ftsmtmiamm t " / o .\ JOSEPH MCDONOUGH^ RARE BOOKS AlBAMY-N.Y. r" GIFT OF }ME B. ILA\NID)FIELP c%.. X,N 'CS ■c % I ' a^\kki.^S It) 2 AN ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE; EMBRACING ITS GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES, POLITICAL DIVISIONS, PRINCIPAL CITIES ANO TOWNS, POPULATION, CLASSES, GOVERNMENT, RESOURCES, COMMERCE, ANTIQUITIES, RELIGION, PROGRESS IN EDUCATION, LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, HISTORIC SUMMARY, ETC., FROM THE LATEST AND THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES. By ROBERT SEARS. EMBELLISHED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. AND NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY ROBEET SEARS, 181 WILLIAM STREET. 1855. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year ISS-l, Br ROBERT SEARS, ill the Clerk's Oftice of the District Court of the United States, for iLe District of New .Ier. Pop. 1B50. The liALTic Provinces :— Finland 144 000 1,539.000 St Petersburg 18,600 991,000 Esthonia 7,2:W 317,000 I ivoiiia 17,340 830,000 Corn-land 10,000 564,000 POLITICAL DIVISIONS. AsEA IN Sq. Ma. Fop. I81/O Total 197,170 4,241,000 Gbkat Russia : — Archangel 350,000 2.59,000 Vologda 150,000 839,000 Olonetz 67,000 268,000 N.,v).om> sq. miles) and pO|iul:itioii (1,116,000) of the new government of S>aAUi, formed of jiortionj ol'them, by imiierial ukase of December la, 1S60. THE BALTIC PROVINCES — FINLAND. 43 THE BALTIC PROVINCES. Finland, called by tlie inhabitants Snomeiv-maa, or Land of Marshes, lies between the sixtieth and seventieth degrees of north latitude, and the twcnty-fil'st and thirty-second degrees of east longitude, forming the ex- treme northwestern portion of the Russian empire, including the province of Viborg and the western portion of Russian Lapland, which are politi- c:dly connected with it. It has on tlic north the Norwegian province of Finmark ; on the east, the governments of Archangel and Olonetz ; on the .south, the lake Ladoga, the government of St. Petersburg, and the gulf of Finland ; and on the west, Sweden and the gulf of Bothnia. Its length from north to south is seven hundred and thirty miles ; its average breadth is about one himdred and eighty-five miles ; and its area one hundred and fort3'-four thousand square miles. Its greater portion is a table-land, reach- ing generally from four to six hundred feet above the level of the sea, and interspersed with hills of no great elevation. In the north, however, are the Mauselka mountains, with an average height supposed to be between three and four thousand feet. The coasts, particularly in the soutli, are surrounded by a vast number of rocky islands, separated from the mainland and from each other by intri- cate and narrow channels, rendering the shores of Finland easy of defence in case of hostile attack by sea. But the chief natural feature of the coun- try is its myriads of lakes, which occupy a large proportion of its surface ; and some of which, as the Enare, Saima, Pa'iyane, and others, are of con- siderable size. The greater number of these are in the south and east ; they have frequent communications with each other, and generally abound with islands, the natural strength of whose situation has been taken advan- tage of "to cover them with batteries, some of them impregnable save to want or famine. There are no rivers of any importance. The climate is rigorous ; even in the south the winter lasts seven months of the year, and the summer season, which commences in June, terminates in August. Dense fogs are very frequent ; heavy rains take place in au- tumn, and in May and June the thaws nearly put a stop to all travelling. In the north the sun is absent during December and January ; but during the short summer, while that luminary is almost perpetually above the hori- zon, the heat is often very great, and near Uleaborg the grain is sowed and reaped within six weeks ! The principal geological formations are granite, which very easily disin- tegrates, hard limestone, and slate. The soil for the most part is stony and poor ; but how barren soever, Finland is more productive than the opposite part of the Scandinavian peninsula ; and when it belonged to the Swedish crown, it furnished a good deal more grain than was necessary for its own consumption, and was termed the granary of Sweden. Barley and rye are the kinds of grain chiefly cultivated, and the rye of Yasa is 44 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. celebrated for its excellence : wheat and oats are but little grown. The peasants are obliged, from the humidity of the atmosphere, to dry all the grain in ovens, after which it will keep for fifteen or eighteen years. Pulse, hops, hemp, flax, and a little tobacco, are raised ; and potatoes were intro- duced about the year 1762, but they have not yet been brought into gen- eral use. Only a small proportion of the surface is under culture. The land requires a large quantity of manure, and that in common use is wood- ashes, procured by setting fire to the forests and underwood, after which operation heavy crops are sometimes obtained. The natural poverty of the soil is such that, excepting in the southern province of Tavastehus, wliere it is deprived of a continual supply of artificial stimulus, the crops rapidly fall ofi", and the cleared land is soon abandoned for another portion of soil, the wood on which is purposely destroyed. This plan of manuring the land, though well enough adapted to bring the fens covered with brush- wood under cultivation, is highly injurious to the forests, and consequently to one of the chief sources of national wealth. The forests are very exten- sive, and reach as far north as latitude sixty-nine degrees. They consist principally of pine and fir ; but they contain also beech, elm, poplar, oak, ash, birch, &c. Timber, deals, potash, pitch, tar, and rosin, are among the most impor- tant products of Finland. Cherries and apples ripen at Yasa, and a spe- cies of crab-apple groAvs wild in the west ; but other fruits, except a few kinds of berries, are rare. Next to agriculture, cattle-breeding and fishing are the chief occupations of the people. Pasturage is scarce and indiffer- ent, and forage rare ; but cattle, goats, and hogs, which are fed upon leaves, strtiw, o), the former capital of Finland, lies on the river Aurajoki, between the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. The streets of the town strike a stranger at first as enormously wide, though they by no means exceed the usual dimensions of Russian towns ; but the low style of building, almost universal in this town, and the number of sites at present unoccupied by houses, joined to the solitary appearance of its almost de- serted thoroughfares, give an air of desolation to the whole place. The glory of Abo has indeed departed. It had once a flourishing port, and a well-attended university : its trade is now inconsiderable, and its university is removed to Helsingfors, the Russian capital of Finland. A destructive fire, the ravages of which are even now not fully repaired, came to give the final blow to the already sinking fortunes of Abo. This fearful conflagration, which took place in the year 1827, consumed nearly the whole city, including the university and its valuable library, and other public buildings. The fire raged for two whole days, and was not extin- guished until seven hundred and eighty-six houses, out of eleven hundred, were a mass of blackened ruins. When the town was rebuilt, the public edifices, as well as the houses, were placed at a considerable distance from each other, and the town now covers much more ground than formerly, though its inhabitants do not exceed twelve thousand, which, from being spread over so large a surface, do not give one the idea of amounting even to that number. Abo is the most ancient city in Finland ; its history being coexistent with the reign of Eric the Saint, that is, from 1150 to 1160, the period at which Christianity was first introduced into this wild and cold region. The castle is as ancient as the town, and arrested more than once the on- ward march of the Russian armies. It was in the dungeons of this build- THE BALTIC PROVINCES FINLAND. 49 iug that Eric XIV. was imprisoned previous to his death, which took place some time afterward at Orebyhus. The castle is now used as a prison, and is garrisoned by half a battalion of infantry. The cathedral of Abo is also highly interesting — not, however, on account of its external appearance, which is coarse and heavy, but for the architectural structure of its inte- rior, which is of three epochs ; but this cathedral is more particularly wor- thy of interest from its having been the cradle of Christianity in Finland : here the first episcopal chair was instituted, and for centuries the first families were buried. The vaults of the chapels are filled with their re- mains, and some of their monuments are not unworthy of mention. On one of them is an epitaph to Caroline Morsson, a girl taken from the ranks of the people by Eric XIV., and who, after having worn the Swedish diadem, returned to Finland and died in obscurity, while her royal husband, as has been before stated, ended his days in a prison. In the same chapel, and at the end of it, are two statues in white marble, the size of life, kneeling on a sarcophagus, supported by columns of black marble : these are the wealthy and powerful Clas Tott, grandson of Eric XIV., and his wife. In another chapel is the monument of Stalhandsk, one of the generals and heroes of the Thirty Years' War. The fire of 1827 completely gutted this church, and not only were the altar and organ destroyed, but even the bells were melted by the devouring element. Subscriptions have restored the cathedral ; and a patriotic Finn, a baker by trade, who had amassed about fifteen thousand dollars in his business, and was without a near rela- tive, left that sum to purchase an organ at his death. Effect was given to his wishes, and an organ of five thousand pipes, the largest in northern Russia, now raises its decorated and painted head nearly to the roof of the building. Gustavus Adolphus founded an academy here in 1630, which Christina his daughter subsequently elevated into a university. Abo, like Amiens, Ryswick, and Cintra, is distinguished by a treaty, being the spot on which the relations between Russia and Sweden were settled by a peace during the last century. Here, too, Alexander and Bernadotte concluded in 1818 that treaty which arrayed Sweden against France, and placed the Swedish monarch, a Frenchman, in the anomalous position of fighting against his own countrymen. The town of Helsingfors is, historically speaking, comparatively of mod- ern creation, having been founded by King Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth century : its name came from a colony of the province of Helsing-land, in Sweden, which had been established in the neighborhood for several cen- turies. In 1639, however, the town changed its site, and the inhabitants moved their wooden houses nearer the seashore ; and on the spot where Helsingfors now stands — war, plague, famine, and fire, ravaged it, each in its turn, and the end of a century found it with a population of only five thousand souls. At the present time it numbers sixteen thousand, exclu- sive of the garrison. 4 OO ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OP RUSSIA. The Russians have greatly augmented and improved Holsingfors since it came into their possession, more particularly since the year 1819, when it became the capital of Finland ; the removal to it of the university of Abo, and the senate, after the conflagration of that town in 1827, also materially increased its importance. The streets are long, broad, and laid out at right angles, as in most Russian towns. The houses are large and regular, and a handsome granite quay extends along the water in front of the town. Among the fine buildings worthy of mention is the senate-house. The <:hambers in which the various branches of the assembly meet, for the ordi- nary purposes of business, are simple, and furnished in good taste. The large hall, intended for the meeting of the senate on great occasions, con- tains a splendid throne for the emperor, who once presided in person ; it is hung with portraits of former (Swedish) governors of Finland. Tlie i-emains of the library, sa\-ed from the fire of Abo, is at present preserved in this building. It consists of about eighty thousand volumes, chiefly edi- tions of the classics taken from the monasteries, during the " seven years' war." An extensive collection of sag-as, or traditionary records, and other documents, relating to the history of Finland, unfortunately fell a ])rey to the flames. Another handsome building is the university, which has twenty-four fac- ulties and twenty-two professors, and where may be seen the act which incorporated that of Abo, with the signature of the illustrious Oxenstiern, the Swedish prime minister under Queen Cliristina. The latter is one of tlie oldest institutions of learning in Russia, having been founded by Gustavus Adolphus, as an academy, in 1630, and subsequently raised to a university by Christina, as before stated. Printing was not introduced into Finland till 1(341, eleven years after the academy was founded, when Wald,a Swe- dish printer, established himself at Abo. The approach to Helsingfors by water is exceedingly striking : the har- bor is very extensive, and well protected by the works and fortress of Sweaborg, capable of containing twelve thousand men ; these are built on seven islands, and from the extent of the fortifications, and the strength of their position, it has been termed by the Russians the Gibraltar of the north. The original fortress was built by Count Ehrenswerd, field-marshal of Swe- den, and completed in 1758. After the conquest of Viborg and Ingerma- nia by Peter the Great, it was the last stronghold of the Swedes. In March, 1808, it was besieged by the Russians ; and, two months after. Admiral Cronstadt, who defended the place with fifteen hundred men and two frig- ates, capitulated to a force scarcely sufficient to man the walls ! There are several agreeable walks in the neighborhood of Helsingfors ; among them may be cited that to the forests of Stands vik, the solitary I'oast near Mailand, and the verdant gardens of Traeskenda. The town is much resorted to in summer by visiters from St. Petersburg, Revel, c > > ta > o a t-H Sz! Q w w td o a H O o <1 w CD J lui J jji^Kini3i;:i';'i]'Eiv!;i.!';!i' :ii:!;!inMiii:i;^:-i!>i i!i-'i:i THE BALTIC PROVINCES — ESTHONIA. 63 lar. There are several Lutheran, a Roman catholic, and some Greek churches, all stone edifices ; and various charitable and educational estab- lishments, the latter including a gymnasium, episcopal seminary, and a school (pension') for nobles. The castle, a modern edifice, is appropriated to the provincial authorities : the municipal officers, who are elected hy the city, reside in the town-hall. The admiralty is the principal remaining public building. The suburbs, consisting mostly of wooden houses, cover a large extent of ground along the shore. Revel is much resorted to as a watering-place, and has some good warm baths, a theatre, several clubs or casinos, and three or four public libraries, one of which, the property of the city, is said by Possart to contain ten thousand volumes. This town is one of the stations for the Russian fleet, and has a harbor defended by several batteries. This port, which was materially improved in 1820, is deeper than that of Kronstadt, though more difficult of en- trance. The roadstead, formed by some islands, is well sheltered. The long duration of the frost is the principal drawback on Revel as a naval station, though that is a disadvantage which it shares in common with the other Russian ports in the Baltic. Though not connected with the interior by any navigable river. Revel has a considerable trade. Its principal exports are grain, spirits, hemp, flax, timber, and other Baltic produce ; the imports consist of colonial produce, herrings from Holland and Norway, salt, cheese, wine, tobacco, fruits, dye-stufis, cotton yarn, stuffs, and other manufactured goods, &c. A. portion of the customs' revenue is enjoyed by the town. Revel was founded by the Danes in 1218, and afterward sold by them to the knights of the Teutonic order. In 1561, it came into the possession of the Swedes ; l)ut, as before remarked, in treating of the province, it was taken from them by the Russians in 1710. Like ancient Thebes, Revel is entered by seven gates ; they are all pic- turesque erections, decorated with various historical mementos, the arms of the Danish domination, the simple cross of the order on the municipal shield of the city. The Schmieedetforte is celebrated for a daring act of magisterial justice, which took place in 1535. At all times a petty ani- mosity had existed between the rich burghers and the lawless nobility of the province, who troubled the commerce of the city, and lauglied at the laws of the former; and, on one occasion, the ati'ocious murder of one of his own peasants in the streets of Revel, by Baron Uxkiill, of Reisenberg, so exasperated the magistrates, that they menaced the murderer with the utmost severity of tlie laAv if ever he came within their jurisdiction. Nev- ertheless, and despising their threat, the baron, attended l3y a slender reti- nue, entered the city in mere bravado ; when the magistrates, true to tlieir word, seized him, and after due trial he was condemned and executed in full view of his friends, without the walls, beneath the Schmiedepforte. Long and sanguinary were the disputes which followed this act ; and, as some pacification to UxkiiU's memory, the burghers walled up the gate- 64 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OP RUSSIA. way, which was not reopened till the beginning of the present century. In the summer there is an annual fair, called the Jahrmarkt, which is held beneath the old elm-trees before the cliurch of St. Nicholas — a most interesting scene to the stranger — and forms the morning lounge of the inhaljitants during that season of the year. In the evening, Catherinthal is the favorite promenade. This is an imperial lustschloss, or palace, at a little distance from the town, surrounded with fine trees and well-kept grounds, or what is here termed " ein superber park,^' which during six weeks of the summer months is thronged with fashionable groups, who eat ices, drink chocolate, talk scandal, and make love, as people do elsewhere. This residence, which is literally a bower of verdure redeemed from a waste of sand, is the pleasant legacy of Peter the Great to the city of Revel, Being a frequent visiter to Revel, it was here that he first erected a modest little house beneath the rocks of the Laaksberg-, from the win- dows of which he could overlook his infant fleet riding at anchor in the bay, and which still exists. But a few years previous to his death, the present palace, within a stone's throw of his Dutch house — for all Peter the Great's own private domicils testify whence he drew his first ideas of comfort — was constructed, which he surrounded with pleasure-grounds, and presented to his consort, by the name of Catherinthal. This gift he increased by the purchase of surrounding estates to the amount of several millions of dollars — sufficient to have assured to the empress, in case of need, a fitting retreat from the frowns of Russian fortune. Tliese estates have been gradually alienated and bestowed on private individuals, and Catherinthal is reduced to little more than its gardens. It has been the temporary sojourn of all the crowned heads of Russia in succession ; and the treaty of peace concerning Silesia (wrested from Austria by Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War), between the two most powerful wo- men of coeval times whom the world has ever known — Maria Theresa of Austria, and Catherine II. of Russia — was here ratified in 1746. Livonia (called by the Russians Lifliandua, and by the Germans Liv- land, or Liefland') is situated on the Baltic, having on the north the gov- ernment of Esthonia ; on the east the lake. Peipus, separating it from the government of St. Petersburg, and the governments of Pskov and Vitepsk ; on the south the latter and Courland ; and on the west the gulf of Livonia. Its length from north to south is about one hundred and sixty miles, and its average breadth one hundred and seventeen miles. Including the island of (Esel, in the Baltic, it has an area of about seventeen thousand three hundred square miles. The coast and the greater part of the surface of this province are flat and marshy ; but in the districts of Venden and Dorpat are some hills of con- siderable elevation ; Eierberg, one of these, being nearly eleven hundred feet in height. There are several extensive lakes : the principal, Virtserf, which is twenty-four miles in length, by from two to six in breadth, com- THE BALTIC PROVINCES — LIVONIA. 65 municates with the kike Peipus l)y the Embach. Besides the last named, the chief rivers are the Duna, which forms the southern boundary, the Evst, and the Bolder-Aa. The soil of Livonia, though in some parts loamy, is in general sandy ; but, being abundantly watered, it is, by proper manuring, rendered very productive. Rye and barley are the principal crops, and more of both is grown than is required for home consumption. Wheat and oats are less cultivated ; buckwheat is raised on sandy soils ; flax, hops, and pulse, arc also produced, and the potato culture is on the increase : fruits are of very indiflerent quality. In some districts, agriculture is tolerably well con- ducted. The forests are an important source of wealth, and supply excel- lent timber. They abound also with game, of which every landowner is the sole proprietor of all on his domain. In this manner, many noblemen, in addition to the bears and wolves, the latter of which are sometimes very destructive to the cattle, may count whole herds of deer, elks, foxes, and lynxes, among their live stock. But as in any of the German provinces it is never customary for one noble to exclude another from his hunting- grounds, each landholder is privileged to sport over the whole country. The rich landowners sometimes invite all their neighbors for twenty miles round to a greart hunt (the preparation for which is seen in the engraving on the following page). The field is then taken for eight successive days against the shy inhabitants of the forest, in sledges, droskies, and coaches, or on horseback, accompanied by multitudes of peasants and dogs. The meals are taken under the sliade of a lofty fir-tree, from which a lynx has just been expelled, or in the den of a bear which has just been overcome, or in the lair of a newly-shot elk. Sometimes a corps of musicians accom- panies the party, and cards and dice are seldom wanting. It might be imagined that Tacitus had made his remarks on the ancient tribes of Germany, in these haunts of their unsophisticated descendants ; except that, instead of savages clothed in bearskins, these hunters are always well dressed, sometimes young and handsome, and generally well educated and intelligent. The assuming of the to^a virilis was the great era in the life of a Roman youth. The fowling-piece is here an em1)lem of the same sig- nificance. Even little boys, as soon as they can stand alone, are initiated into the merry life of the hunter, and father, son, and grandson, often hunt together. The first elk shot by a nobleman's son is talked of l>alf his life ; and the last bear conquered by an old man, before his death, is long thought of with mournful pride by his friends. In some noble families the passion for hunting has taken such deep root, that every member of it is a modern Nimrod ; while in others, few in numbers, a dislike to sporting is an heredi- tary characteristic. There are many noblemen to be found who were never out of their forests and wildernesses, wlio in the seventy years of their existence have used up more than a hundred calfskins for hunting-boots, and who have expended more saltpetre on game than their forefathers required to conquer the country ! 5 66 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. FnEFARING FOR THE ChASK. The rearing of live stock, though not altogether neglected, does not re- ceive adequate attention ; the breed of black cattle is, however, in the course of being improved. Horses and sheep are very inferior. The fish- eries, both on the coast and in the fresh waters, are important. Chalk, alabaster, and other calcareous materials, are abundant. Rural industry and the distillation of spirits are by far the most impor- tant occupations. The manufactures of this government are, however, more extensive than those in its vicinity. The peasantry spin linen yarn, and weave their own cloths ; and in the towns, especially Riga, there are sugar-refineries, and tobacco, woollen-cloth, cotton, linen, glass, and other factories, which employ about four thousand hands, and produce goods to the amount of eleven or twelve millions of roubles* a year. * The etymology of the word " rouble" is from the Russian word ruhit, to cut, or hew off; as in former times silver was current only in bars, from which it was customary for a debtor to strike off with a hammer and chisel the amount which he had to pay. The rouble is of two kinds, very different in value: the silver rouble (which is the basis of all financial transactions), worth about seventy-five cents, and which is divided into one hundred silver " cnpeks ;" and the paper rouble, about equal to a franc, or nineteen cents, and which is divided into one hundred copper copekg. The paper rouble was originally of the same value as the silver rouble, but it became very much depreciated in consequence of the vast quantities issued to meet the wonts of the government. A ukase of July 33, 1843, created a new paper money (billets de credit), of the nominal value of the silver rouble, and intended to supersede the old paper rouble. Although guarantied by a fund THE BALTIC PROVINCES — LIVONIA. 67 Tlie northern part of Livonia formerly constituted a portion of Esthonia, and the southern a part of Lithuania. The population consists of Estho- nians, Lithuanians, Russians, Germans, and (along a portion of the coast) Lives, the most ancient inhabitants of the country, and from whom it has derived its name. About eighty-five thousand of the inhabitants reside in the towns, and these, as well as the nobles, clergy, &g., are chiefly of Ger- man descent. Until 1824, the Esthonians and Lithuanians were in a state of predial slavery ; now, however, they are free, but without the right to hold real property. The prevailing religion is the Lutheran ; there are only about twelve thousand individuals of the Greek church, and other professions of faith. Education is tolerably advanced in the towns, and the university of Dorpat, in this government, is the first in the empire. But, after all, few of the inhabitants are said to be receiving public in- struction. Livonia has a governor-general, whose authority extends over other Baltic provinces ; but it has its own provincial assembly, magistracy, &c., and has preserved many peculiar privileges, among which is that of exemp- tion from the state monopoly of ardent spirits. It was divided into nine districts by Catherine II. Riga, the capital, is the centre of its commerce. The other chief towns are Dorpat, Pernau, Fellin, and Arensburg in the island of (Esel. Riga, the capital of Livonia, is situated on the Duna, about nine miles from its embouchure in the gulf of Riga. Its population, including the garrison of ten thousand men, is about seventy thousand. About two thirds of the resident population are Lutherans, the rest consisting of members of the Russo-Greek church, Roman catholics &c. Riga is strongly fortified. It consists of the town, properly so called, and the suburbs ; the former being entirely enclosed by the fortifications. The streets in the town are narrow and crooked, and the houses generally of brick. In the suburbs, which are much more extensive, the streets are broad and regular, and the houses mostly of wood. One of the suburbs lies on the left bank of the river, the communication with it being main- tained by a bridge about twenty-four hundred feet in length. Among the public buildings are the cathedral, consecrated in 1211, and rebuilt in 1547 ; the church of St. Peter, built in 1406, with a tower four hundred and forty feet in height, being the most elevated in the empire, and commanding a fine view of the city and adjacent country ; the castle, the seat of the chancellery, and of the general and civil governors ; hall of the provincial states, town-house, exchange, arsenal, l3 a year. The forests, which are very extensive, cover above a third i;art of the surface : those belonging to the crown comprise about four hun- dred and twenty-eight thousand deciatines, or twelve hundred and eighty- r)ar thousand acres. Hops, tobacco, and garden- vegetables are, in some liistricts, raised in large quantities. The proprietors of the pasture-lands !.)t them to graziers belonging to the Ukraine, who bring thither large herds. The breed of horses is good : the imperial government has a depot iPetalons at Skopin. Bees are supposed to produce about two hundred and fifty thousand roubles a year. There are a few iron-mines and stone- i|uarries. The manufactures of this government have made some progress. Those of glass and hardware occupy the first rank ; and there are others of wool- len, cotton, and linen fabrics, cordage, potash, soap, &c., with dyeing- establishments, tanneries, and distilleries. A portion of the manufactured .!j;oods is sent to Moscow, and, by way of the Oka, down the Volga ; but l!ie principal exports are the raw products of the government, consisting of grain, cattle, honey, lard, iron, timber, and wooden articles. The population of Riazan is principally Russian, but partly of the Tartar stock. The government is subdivided into twelve districts. The chief towns are Riazan, the capital, Zaraisk, and Kasimov. Education is very backward, the pupils at schools and other seminaries amounting to only ; I bout one in a thousand of the population. The city of Riazan, the capital of the above government, is situated on the Troubege, a tributary of the Oka, one hundred and ten miles south- cast of Moscow. Its population is about ten thousand. It consists of two distinct portions: an irregular fortress, with an earthern rampart, enclo- sing numerous churches, the episcopal palace, formerly the residence of the princes of Riazan, the consistory, &c. ; and the town proper, in which are also numerous churches, with a fine edifice for the government-offices, several convents, a seminary and public library, hospital, &c. The town has greatly increased in size and importance within the last fifty years ; !)ut most of the houses are still of wood, and planks occupy the place of pavements in the streets. Riazan is the seat of a military governor, with authority over the gov-