The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-16 00:00:00

MOSCOM
-0.--

• I/ . FROM A FRENCIt PAPER.]
Geographers and historians are not agreed as to
the period when Moscow was built. Some of them
assert that it owes its foundation to Andrew the
First; others assign its origin to tho year 1300, and
affirm, that it was built by the Grand Duke Juije
Wladimirowitsch. It became the ordinary residence '
of the Czars, who successively embellished it with a
great number of public buildings. It was also the
seat of the Head of the Russian Church, and the
splendour continued to increase till it became the ca-
pital of the Russian Empire.
It is of very great extent, not being less, as it is
said, than 21 geographical miles in circumference.
The public buildings, the palaces, and hotels, arc
(or rather were) very numerous; not less than 1600
churches and convents, and about 50 pala.:es and
public walks. The number of houses, which, in
1600, was computed to amount to 150,000, had de-
creased by four-fifths. Its distance from Paris is

about 650 leagues.
When we leave Viasma, wo enter the vast forest
of Volvouski, which extends from thence to the
very gales of Moscow, covering a space of 150 miles.
11/hen we reach Malo Ariastna, a place agreeably
situate in the midst of the forest, on the bank of a
small lake, we are only six miles distant from that
capital, to which we proceed through a wide avenue,
cut in a right line. The trees oa each side, planted
by the hand of Nature, are chiefly oak, birch, ash,
poplar, and fir, all mingled together; they present
to the eye shades of verdure extremely rich and
varied, and occasionally the majestic uniformity of
the long avenue is agreeably broken by fields and
meadows. Immediately on enteting this avenue,
some of the steeples of Moscow are discernible; three
miles farther on, you have a full and maguiticatt
view of that immense city, extending in the form of
a crescent, and presenting to the eye an immense
number of churches, towers, gilt spires, domes,
white, green, and rod buildings, glittering in the
sun-beams; awl, in contrast with all this pomp, you
perceive, eose by those splendid edifices, an infinite
number el ,retched wooden huts. The country
that remains for you to traverse is varied and pic-
tureseue, and you do not get out of the forest till
you are within one mile of the walls of Moscow.
As soon as you have entered the city, its vast ex-
tent, and the variety it .fords, the irregularity of
its structures, the extraordinary contrasts it presents,
strike you with astonishment. Its streets are long
and wide, but some only of thorn are pared, others
are laid with the stems of trees, or boarded, like a
room. Superb palaces are surrounded with huts,
which afford an asylum to indigence; here wooden
houses are seen covered with pantilittst, while others
are remarkable for doors and roofs of- iron. There
is nothiug more discordant or more singular than the
architecture of the public buildings. You meet with
churches at every step, the domes of some of which
are covered with copper, others with pewter, others
are painted or gilt, and some of them are simply of
w00d..-In short, as you pass through the different
quarters of Moscow, you find Yourself successively
in a desert, in a flourishing and well-peopled city,
or in a miserable village, and you, at length, reach
those places where every thing announces the magni-
ficence of a great capital.
We must consider Moscow as a city first built in
the taste of Asiatic architecture, and which has been
gradually assimilated to that of Europe.
The population of Moscow is not proportionate
to its extent, a circumstance which will not occasion
surprise, when it is known that it contains vast parks,
in which wild bears, de( r, and other wild beasts, are
kept. A considerable number of large gardens, and
even in some quarters tillage lands, impart to the
city a very picturesque appoa, ance. Moscow, then,
does not contain a population of more than from
300 to 3'20,000 souls; but this number increases in
the winter to near 400,000. This difference arises
from the circumstance of the Noblemen passing the
summer in the country, whither they bring with
them a great number of persons, and from that of
the travelling merchants returning home at the end
of the Carnival. -
The principal divisions of Moscow are-Ist,
Kremlin-2dly, Khitaigorotl-3tlly, Bieleorod-
-4tltly, Semlainogorod-sthly, Slobodsn, which is a
kind of suburb. These five principal qearters are
subdivided into circles,. of which we Nave already'
given separate descriptions.
Moscow seems to contain two people, the indivi-
duals who composed the one dwell in palaces, speeki
French, pay much attention to fashion and tailors,
amuse themselves with music and horses, frequent
halls and operas, while they hire a band at a thou•
sand rubles a-year, and they not unfrequently give a
hundred rubles for a well-taught canary bird.
The other people dwell in huts, like savages, wear
long beards, ere Ignorant that there is such a thing as
a theatrical entertainment, get drunk with brandy on
Sundays, quarrel, and become peaceable as soon as
they have been sluiced with two or three buckets of
water, which are usually kept ready for the purpose
in places of public resort; on the one hand we per-
ceive civilization, accompanied by all its luxury and
all its excesses ; on the other, that gradation of so-
ciety which is on the very border of barbarism. The
desire of being amused seems to be that which is pre-
dominant at Moscow. On the Ist of May the whole
city is on foot, all the brillant equipages are display.
ed on the road to the promenade, called the German
Tables, where people take refreshments in tents Mid
under trees. The remainder of the summer they
amuse themselves at Vauxhall and the Palace Gar-
dens ; but winter is the genuine season of pleasure.
The streets covered with snow are thereby made
cleaner and more passable. The frozen surface of the
Moskwa furnishes a new promenade, and the cold of
25 degrees has peculiar charms for the Moscovites.—
They then exhibit themselves in traincartx, but when
these are drawn by two horses, one of them is obliged
always to gallop while the other trots. It would be
taken as a mark of vulgarism if this general rule were
to be swerved from.
At the Play the people in the Pit never hiss, they
content themselves with not applauding bad actors ;
but if the piece should happen -not to be interesting,
the audience converse so loud that nothing said upon
the stage can be heard.
Although Moscow is no longer the residence of

.theNovereign, it is still the most pnpulous cif v it, the
empire. The Nobler, ssho are not attacheri to the
Court by employments, settle there, awl iudolo
themselves in that somewhat-harbaroos ma;oiti-e•ice
which keeps alive the remembrance of i heir f u-olor
grandeur, end they are not, 29 at PetniblrgS,e;:liplc,4
by the splendour of a Court.

There is but one national theatre at Mascastr, and
that is little frequented, particularly by person; of
condition ; it is kept down by the great number of
private theatres, each Nobleman hung his
ft is the same with respect to the musicians to t e
Nobles, they are slaves; thus, nothitiq is more cu7N.
mon than t..) find a numerous band i i thn house of a
private individual. 11e has nothing to do but to feed
his artists; well or and to clothe them decenty
when he sees company. We. shall say nothio,;
with
respect to the bastinadocl they receive is the course
of their apprenticeship.

One of the chief coriositiesin Moscow lithe !10w.%
market ; it is•held in a tarp square in the s'iburht.
A persons can purchase in it houses of all ths
timbers of which they are to be crntstrected are
marked with care. Sometimos the purchaser pits for
that which suits him on the spot, and tak,•s it with
him ; sometimes he bargains that it b.• bro„st
and put up on a curtail spot. It is not tetrourno,,
to find any one of these houses bought, carried, err;
ed, and inhaliitud in less than a week ; they are most
frequently made of the trunks of trees, with tenons
and mortices at the extremities, so that nothing k
left to do but put them to4ether when they are wsio„
ed. This manner of building is not conlioc.l to et.
bins and smail houres, very large ones are often erect.
ed in the same manlier.

The most remarkable public foundation in Islos.
cow is the Foundling Hospital. It was endowed by
the Empress Catharine, in 1761. There ha Theatre
in this hospital, the decorations of which are the work
of the foundlings ; they built it, painted it, made tha
dresses, aad are themselves the actors.

In the course of the fourteenth vt>ntury the Tar.
tars possessed themselves of Moscow, slaughtered the
inhabitants, and reduved the city to ashes; it was
soon, however, re-peopled. The barbarians took it
a second time in 1411, and committed the sane ex.
cesses. It was in a very flourishing state during the
reign of Ewan thsilowitz. After having committed
unheard-of cruelties at Novagorod, the ferocious
I wan the Fourth', on his return to Mos:ow, had 80(1
women thrown (tit° the river, and stained the waters
of the Moskwa with the blond of 300 other victims,
whom he canard to he executed. During the !attn.
'part of the 16th century, and a great part of the
! 17th, Moscow was the scene of most tragical events;
I there was a general massacre of the Poles within its
Iwalls. I❑ 1771, it suffered terribly froth the plague.
The territory of the Government of Moscow
fertile in all productions of the earth. Petershuqh
derives from it a great proportion of its subsistence,
so that the possession of it by an enemy must render
the supplying that capital with provisions a matter
.of great difficulty.

FREEDOM OF GOM.MERCE.

--ow—
i'vsz—ra 41unercum i 4 Heaven.

Whets Commerce first spread the broad mil to rite wisee.
And her bark the proud billows submissively hnre,
And the Oceaa became the wide path of inankiud,
And the waters divided the flatiron it. more;
Round the rocks of the main,
Was re-echoed this strsin,—
Now shall man's scatter'd race he connected agars,
And the ves.sels of Commerce extend the great plan,
Of Harmony, Peace, and the Freedom of Mao.

The fruits of each climate shall Commerce exchange,
And make equal the blessings of Goo upon earth,
Over each distant realm she delighted shall rauge,
Aud rough Labour enrich'd shall sins; carols of mirth,*
Pleasure tread the gas green,
Beauty too, Pleasitrh's Queen,
And the cottage of Indastry gladden the scene;
Aud the Arts shall, with Commerce, extend the great plai‘
Of Harmony, Peace, and the Freedom of Mau.

Titus the nations with w:toni Commerce chose to retitle,
They ‘sertt free, they were great, :nd wi h opulence htertt
But she toed Britain most—'twas her home and her pride,
And the world soon rever',/ her—" fair isle of the )Veste
For where'er the waves roll,
Erma the line to the pole,
To the veigels of Britain she g we the control!) ;
And she said be it yours to extend the great plat,
Of liarmlny, Peace, and the Frecdota of Nl:;,

Here the lAtirer, emboiden'd with gains of hii toil,
Felt the solace a blithe !mini:cadence his own ;
For the Heats o. mankind arc the growth of this soil,
'ney grew wit OW' st.rength, and encircle oar dom.
A nd.these rights shall prevail,
Tho' CorrJ ption
For the enrti of wretches 'gai tot ljberty fail :
And these rights are the ground work of :hat mighty plan,
The Harmony, Peace, hud the Freedom of hlan.

Yet, forgetting those rights. Ire permitted of late,
Vile miscreants to irsue forth perjured decrees
Distress and di>•eusion pervaded the State,
And Commerce, du-gusted, deserted the seas,
Then, pale, and oppres?d,
Pined the lab'rer distrest,
Want and Woe in his dwelling, and grief in his breast-.
For Commerce no longer exteaded the plan,
Of Ilarinony, Peace, and the Freedom of Man.

'Twas then BnoucitAin, as the Champion of Commercear
pear'd:
She, to freedom restor'd, shall enrich Ili again ;
BROUGYIAm's name be to Liverpool ever endear'd,
Acd his cause. as her own, shall her Freemen maintain!
Theo dispel sorrow's gloom,
Willi a health of our linoticrwt,
• And make Liverpool bright with the pink's lovely bloom;
Commerce collies at Baoucewe's call, to restore bee'
Of Harmony, Peace, and the Freedom of Mani

Nor be CRECVET forgotten, our townsman and friend
Though Directors still rant, and base Mini ters frostily
To the East he the l'reetlo»i of Tratir shall Extend,
Aml Liverpool's riches he CazuvEv's renown.
Then your sates, Freemen join,
And he this your design,—
The bright pink routal the c.ip of fair Freehrn to twine,
While our 8R0W111.131 and our CREEVEIF restore the go

plan,
Of harmony, Peace, and the Freedom of Mans

LONDON: .Printed and Published by P. Iglvicw 111
SI STUMM' Orricr. Bi. Flcekstvess