the executioner of Moscow, now loaded with chains, and on his way to Siberia! And for what? The poor wretch's crime shewed him to have still something good about him, notwithstanding his terrible office. It is the law, that when this situation becomes vacant, any one condemned to Siberia may have his sentence commuted, provided he accept the unenviable post. He is still a prisoner, but is allowed to live by himself, and to go about free within the walls of the prison. Some time before, this man had accepted the office, but was soon so disgusted with the bloody task, that he made his escape; was caught again, and now irrevocably banished."

One of the stages at which we must for a few seconds tarry, will present us with a fair upon a scale and of a character very different from those of Greenwich, St. Bartholomew, and Hyde Park. It is that of Nishnei-Novogorod, where, we are told, the real amount of money turned over may be estimated at twelve millions sterling annually. Let us have a glance at the motley group of merchants which such a centralization can boast of:

"First advances a white-faced flat-nosed merchant from Archangel, come here with his furs. He is followed by a bronzed long-eared Chinese, who has got rid of his tea, and is now moving towards the city, to learn something of European life before setting out on his many month's journey home. Next come a pair of Tartars from the Five Mountains, followed by a youth whose regular features speak of Circassian blood. Those with muslins on their arms, and bundles on their backs, are Tartar pedlars. Cossacks who have brought hides from the Ukraine, are gazing in wonder on their brethren who have come with caviar from the Akhtuba. Those who follow, by their flowing robes and dark hair, must be from Persia: to them the Russians owe their perfumes. The man in difficulty about his passport is a Kujur from Astrabad, applying for aid to a Turkoman from the northern bank of the Gourgan. The wild-looking Bashkir from the Ural has his thoughts among the hives of his cottage, to which he would fain be back; and the stalwart Kuzzilbash from Orenburg looks as if he would gladly bear him company, for he would rather be listening to the scream of his eagle in the chase than to the roar of this sea of tongues. Glancing in another direction, yonder simpering Greek from Moldavia, with the rosary in his fingers, is in treaty with a Kalmuck as wild as the horses he was bred amongst. Here comes a Truchman craving payment from his neighbour Ghilan (of Western Persia), and a thoughtless Bucharian is greeting some Agriskhan acquaintance (sprung of the mixed blood of Hindoos and Tartars). Nogaïs are mingling with Kirghisians, and drapers from Paris are bargaining for the shawls of Cashmere with a member of some Asiatic tribe of unpronounceable name. Jews from Brody are settling accounts with Turks from Trebizond; and a costume-painter from Berlin is walking arm-in-arm with the player from St. Petersburg who is to perform Hamlet in the evening. In short, cotton merchants from Manchester, jewellers from Augsburg, watchmakers from Neufchâtel, wine-merchants from Frankfort, leech-buyers from Hamburgh, grocers from Königsberg, amber-dealers from Memel, pipe-makers from Dresden, and furriers from Warsaw, help to make up a crowd the most motley and most singular that the wonder-working genius of commerce ever drew together."

The sorts of goods for sale are not less varied, and to facilitate business a separate quarter is set apart for each important article. Accordingly one contains groceries, another fish and caviar, another leather, boots and shoes ready made being disposed of in great quantities. One of the most curious departments of all is that appropriated to the sale of tea. The number of Chinese seen in it is not more striking than the amount of cash turned over by them. The chests are all sewed into tough skins. Leeches form another of the staple commodities, the Ukraine being now one of the most fertile fields for this species of doctor. Indeed, at Pultowa, the gathering of leeches for the Hamburg dealers is a main branch of industry. But the collectors here do not exemplify Wordsworth's picture of his leech-gathering friend; for they carry on their work in a wholesale way, the opposite of poetic. The lakes of Silesia, Bohemia, and other parts of Europe, are said to be exhausted; so that the buyers are forced to repair to more eastern quarters, carrying death and desolation among the leeches in their course; sweeping all before them, till now they have got as far as Pultowa, the pools and swamps about which are yielding them great captures. Here a thousand leeches are sold for three shillings and four-pence; at Hamburg, before reaching which one half die, the same number is sold for about five pounds; and in England the country apothecary pays nine or twelve pounds for the quantity which originally cost three shillings and four-pence. Of every thousand, it is said that at least seven hundred die before reaching England.

The further that our traveller advanced towards and into the Cossack country, he found external appearances to improve; that is to say, that in Little Russia, more particularly the part called the Ukraine, manners, languages, and institutions are superior to those of the regions to which we have hitherto been chiefly confined. A much greater degree of attention to cleanliness becomes particularly apparent, and smartness of every kind, the very cottages being white-washed, a simple and cheap indication which an Englishman is so fond of observing. The crops too present symptoms of much amelioration. But we must close these volumes, which are so full of diversified information, after quoting two passages referable to the part of the empire at which we have arrived. The first regards some remarkable contrasts of character as exhibited by the same people in different circumstances:—

"That a change of circumstances can change the character of a people, is a fact which has held true in all ages. In no instance has it ever been more strongly confirmed than by the Cossack. At home he is the bestnatured being in the world. We have seldom seen a more quiet, friendly creature. He seems fit to think of nothing but his fields and his poultry. One who knew nothing of him but from travelling through the district which we visited, would be almost tempted to call him soft and childish. But follow him to the battle-see him even in a march at the head of an VOL. I. (1839.) No. iv.

L L

invading army-and the Cossack will be found a very different being. He is no longer the quiet unobtrusive husbandman, but the bold marauder -the true member of the fiercest of all the hordes which Russia can bring in countless swarms against Europe."

Who will, after reading the following extract, think of Italy as the land of songsters ?

"At nine o'clock, Yakowbevo yielded us a supper of milk and eggs, while the village-girls, all wearing a kind of gipsy turban, which is common here, treated us with a serenade—the first instances we met with of a custom universal in Little Russia. These damsels are so mad about music, that in the short darkness of summer, they sing literally all the night through. Here they come, accordingly, in full force. A band of them returning from the harvest-field, linked arm-in-arm, and with a measured step, are marching past our door, singing a low drowsy air, quite different from that we heard so incessantly among the Muscovites; and in which, though we had occasionally had songs from very young girls, we never heard the grown-up women join. This evening song was not, indeed, quite so sweet as that of Milton's sirens three,'

'Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul

And lap it in Elysium;'

but it was more tolerable than the singing with which we were so often assailed in other parts of this musical country. The Russian is essentially a singing animal. Scourge him till he howl again, and, be assured, his wonted drawl about grandmother and the goose is resumed before you have turned the corner. Talk of Italy! Russia shall henceforth be the land of song. You may travel from one end of Italy to the other, and never hear a peasant, man or woman, carol a single air. Even in the large towns, unless from some bacchanalian party going home from a glee-club or the theatre, the traveller seldom hears Italians singing. They keep all their notes to themselves, to make us pay dear for them in London. Among the Russians, on the other hand, nothing but singing greets the unhappy traveller's ears, from Cronstadt to Odessa. Wearisome as our postillion's songs had always been, they become even more irksome to us after we learned that the words, if words they can be called, which they consist of, have not the smallest meaning. It would be impossible to draw any kind of sense from their most favourite songs. In some parts of the country, ballads of considerable beauty may still be heard; but they are now very scarce. Many of these, according to Karamsin, are exceeding beautiful, and especially those of a historical nature. They generally relate to the happy times of St. Vladimir, and were composed during the subjugation of our empire-in those disastrous days when the imagination, weighed down beneath the yoke of the infidel, had no other spur than the remembrance of the eclipsed glory of the country. The Russian,' he most truly adds, 'sings in joy, and even in the midst of sorrow.""

Captain Mignan's "Journey" need not detain us long; at least as regards Russia, which has so much engaged us now. and lately. We shall only make a halt in Koordistan, a country, owing not merely to its situation in relation to our eastern interests, but to the

character and long-preserved independence of its inhabitants, that possesses some special attractions: yet never more signally, in reference to England, than at the present time.

In

It is calculated that there may be 1,000,000 inhabitants in this country, whose vengeance inflicted on their Turkish and Persian neighbours, together with their independence, their constant turbulence and robberies, has rendered them a memorable people. case of a Russian invasion of our eastern empire, it is not for us to say to what account this wild and warlike race might be turned, nor how far reliance could be placed in them. Two extracts will serve to direct the reader's mind to the subject of their efficiency and cordiality. Let it be borne in remembrance that the Captain was accompanied by his lady, children, and servants :

"Being unable to procure any forage for the cattle, or even refreshments for ourselves, we left Bogaum long before the dawn of day. Miraâdy, the object of our march, lay about thirty-eight miles distant, over a road which appeared very rugged. About noon, we passed a lovely plain, and through it several small gurgling streams meandered, literally matted over with water-cresses. Our servants were quite surprised to see us eat of them so heartily, for they would not even taste any until I repeatedly declared they were most delicious. Previously to our entrée into the village, we were met by its chief, who conducted us to his castle, where he ordered his women to give up to us the best room they possessed in the harem court. They instantly set to work clearing away their domestic utensils with the greatest good-humour, and lighted for us a cheerful fire, before which we spread our numuds (carpets). These women crowded about Mrs. Mignan and the children with the utmost empressement, and accosted me with an air of the greatest cordiality: they had no wish, and certainly no reason to conceal their faces, which were fair and handsome, with large black eyes, and dark flowing hair. They went about entirely unveiled, and possessed no mauvaise honte, though it was considered a mark of rudeness to stare at them. Nevertheless, they were evidently much pleased at exciting our attention, and we clearly perceived that vanity was the characteristic of the sex in this, as well as in other countries nearer home. After being served with some delicious cheese made from the milk of sheep, and several excellent flat muffin-shaped cakes of bread, the chieftain of the village invited me to his own quarters, which were situated across an oblong square court-yard. A sheep was slain; and, having been stuffed full of almonds and raisins, was now roasting before a roaring fire, around which several attendants were crouched. We discussed our meal à l'Arabe, and after wards some of the party got up and danced around the room with great energy. They then chanted a war cry, which our mehmaundar, Seyyud Abdallah, assured me related to their robbing exploits, and to their successes over the Turks and Persians. They also had a regular chorus, in which all occasionally joined, and which pointed at the dishonour of a Koord flying from battle to his tents, where not only the tribe itself, but the very dogs shun the coward

Seyyud Abdallah declared the whole party were marauders, and that some of them actually boasted of the number of Kuzzilbashes they had shot. This chieftain gave us dried fruits of several kinds, with delicious sweetmeats, and some most excellent sherbet. On the morrow I smoked a chibouque with the village chief, and we then resumed our journey towards Soolimaniah, the capital of Koordistaun."

We may before quoting the next passage, which must wind up the article, mention that Mr. Fraser, whose journey to Persia lately occupied our attention, was assured by a Koordish chieftain, that, if a thousand Europeans of any nation were to make their appearance among them, twenty thousand Koords would rise and join their warlike visitors :

"Soolimaniah is most romantically situated on the northern bank of the Diala (the Delos), in a rich, extensive, and well-watered valley, irregularly formed by the base of the surrounding mountains. It is supposed to be on the site of the ancient Siozuros, vel Shehrazour. The city, unlike most Mahommedan towns, is unwalled; its houses are flat-roofed, low, and well secured against the cold and snows of this elevated region; but its streets, like all Oriental towns, are irregular, narrow, and dirty, though its climate is decidedly fine, and the inhabitants, who approach to the number of twenty-five thousand, are hardy, active, and robust. Their expressions of countenance are, however, harsh, and their complexions dark. The government of Soolimaniah is administered by a pasha, who is by birth a Koord, subject to neither Turk nor Persian. To please the Russians he hasoccasionally sent a present in cash to the Prince Royal of Persia, and FieldMarshal Paskewitch is desirous of taking him under his especial protection, that in case of need he may be induced to furnish cavalry to harass, by their sudden and repeated incursions, the inhabitants of those countries by which they are bounded. For such a duty they are eminently fitted."

The melancholy and oft-impressed truth is, from the foregoing extracts, plain, that the world at this moment contains the elements of discord, and the disposition to put these into motion to an extent alarming to the interests of civilization. May England be the conservator, appointed by Providence, to protect the human race in semibarbarous as well as among the more enlightened nations, to guarantee to mankind peace, by the maintenance of her own high and considerate bearing, by her lessons of wisdom, and by her example.

ART. II.

1.-California. By ALEXANDER FORBES, Esq. 8vo. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.

1839.

2.-Peru as it is. By ARCHIBALD SMITH, M.D. 2 Vols. London: Bentley. 1839.

SOME of the points brought out and the subjects handled in these two works have suggested the idea of throwing them together in the