The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-12 00:00:00

LIT BRATUBB.

The Englishwoman, iii Russia. By a Lady.
Murray._

The authoress of this work having resided in
Russia for ten years is evidently qualified to give
a description of the people. She remarks that the
generality of travellers take the steamer to St. Pe-
tersburg, and from thence proceed to Moscow, and
thou return home, having seen only the surface of
things and having seen, the writer asserts, all that
is civilised in the empire. ghe takes a most un-
favourable view of Russian progress and civilisa-
tion, though undoubtedly her statements are cor-
rect. The log-huts of the peasants, we are told,
are very little better than the wigwams of the Red
Indians. The inhabitants live much in the same
manner as they did centuries before the reign of
Peter the Great, and have not made " a single for-
ward step in the march of intellect." It would,
indeed, be wonderful if they did make progress
under such a despotism. While the authoress was
staying at Archangel a deaf and dumb gentleman
paid the town a visit ; he was furnished with letters
of introduction, and was well received by the
society of the place. He was able to read many
languages, and his agreeable manners and mis-
fortune made him a general favourite. Two
or three times the writer was struck with
an expression of intelligence in his face,
when a conversation was going on behind his
back. Some time after she heard the truth. He
was a government spy I A general officer visited
another province in which she was staying. His
rank gave him access to the best houses, and he
was sure to be met with at any grand entertain-
meitt. He also was a spy. This system of living
under a perpetual espionage, under which a casual
expression is often severely punished, gives a con-
straint and hypocrisy to their manners, besides
limiting the conversation of people of sense to scan-
dal of their neighbours and remarks on dress.
These, it appears, are tie favourite topics in high
life, for no one can tell what subject of more gene-
ral interest may not give offence. Some of their
regulations are most absurd, and load to serious
consequences. One is that if a man should see an-
other lying murdered on the ground, and should
give information to the authorities, he will be him-
self retained till some trace of the assassin is found.
Another still more ridiculous, is that everything
must be done by the agency of the police. If a
man falls through the ice he must be left in the
water till the police arrive, and the same in any
other accident. A servant one day hurls, him-
self ; one of his companions entered and saw
him struggling, but could not cut the cord.
He ran to fetch the authorities who, by
the time they arrived, found a corpse. The
police, however, do not bear a very good cha-
racter. Two anecdotes are related of murders
committed by them ; in one instance for the
sake of the victim's dress, and the other case, i
which was that of a poor servant girl sent on an
errand, for the sake of the silver rouble with which
she was entrusted. The poor serfs are cruelly ill-
used. Ladies of high rank and polished manners
think nothing of boxing their servants' ears for
a very trifling error. On one occasion the authoress
was going to accompany a Polish lady to the opera,
and while waiting for her in an adjoining room she
heard an altercation going on between mistress and
maid, which finished with a loud crash. Soon
the lady made her appearance with a smiling coun-
tenance, but it subsequently appeared that, having
scolded her maid and being rudely answered, she
had knocked her down with a chair with so much
violence that two of her front teeth were broken.
The indignation of the Russians was very great at
the conduct of the Western Powers ; the English
they regard with especial hatred. The authoress
found the manners of her most intimate friends
change perceptibly after the declaration of war.
The exaggeration and misrepresentations of the
Russian reports are almost incredible. The writer
was at St. Petersburg at the time, and read the
proclamation of the Emperor announcing the
astounding fact that the Allied Fleets, mounting
350 cannon, bad fired for twelve hours on the town,
killing only four men, and that the people were so
well behaved they did not let the tremendous can-
nonading interrupt their devotions. Added to
which they are told that the fleet was at too great
a distance to be within range of the battery guns ;
that the English ships retired with great damage,
though how this was, when the balls could not
reach them, he does not say.
Among the many volumes of Russian travels,
and works of description recently published, few
have equalled the present in the interest and
variety of the details, which, while rendering full
justice to the good qualities which develope them-
solves under such unfavourable auspices, affords a
full view of the blighting and degrading effent of
such a government. The writer's long intimacy
with Russians, and the opportunity she had, in a
ten years' sojourn in the country, to observe the
different grades of society and their customs and
progress, enable her to invest her work with' an air
of reality, and her most extraordinary anecdotes
with an appearance of truth. The thorough insight
which it gives-into Russian domestic life renders
it as valuable as a work of information, as the
amount and variety of anecdotes and incidents
makes it in a high degree interesting and enter-
taining.

Anti-slavery Recollections. By Sir George Stephen.
Hatchard.

These recollections are written in a series of
letters addressed to Mrs. Beecher Stowe, at her re-
quest. The author does not profess to offer a his-
tory of negro emancipation, but merely to afford a
brief account of the religious principle on which
the agitation was conducted, and the rapid success
of that agitation, with a few sketches of the prin-
cipal agents in the work. It has been the author's
object to avoid an offensive tone, and to render
justice to the memory of many distinguished abo-
litionists, and to some of the survivors whose feel-
ings had been hurt by the misappropriation of
anti-slavery credit. There are seventeen letters,
giving a concise account of the management of the
affairs, and the little volume is dedicated to Lord
Brougham.

Studies from Nature. By Dr. Hermann Massins.
Translated by C. Boiler. Chapman and Hall.

This pleasing and instructive volume will be
sure to chasm all lovers of Nature, although the
circle of its descriptions is restricted to Germany.
The forest trees of Northern Germany are fully
described in the first part. In the second the
characteristics of birds are delineated. The frog
and other creatures subsequently appear. The most
curious and interesting details are given of all their
peculiarities. The author is evidently an accom-
plished scholar as well as an experienced na-
turalist. There are numerous quotations from
the classic authors and authorities of various lan-
guages. The notes at the end of the volume are,
as the translator justly observes, not the least in-
teresting part of the book. " They are full of the
quaintest information—old customs, long-forgotten
rhymes, droll stories, classical allusions ; but all is
given so pleasantly that orudito learning seems
rather to be a mere wile and a pastime than asso-
ciated, as we are accustomed to fancy, with dry
stady and grave pedantic mien. Never did
schoolmau, never surely did German professor,
read to us texts from mouldy volumes and ancient
chronicles with so cheery a voice." The volume is
ornamented with woodcuts, and will form a most
elegant and attractive gift-book for the present
season.

Talpa ; or, The Chronicles of a Clay Farm. By

diancios Wren Hoskyns. Lovell Reeve.

This is a third and cheaper edition of this well-
known and successful little work, whose object is
best explained by its motto " Ridentem dicere
verism." Written in a lively and interesting man-
ner, it contains muchinformation on agricultural
points, such as the best methods of draining, fenc-
ing, the application of lime to the soil, (h. It is
dedicated to the readers and contributors of the
Gardener's Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette,
" in the lope and belief that agricultural thought
may be candid, and even speculative, yet hus-
bandry not the less practical." The different ex-
periments and improvements tried by the author
will prove both useful and interesting to those
similarly occupied.

FREEMASONS' GIRLS SCHOOL.--The quarterly meet-
ing of the governors of this school was held at the
school-house, Wandsworth-common, yesterday ; Mr.
Barnes in the chair. The minutes of the various sub-
committees having been submitted to the meeting and
received, a proposition was brought forward for putting
the school under the supervision of the Government in-
spectors ; but the motion was rejected, upon the ground
that the Freemasons bad always, and ought always to
keep their charities distinct from all extraneous inter-
ference. Eight vacancies will occur in the school in
April, to fill which there are eight candidates ; but it is
to be feared that one cannot be admitted on account of
her health. The court stands adjourned until the 15th
March, to consider certain alterations in the bye-laws.
The Government notification that the Russian ports
in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff are intended to be
blockaded on the Ist of February next has a singular ap-
pearance, after the announcement made in the House of
Lords on the 22d December that the strictest orders for
a blockade had been sent out two months previously, and
that no doubt was entertained of its having been effi-
ciently carried out. Notwithstanding all the variable
statements hitherto made, some reliance is entertained
that this new order is really to be enforced ; and the
, markets for Russian produce yesterday were rather
1 firmer, although they are still affected by the possi-
I bility of peace.
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