The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

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1855.

(Prom Correspondent of the Morning Post.)
ST. PETERSBURG, AUGUST 6.
Lord Palmerston will be surprised to learn that
the isvostchiks (the droshky-drivdrs, Correspond-
ing to our " cabbies") chide their horses by shout-
- ing his name ; and, when the animals are very re-
fractory, subdue them by threatening that the
879 noble lord is coming immediately. On relating
2,841 this curious fact, I was told by persons fresh from
7,221 the interior that the same is now the case all over
12,811 Russia, from St. Petersburg to the Don Cossacks,
6,624
and from Lake Ladoga to the Caspian Sea.
206
1,1
13 I think I mentioned yesterday that M. de Morny
07
1,585 had arrived too late to see the remarkable naval dis-
c ,
637309
play which a fe whours before bad covered the whole
956 space of the waters through which he steamed from
308
921 the shore of Finland to the groves of Peterhoff and
6,061
the golden spires of the Sergian Monastery. He will
24,129
5,844 have noticed—or rather those who accompany him
7,144 and remember the past will have noticed—the
822 immense changes about Cronstadt—the alteration
22,813
,124 or interchange of some of the points relied
on
7,255 for defence, and the multiplication of battery
30,427 -
piled.
upon battery. These are Todtleben's mo-
-6 784 difications and additions. Cronstadt always had
22,530
the name of being a very strong place ; and
87,188 when Sebastopol was being finished in 1852
22,004
,688 (as much fini shed, that is, as the allies found it
18,0•0 at the time of their descent, and•before they finished
615 it in another sense), it was universally agreed that
8-503 it could never, at most, be made more than the
837
Liu second sea-coast fortress of the empire. Well,
2121'911 Cronstadt, strong formerly, has, like Sweaborg,
been strengthened since ; and yet it is astonishing
how much less those think of -it who know it best,
5 300 -who reside in Russia, who resided here during the
7,585
1,081 war, than do people at a distance. lam assured
that when Sir Charles Napier came out to the
Baltic in 1854 St. Petersburg proceeded at once to
pack up its things.
661 Many and many an incident has been told me
24,160 which graphically illustrates what were the real cir-
-5,914 cumstances behind the threshold, while Russia,
:2.11g24 with a:very grand air, no doubt, still stood erect
1,365 and unflinching before the porch, "and on j her
1,019 brow sat horror plumed." The greater her merit
341
for the brave appearance so sternly maintained as
long as it was possible to maintain it. I I
could detail some of the little facts which have
been thus already recounted to me ; but this might
produce disagreeable consequences to individuals.
General Wilson, the Scotch engineer, who has
41,845
been long so much respected in the'Russian army,
completed, on the Ist of August, his half-century
of military service under the double-headed eagle.
Like several other members of the service who .are
of British extraction, he obtained leave, or, rather,
stipulated that he should never fight against
the land to which his forefathers belonged.
When the fifty years of his life iu the
ranks had been fulfilled last Friday, he had
his jubilee ; and Alexandroffsky, a 'village about
ten or twelve miles from St. Petersburg, was a scene
of boisterous merry-making. The place ran with
"vodka" and other intoxicating drinks. There was
a general festival, which ended with fireworks,
music, and a village dance somewhat like a French
ducasse.- The next day the Emperor sent the old
soldier a splendid cross in diamonds, with the high-
est order to which he was eligible.
As the time. draws on excitement visibly in-
creases ; and, every train for Moscow carries im-
mense consignments of carriages, furniture, hordes,
and valuables. Yesterday evening some of the im-
perial carriages, which had not yet been sent 011,
were displayed in the Zachery Oulitsa. It is impos-
sible to imagine anything much more gorgeoes ; '
and yet these are not the finest. Mere clumsy cost-
liness is easily attained where enough
_money is
spent. But to make the cost transfigure itself into
artistic beauty, to make every so-called ornament
ornamental, to secure grace and majesty in the
general effect—this requires more than money. It
is more than that well-known species of glare which
—in a lower sphere and on a similar scale—tha
vulgar, ignorant, purse-proud upstart can produce
in his equipages. But, on the present occasion,
while the best mechanical talent has been employed
in the construction of the various articles needed
for the monster and unheard-of display to come off
at Moscow from the 23d of this mouth to the 7th
of next September, an analogous quality of high
artistic ability has been put in requisition for the
decoration of these accessories. For example, the
carriages of the Czar and his Court will form but
one minute ingredient in'the pageant—a single fea-
ture hardly to be mentioned separately, unless, as
I now mention them, to convey by illustration to
those who will not witness them some idea of the
actual spectacle.
The carriages for the Czar, the Czarina, and their
immediate personal Court alone were to have been
32 in number, although it is now said that five of
them will be finished too late for the appointed time.
They had not all to be built. About two-thirds of
them are new ; the rest had only to be repaired,
rogilt, and new fashioned ; yet the expense of the
double order amounted to 275,000 silver roubles,
or about 47,0001. sterling—say 1,5001. a-piece.
Even that large sum would have been quite inade-
quate to produce the marvellous splendour and
beauty which have been attained, only that but
little in proportion was required be done to some
20 of these State coaches. Together, they will ex-
hibit a marked general harmony of style, with great,
freedom of pattern and variety of detail. Our
tasteless Lord Mayor's coach and Sheriffs' carriages
say little for the gracefulness of fancy or airiness
of conception which preside over the most national
and ancient kind of solemn public pageant among
us. They are contrivances to prove what an amount
Of ugliness can be produced by means of wealth,
injudiciously lavished for that purpose. These
Russian Court equipages for the coronation of
Alexander the Second are designed on a different
principle, and finished in a different method. The
unsparing cost is really the leastpart of them, in the
vulgar and ordinary sense, although it may be con-
sidered as not only having procured the matter,
but the manner—not only the brute materials and
their construction, but the style of that construc-
tion. This, however, is rather a direction of the
expenditure than an increase of expense. It is but
giving to art the same wages which might other-
wise have been given to a most uncouth and un-
learned sort of skill. As works of art those car-
riages really are precious as are the materials
which abound in their decoration ; each of the 'ex-
quisite little palaces on wheels, as it now stands,
ono complete work, is worth fifty times the value
of those very materials themselves materium
superavit opus, An equally beautiful effect could,
doubtless, have been attained in many distinct
national styles of carriage-building, or rather—for
the word is forced upon me by the astonishing
success of the result—of carriage architecture. But
the peculiarity of the effect would not have been
secured without the strict adherence oLserved to
the Russian style—refined, indeed, into charming
proportions, which must be seen to be felt, yet
perfectly genuine and national Asiatic in the
collective character, European in the finish. It
is as if Xerxes or Darius bad employed the
artists of ancient Greece to execute for him,
not in the character of their own country, but
of his, yet not in the style or ability of his
country, but of theirs—and with full play for in-
dividual genius in the details—some of his chief ap-
pliances of pomp, and show, and majesty. Nor is
it, in fact, under Russian auspices, although it is
in the Russian pattern, that these and other pre-
parations have been made for what is intended to
be rendered the grandest public solemnity that
ever took place in this gorgeous and display-
loving empire. Frobelius, a German, received the
order, and an Englishman, Mr: Bannister, is the
maker of the carriages. For all their Oriental em-
bellishments a multitude of artists have been ern-
ployed. The very wheels are a curiosity of work-
manship. They are inlaid and enauielled ; and the
spokes do not radiate straight from the centre, but,
regular in a kind of fantastic irregularity, answer
their own caprices in opposing curves, which com-
pose a strange fantastic tracery, and produce the
effect of a flamboyant window, all alive with lines,
characters, and colours, which, as they flash over
the ground, are shot into each other, and form a
rich woof of ever-fleeting and ever-returning tints
and gleams. The panels are not painted, but they
aro.paintings, rather. Paintings of high excellence
and value are let into the golden and jewelled
walls, as it were; of a miniature boudoir—paintings
inside, and paintings outside. All that does not
tell a story to the eye, or trace a poem to the
imagination, seems of solid gold. This material
appears as the very groundwork, which makes
room and gives place only that it- may receive and,
frame some beautiful scene or striking group,
whose value is of a different kind and of a higher
order than that of the precious metals. The harness,
housings, and trappings blaze with gold. The stud

AUGUST 7.
Lord Granville's equipages, which arrived nearly
a fortnight since in the Cressy, with part of.his fol-
lowing, were despatched forthwith to Moscow, the
carriages matted and carefully covered up. The
British Ambassador has won beforehand the good-
will of the Russian commercial world by a very
simple measure. His carriages and horses, though
English, are to appear in Russian style, harness,
and equipment. All these accessories, therefore,
were ordered in Russia. Both the compliment and
the profit are acceptable.
The ambassador, who was telegraphed as ap-
proaching on the day of the naval review, was
wrongly reported in St. Petersburg to be Lord
Granville. It was M. de Morny, who came Through
Germany, and took boat at Lubeck. The tribute
of respect which the French Envoy paid to the Em-
press-Mother—for the sake of visiting whom as he
passed he himself announced that he had selected
the route by which he came—is deeply felt, and
much praised here by the Russians. One lady of
great rank—a Russian Russian—remarked that she
thought far more of that mode of arriving in Russia
than if he. had come by sea in the finest line-of-
battle ship. M. de Morny is already a very great
favourite. One obvious moans of winning the Rim-
sian heart has certainly not been neglected by him.
Coronations of Russian emperors do not occur every
day ; and when they occur it is not always under
circumstances when they can be made the solemni-
sation of the world's peace and of a general recon-
'ciliation. Such -times and occasions justify and
render becoming the most profuse expenditure of
money. M. de Morny's mode of living touches the
very chord which most readily vibratos in Russia
into good-Will and admiration. One little fact will
show the scale on which his establishment is con-
ducted. Every morning regularly 100 bottles of
Medoc are delivered at his door for the use of his do-
mestic servants till next morning. Among the vulgar
in Russia thenumber of a great personage's domestic
servants is, in the higher and more princely sphere
of life, all through the year, that gauge of his sacial
pretensions which the fur in, the collar of his shooba
constitutes in a more humble station during the
winter months. Lord Granville is therefore quite
right.to attach importance to his being attended by
a hundred valets d pied at the coronation. The
Russians cannot conceive what ambassadors come
here for, if, not to spend plenty of money—and
then to have considerably less than the full benefit
of it. Everybody, from the isvostchik who drives
you to the landlord who lets you his house, Cheats
everybody else in a good-humoured spirit. If the
impostor is defeated' by -you, he roSpeCts_your
acuteness as haVing beaten him ; but it, is all a
sort of game—better'luck next time. If his im-
position passes good, he still i:e.spectsupp., ae being
able to stand-it. None are deSfs'ed'btittlioi4 who have nothing to _be cheated, out'., The:French Ambassador is revered, venerated at this moment
in St. Petershurg ; and if a story which I have
just heard be true, as I believe it to be, Lord
Granville (who, by the way, has just arrived at
Cronstadt) will be held in equal veneration at
Moscow. The statement is this : he has, of course,
taken a house at Moscow, but he has taken it
only for a month, the requisite period. There is
not very much difference in the accommodations
of the respective houses (except that Lord Gran-
ville'S has no suitable ball-room) ; and what do you
suppose each pays ? Lard Granville pays 40,000
silver roubles ; Prince Dolgorouki 8,000 ; the one
7,000/., the other 1,2001. The expenses at Moscow
will indeed be what the French call fabulous--
that is, too real and too enormous.
- ITGITsT 3,
The population of Si. Petersburg starts as if it
were receiving a succession of shocks from some
invisible galvanic battery. Its crowds collect and
break again in the squares like quicksilver in a
plate, and most persons look ai if they constantly
expected some spectacle or some event. Earl and
Countess Granville, Sir Robert Peel, and a num-
ber of English ladies and gentlemen, have just
landed on the English quay in the midst of a star-
ing mass of Russians. Lord Ward was late in
getting into the boat at Cronstadt. Over the heads
of the general crowd on the quay have been tower-
ing, for 24 loiurs some liveried Anakim, in the
shape of Engllsh footmen, who must have slept
there, I think. Yesterday evening I happened to
pass, and they were there; late hat night they
were still restlessly parading as ,if they expected •
the boat from Cronstadt, where it was known that
his Excellency bad arrived in the afternoon. Again
this morning I saw the same gigantic brigade of
ambassadorial footmen. About 30 yards below the
little steamer, which had brought the English Am-
bassador over the bar of the river, lay an Imperial
steam-pacht, all dressed in flags in his honour.
Several carriages, amongst which was one with four
horses, the leaders half a length in the traces be-
yond the wheelers, and altogether caparisoned in
the national style, were in attendance. When Earl
and Countess Granville, having got into the car-
riage 'with four horses, had been whirled off to
Demauth's, a carriage and pair drew up before the
little landing pavilion or ,hut, and some of the
others mounted this vehicle ; while a third car-
riage, and then some droskies conveyed away the
rest. A Yankee in the crowd (there are Yankees
in every large crowd all over the world, where any-
thing is to be seen) remarked through his nose,
" That second best chap, I reckon, is Peel ; the
rest is fuss and feathers.'
Lord Granville made a remarkably slow passage,
having been 11 days at sea. At the entrance of
the Great Belt, the St. Jean d'Acre lost her little
steamer in a gale of wind, and was obliged to
slacken speed till her companion rejoined her.
This is the namealay of the Empress, the birth-
day of her son, and the anniversary 'of the battle
of Kuruk-Dere, between the Russians and Selina
Pasha—a victory of the former on the frontiers of
Georgia in 1854. There is accordingly a great
dinner at Peterholf, and the dinner will be followed
by a grand Court ball in that beautiful, but com-
paratively diminutive, palace.

AUGUST 9 9 A.M.
A notice has appeared in the Russian papers
that, after the 15th of August (old style) no more
passports will be granted to Moscow.
Tee cholera always prevails more or less in St.
Petersburg during the summer, and this year is
no exception to the general rule. But the mor-
tality due to that epidemic is very slight—not
more than 40 a week on the whole town's popula-
tion. Such, at least, is the impression left by the
returns of one of the papers published here in the
Russian tongue—the Vedonzoste Gorodskoe PO litzie
—an authority, however, which would not exag-
gerate the evil.
Mr. Joseph West, the accomplished artist, who
has been engaged to furnish the Crystal Palace
with a history of painting, consisting of specimens
copied by him from all the great masters, eras, and
styles, beginning at Cimabue, and coming down to
the present time—has been here, copying the great
-works of the Hermil.age Palace, for the last -seven
weeks. M. de Morny came upon him there on
Tuesday, just as he was completilg his im-
portant task. It is chiefly the Rembrandts which
'ho has undertaken in the Hermitage.

IRELAND.

DUB Lf.;)T, FRIDAY MORNING.
TILE CORN TRADE.

.t.
. ..,
This morning accounts from Cork state that the
arrival of new oats and here at that market are of
The prices obtained were very high
,oy -..---•
extraordinary amount and quality for the time of
einekday an excellent sample of here, the
qnanti:l t, being eight barrels, fetched 13a. per barrel (16
the
,eiar,
w. er
„ono
; It was grown in the west of this county. , An-
other lot, of not so good quality, sold for 17s. 4d. per
barrel—this lot came from near Bandon. There were
82 barrels of new oats sent to market yesterday, which
"id at prices varying from 13s. 9d. to 16s. per barrel.
Three barrels of fine white oats, grown in the north of
the county, brought 163. per barrel. There was a beau-
tiful sampk, sold yesterday of dun oats, grown near
Bsndon,.which fetched 14s. 9d. per barrel of 14-Stone.
The larinera from all parts of. the county speak most
encouragingly of the state of the crops ; the late rain is
stated to have served the grain materially. On Satur-
day therliwas a fine sample of Biack Tariarian oafs,
the lot containing 32 barrels, which fetched 13a. 10d.,
quite an extraordinary price ; it was grown in the north
of the county." . ,

' • DEATH OV-A2 R-Catki7 CATHOLIC BISHOP. s
Another mitre has been placed at the disposal of
the Holy See,by the demise of the Right Rev. •Dr.
Murphy, Titular Bishop of. Ferns, who expired,
after a slaort illness, on Wednesday last. Over
fatigue and the great heat of the weather are said,
td have. been the immediate cause of death. The'
deceased was consecrated bishop in March, 1850.