The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-19 00:00:00

STATE OF ST. PETERSBURG.

A letter appears in the Elberfeld Gazette, from
Dortmund, dated June 13. The writer says :
" The foreman of a large engine manufactory, who
has lately returned from St. Petersburg, has given
me the following statement :—Everything looks now
very gloomy indeed in St. Petersburg, in doors and
out of doors. The city, once so beautiful and full of
life, is no longer to be recognised. The palaces are
converted into barracks, bridges are broken down,
the streets covered with tents, for more than 40,000
Bashkeers are said to have come from the govern-
ments of Orenburg and Perm, from their steppes
and nomad encampments, and to have entered St.
Petersburg for the protection of the city, where they
make a hideous impression. Whether their numbers
are really so great as assigned I cannot take upon
myself to affirm ; but they might, if every man
of them has been brought, for the Bashkeers, in
1853, were set down in the census as 29,000 fami-
lies. They have still the Tartar weapons of bow
and arrows, of lance and billhook, and will there-
fore make capital food for powder. They steal
more dexterously than the crows, and they possess
all the other Tartar virtues, theoretica'ly and prac-
tically. But the proud and magnificent guard has
gone away, partly to Poland, partly to Finland,
and thus, in the total absence of moving life and
daily intercourse, the city looks desolate. On the
broad and glorious Neva stream, which once during
the clear summer nights afforded one of the most
enchanting sights, which bore on its dark waters
thousands of ships and boats, a solitary barge filled
with bricks is now towed along, or a steamer runs
down laden with soldiers for Croustadt. As the city
is in a state of war, no person is allowed to show him-
self in the streets after nine at night—a hard
blow now for these poor northerners, who have
for more than half the year been forced to keep
their stove-warmed rooms. The higher classes of
society are said to be quite out of tune, for to be
always obliged to be making voluntary and in-
voluntary sacrifices without receiving anything iu
return is not exactly very edifying. Besides,
there seems no end to the whole business, and not
a soul will give a rag on tick to another any longer.
The common people, however, are fanaticised.
"Our dear papa Czar knows best," is a proverb,
and grim rage do they feel against the foreigners,
whom they insult in the open street, and whom
the police are constantly obliged to warn
not to go beyond the gates of the city, where
they could no longer be protected. For the
rest, the foreigners have been obliged to sign a
printed form, by which they were compelled
to engage that they would submit in every-
thing to the laws of the land, and suffer them-
selves to be tried and judged by them in case of
their transgressing them. Trade is stagnant, all
manufactures are at a stand still, for amongst
other causes there are no coals. What stock there
was of them has been reserved by the authorities
for the whole use of the steamers, though their
price has gone up immensely. For this reason
most of the foreign inspectors and workmen, &c.,
are leaving the country. The crowds are so great,
wanting to take places in the coach running daily
to Memel, that if a person does not book his
place six weeks before hand, he stands a poor chance
of getting away. Strangers who have money in the
bank find great difficulty in getting it, for the
bank pays oat to no person whatever per day

more than 50 silver roubles. In this way rt poor
Frenchman, who wanted to draw out tlic
earned savings of many years, nainely, 1,500 sil-
ver roubles, was obliged to run backwards anal
forwards for more than a month, having to wait
every morning in the crowd till he could get served
before ho could get back his own again, though he
lost thereby the place he had booked and paid for
at the , coach office weeks before. These things
are all sad enough, and may perhaps incline 00
Czar to a truce and then to peace, but they milst
be taken advantage of, so that he may be kept
within due bounds for the future."