The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-26 00:00:00

NOTES OF A TOUR FROM MOSCO FT TO

THE CRigEA AND ODESSA.

(From Special Correspondent of the Mmes'.)
The Russians complain that the books of travels
which have been written concerning the vast em-
pire they inhabit abound with misrepresentation
and falsehoods, and are deeply imbued with preju-
dice, ignorance, and conceit. In order to prevent
such charges being preferred against the notes made
by me during an excursion of nearly three months'
duration in the southern part of Russia I beg at
once to state that I do not pretend more than to
record what I saw, and that whatever is advanced
on hearsay was reported to me by persons of re-
spectability and character, on whom the responsi-
bility of these statements must depend ; that I do
not venture to offer any philosophic reflections
on the habits, institutions, or social condition
of the people, or propound any theories con-
cerning the government and administration of the
country, but that simply writing what I believe
true on the evidence of my own eye sight or hear-
ing, I leave to others the task of drawing such
conclusions and deductions as they please. The
friends whom I have left behind me in Russia must
be well aware that I set out from Moscow without
any disposition to regard their countrymen and in-
stitutions with an unfavourable eye, and they must
not be offended if my impressions are recorded as
they were formed, and are expressed with sincerity
and candour. These impressions may be erroneous,
but, at all events, they are honest, and I must own
that had I gone no further than Moscowf should
have had a very different notion of the condition of
Russian sooiety from that which I now entertain after
a short tour "off the rail." The grand spectacles of
the coronation, the glare of the ballroom, the glitter
of monster reviews, and all the civilised pomp of
Moscow—its French and German shops, its gay
equipages, and orderly streets, dazzled and per-
plexed the judgment. The Russian post-house,,
the serf villages, the roads, the soldier on the
march, the post- cart, the country town, the hotel
—these presented another and a very different
aspect of Russian life and manners.
One of the objects I had- in view in making the
journey was to judge, a= far as the time and means
of observation at my disposal would enable me, of
the condition of the country and of the effects of
the late war upon the mass of the population ;
another was to follow the route of the main body
of the Russian reinforcements as they approached
the Crimea; and a third was to get home as speedily
as possible by a new route, which alsoafforded oppor-
tunities of becoming acquainted,superficially indeed
but still to some extent accurately, with the physical
aspects and social state of a vast tract which few
strangers have occasion to traverse, and still fewer
think it worth while to describe. In addition to
these motives for undertaking, as it proved, a long
and not very agreeable jaurney, au inducement
presented itself the force of which moved me power-
fully, and which I am sure would exercise equal
influence with any one who had lived so long with
a British army as I had, and who had passed so
many months of mingled joy and sorrows VI the
society of friends whose voices are silent for ever.
I wished to revisit our cemeteries and the scattered
monuments and resting-places of our noble dead,
to see with my own eyes that the Russians had
kept their promise, and to ascertain the present
state of Sebastopol. The prospect of beholding the
plateau on which I had lived for nearly two years
with very little interruption, and which was the
scene of so many events, to be remembered for
ever by all who in the smallest degree participated
in them ; of going over the old ground once more,
of mounting from Balaklava to the front, tracing
the lines of the trenches now fast crumbling away,
and peering about the city of the dead and its
sunken navies, exercised over me a fascination
which, if not strange, is certainly indescribable ;
and the chance of doing this might, in all proba-
bility, never come again.
And so I decided that I should proceed home by
the Crimea and Odessa, for we had reason to believe
very confidently that we could find steamers plying
between the ports of the former province and the
latter city, from which three or four routes to Eng-
land lay open to the choice of the visitor. The " we"
is a pleasant reality, and not a newspaper phrase, for
I was fortunate enough to find that my two com-
panions during the coronation month at Moscow
were willing and anxious to accompany me and to
make tht same journey—the one inspired by a de-
sire to revisit the Crimea, the other actuated by
the natural wish of a young Englishman to behold
the ground which the brilliant valour and the suf
ferings of his countrymen have consecrated to
the end of all time. As it would not be possible
to procure permission from the police authorities
of Moscow for such an expedition, undertaken, as
it was, for pleasure, and not business connected
with the service of the State, I applied to our Mi-
nister, Lord Wodehouse, to move the officers of
Government to assist me, and his lordship,iwith his
usual kindness and courtesy, at once complied with
my request, and begged M. Tolstoy, adjoint of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, to give me perrnissioi,
to proceed into the Crimea. M. Tolstoy, to whom
I was personally known, promised to do what was
asked of him, and in a few days after the first appli-
cation forwarded to the Hon. Julian Fane, First
Secretary of our Embassy, an " office" which
he addressed to the Governor of the Crimea
in our behalf, and of which we were bearers. It
was a formidable looking missive, directed to the
" General Major Jokoffsky, Civil Governor of the
Crimea," and was about a foot square, with a tre-.
mendous seal full of distorted eagles and Cyrillic
letters, which is possibly familiar as being the seal
of the Russian Foreign office to a good many of
our statesmen. Armed with this, we proceeded to
the passport-office, a large barracky-looking build-
ing, full of clerks, all as busy in describing the eyes,
noses, and chins of their fellow-men as Audubon
ever was over a rara avis or Cuvier on new
bone. In a few days our passports would be ready
for Simpheropol, the civil head-clerk told us, and
he kept his word. The passports which had been
given at the St. Petersburg Chancellorie of the
Minister Dolgorouki were taken from us, and in
their place we received documents quite illegible
to the general, in which "Alexandra Nicolaevitch,
Gosondar and Emperator of All the Russias, in
the form of a ukase," ordered all his subjects to
take care of a gentleman with a stout figure,
middling nose, eyes, mouth, arc., and to let him
go and aid him in going to Simpheropol. For
each of these the charge was about the same as
that for our own Foreign-office passport—or a little
less. So far we were all right, but the next thing
to be done was to find out some means of locomo-
tion. There was a diligence going south to Khar-
koff, but all the places were engaged in this for
many days, and, judging from the company we saw
starting in it, and the outward appearance of the
vehicle itself, we were irather pleased than other-
wise at finding that it would be impossible to get
places. It was necessary, therefore, to buy a car-
riage of some kind, and all our Russian friends
said, " By allimeana purchase a tarantasse—don't
get a spring carriage, for if anything happens to it
on the road you will never get it repaired, whereas
any country smith can mend a tarantasse. And
so to buy a tarantasse we sallied forth, and visited
the quarter of long-bearded coach manufacturers,
whom we discovered to be quite as advanced
in their ideas as to the cost of their work,
and as to hard bargains, as if they had lived
in Long-acre all their lives. A tarantasse to
look at is a decent commodious quiet sort of family
°each, secured on three long perches, so that the
body, which is placed amidships, so to speak, is
balanced between the fore and hind wheels at some
distance from them, owing to the length of these
perches. I say to look at, but to travel in!
when the time comes that horror will be revealed.
They are of all shapes, however—like gigs, cabrio-
THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY FRAUDS.—Rad•
lets, sociables, broughams, watch boxes, soup tu- path, Kent, and Hogdon, were on Wednesday fully corn-
reens, all alike springless, and in that absence of mitted for trial by Mr. Tyrwhitt, Bail was accepted for
springs possessing the occult virtues which recotn-
the last named person.
mend them to Russian travellers. The Moscow HIGHWAY Roessar
AND MunDsa.—A cold-blooded
Long-acre is a long line of wooden coach sheds of murder, perpetrated only for the purpowe of gratifying
one storey in height, about half a mile from the the cupidity of the murderer, was committed on the
Kremlin, fronting a branch of the Moskau river. It highway near Wiveliscombe, Somerset, about 12 wiles
The a murder
called
ri was first Siieavered about 11 o'clock, by a
Of from Taunton, about 10 o'clock on Tuesday night last.
is unusually infested with saints and pigeons.
the former there is always one in each shed, and it
max
LanglyeePawndhFiwrdhileobwsaelkinF home on the road
in the road without an attendantlrven
is no wonder that he is generally black and wrinkled
nanheaorresre and cartach
from assisting at so much cheating and roguery as
cart, and
wa
ntdh
fen feetrthe
further
of e
examination
mperson i bnareegs nl gt.e
do enrfitnhdei
nfgreetnhpteporbfontdb
ye
is constantly being practised before his very eyes b 37
his votaries. We were asked invariably about a
third more than the proper price, except inof Thomas Aplin, young man 22 years of age, employed
stance, where the long-bearded proprietordemanded as an agricultural labourer by Mr. Corner, of Kings-
for a tarantasse as much as one would give for a brompton, Nettlecombe, the owner of the vehicle. He
good secondhand carriage in, London. The agonies was quite dead, hie throat having been cut so as to nearly
of bargaining were insupportable to us, but what sever the head from the body. A carpet-bag was found in
one in-must they have been to our kind friend who tran- the cart undisturbed, but deceased's pockets had been
ceceaeedemar bad that day been at Wivelk-
-scc
oel
51. note,
nub::
ee,Cahn,rhdi
Christmas
slated French in to Russian and Russian into French turnedtai oduft and his money carried away. It way soon as-
certained
where he got change for a
for one long hour ? And all to no purpos®.
longobarbi thought we must give in, and we wereTh
ttmhoas
determined not to be done, and the contest ended
named Thomas showed his money before an acquaintance
several days afterward,] in our purchasing a taran-
ceased drank freely anodn,trat
treated
White Hart, where de
tasse with room for tb.ree inside, two outside, and a I
, liquor. Aplin, the ea eld Nation and others with
eft to go home about 9
driver, in a remote part of the city, to which we had o,ctock, when he was very deceased,tipsy,h and Nation went away
penetrated in search of less extortionate coach-menu- with him. Their way hams was the same for nearly a
fasturers, for 501., including alterations and repairs. mile, but before they bad travelled so far the horse's
The next thing was V 3 ge tau interpreter and servant, bead was turned in another direction, where it was
and in this matter 'another excellent friend, M. de found as above stated. The young man Nation, who
Mouchanoff, assisted US by obtaining from the Pos- lodged with his father, a small farmer, at Upton, was
master-General a post-office courier, who was pope- taken into custody about 7 o'clock on Wednesday morn-
larly believed to speak German and to be versed in ! jug, a. a he was proceeding home on foot, and his clothes
other languages. Our good Walter, however, on , w
withere bi
" (11y
; he had in his pockets a clasp knife stained
presenting himself to us, was found to be rather ;blood, four sovereigns, and some coppers; and foot•
weak in Teutonic and to be uite ignorant of any
,
other language but his vernacular. The sight of ponded with his boots. On being charged with the mur-
with der he exclaimed 'GYou don't mean and
n it •
his uniform however (a smart green frock, the
repeated
examined before
he made no reply. The same
black facings charge being and braid on the shoulders), was cal- afternoon the prisoner was privately
culated to produce a great effect on the postmasters, the magistrates and committed to the countyandawait
a further • •
examination on Wednes-
t
set him to work at once to get horses. But this was day next.