty stomach, every body is obliged to seize his chair, and hold it with all his force, if he would not have it snatched from him.

The Czar being come in, and having chosen a place for himself, there is such scuffling and fighting for chairs that nothing more scandalous can be seen in any country; though the Czar does not mind in the least, nor trouble himself to put a stop to such disorder, pretending that a ceremony, and the formal regulations of a marskal, make company eat uneasy, and spoil the pleasure of conversation. Several foreign ministers have complained of this to the Czar, and refused to dine any more at court; but all the answer they got was, that it was not the Czar's business to turn master of the ceremonies, and please foreigners, nor was it his intention to abolish the freedom once introduced. This obliged strangers, for the future, to follow the Russian fashion in defending the possession of their chairs, by cuffing and boxing their opposers.

The company thus sitting down to table without any manner of grace, they are all so crowded together that they have much ado to lift their hands to their mouths. And if a stranger happens to sit between two Russians, which is commonly the case, he is sure of losing his appetite, though he should have happened to have ate nothing for two days before. Carpenters and shipwrights sit next to the Czar; but senators, ministers, generals, priests, sailors, buffoons of all kinds, sit pell-mell without any distinction.

The first course consists of nothing but cold meats, among which are hams, dried tongues, and the like, which not being liable to tricks in cooking, strangers ordinarily make their whole meal of them, without tasting anything else, though, generally speaking, every one takes his dinner beforehand at home.

Soups and roasted meats make the second course, and pastry the third.

As soon as one sits down, he is obliged to drink a cup of brandy; after which they ply you with great glasses full of adulterated tookay, and other vitiated wines, and, between whiles, a bumper of the strongest English beer, by which mixture of liquors every one of the guests is intoxicated before the soup is served.

The company, being in this condition, make such a noise, racket, and holloing, that it is impossible to hear one another, or even to hear the music, which is playing in the next room, consisting of a sort of trumpets and corpets (for the Czar hates violins), and with this revelling noise and uproar the Czar is ex