an instance mentioned of a sentinel asking alms of the passers by. That the poor soldier's fate is hard, however, is not to be wondered at, as the government seems to be of opinion that "the only way to make a good trooper is to make him care nothing at all about his existence;" and it can cause no surprise that an endeavour to regain some little interest in life by deserting is very common. According to our authoress, the effect of the conscription on the rural population is most perceptible. We cannot, however, help doubting (notwithstanding the evident fair intention of the writer) whether her national feeling concerning the present war has not led her a little to overstate the case when she says, "Passing through nearly 1200 versts of Russian and Polish land, excepting recruits, we scarcely saw a young man in any of the villages: there were only very old peasants with the women and children." And we must decline to receive the evidence of an old woman who was passionately bewailing the loss of a nephew taken for a soldier, to prove that the poorest Russians are now aware that their adored Czar has everywhere been beaten. No doubt "magna est veritas, et prævalebit;" but she sometimes takes a long time about it; and when we consider how slowly a correct knowledge of the events of the war is acquired even in this country, it would suppose little less than a miracle to believe that knowledge so carefully kept from them, and of a nature that the people would be so slow to acquire, had already been attained.

But all the serfs are not so completely shut up in ignorance and Russia as that lowest grade to which we have hitherto more particularly referred. Some who show peculiar talent are taught different arts: true, their talents are of comparatively little value to them, as, if they are not employed by their masters as slaves, they have to pay him a certain rent called abroch (or obroch according to Mr. Oliphant) for the permission to work on their own accounts, which is increased at the will of the master. Even should one of these talented slaves amass wealth, he cannot purchase his freedom unless his lord consent; for there is no compulsory Enfranchisement Act

in Russia. These, then, are little more free than the common serfs, but their knowledge, and therefore their power, is greater, and it is not unusual to send those who are capable of profiting by it for education into foreign countries. We are told of a proprietor who sent many of his serfs abroad; one of them, who was sent to France to learn to cook, wrote to his master, when the time for returning arrived, that he had undergone "a great change in his views both social and political, and could not decide upon devoting the rest of his life to his service." But if the majority of these travelled slaves return to Russia, (which seems strange, but must be so, or the habit of sending them abroad would not exist,) they must carry back with them many ideas of freedom which, as good seed, cannot remain fruitless even in the stony ground of Russia. The passage, however, which has most forcibly struck us as bearing upon the future of Russia, is this:

Some of the slaves belonging to Count

S― (a nobleman who possesses 120,000

souls on his estate) are among the wealthiest shopkeepers in St. Petersburg, and it is said they have lately lent Count Sabout 150,000l. to pay off debts on the property. The shopkeepers and merchants of Russia are now the richest class in the country; the nobility every year are becoming poorer. The policy of Catherine has worked well in that respect, for they say it was she who began to lower their power, which has ever been dangerous to the imperial family, and her successors follow her steps.

Surely that state of society is anomalous where slaves are among the richest dealers in the capital. Their very trade must forbid the possibility of their views being bounded by the limits of the Russian empire. The commercial spirit has ever been thought peculiarly attached to freedom, and certainly would not lead these wealthy slaves to view with a friendly eye the obroch charged on them. And is the decline of the wealth and power of the nobility at all favourable to the continuance of the present tyranny? Our Henry the Seventh, taking advantage of the exhaustive effects of the wars of the Roses, exercised his peculiar tact in crushing the nobles of this country, and doubtless thought that he was

thereby securing the throne of himself and his successors from all danger. The effect of this policy seems, however, to have been to clear the stage for the free operation of the only force which has been found equal to the task of establishing constitutional government. Within a century the power of the representatives of the people became formidable even to the powerful and popular Elizabeth.

The idea that a revolution is impending over Russia is frequently adverted to in this volume, and it is said, "We all look forward to a revolution, and when it does break out, the French tragedy will be but a game of play in comparison to it." We trust, however, that a wiser spirit may guide that mighty movement when it comes; that in that great day for Russia, and indeed for the world, a genius worthy of the occasion may be found to temper with mercy that fearful struggle, who, like one too early lost to his country, may "unite all the qualities which at such a time are necessary to save the Statethe valour and energy of Cromwell, the discernment and eloquence of Vane, the humanity and moderation of Man

chester, the stern integrity of Hale, the ardent public spirit of Sidney."*

We have before adverted to some of the statements that immediately bear upon the war; besides these, we are told that the effects of war are on all sides apparent in Russia, that trade is paralysed; that Napier, and especially Palmerston, are the bogies of the rising generation of Russia; and that we, the English, are favoured with the especial hatred of the Russians, being honourably distinguished in this respect from our gallant allies. We confess, however, to receiving the opinions of this lady, formed since the war commenced, with some doubt; for instance, we find it difficult to believe that a general opinion can as yet have spread amongst the serfs, that if the English conquer they will be free. We have the fullest confidence in the truthful intentions of the authoress, but feel that to accept implicitly the accounts she gives of the state of Russia during the war would be to lay aside our knowledge of feminine human nature, and, perhaps, fall into that fault of pride and over-confidence which has already sent thousands of the bravest troops the world ever saw to the grave.

THE name of the late Sir John Barrow will ever occupy an honour able place in the list of those highly gifted men of whom England is justly proud, and who, by their original genius and energetic minds, have, in their different walks of life, rendered eminent services to their country. As a public officer, as an author, and as a Quarterly Reviewer, he is equally memorable among the foremost of his contemporaries.

At the time of his death, which occurred on the 23d Nov. 1848, a memoir appeared in The Times from the pen of his friend Sir George Staunton, which was transferred to the pages of our Obituary, and will be found in our Magazine for January 1849. As there stated, Sir John Barrow was born in

1764 in a small cottage at the village of Dragley beck, near Ulverston, in the extreme north of Lancashire, which cottage had been in his mother's family for nearly 200 years. He received his early education in the Town Bank Grammar School at Ulverston, and ever cherished an affectionate regard for the town: nor have the townsmen forgotten the honour which his name reflects upon it.

Shortly after his death, his friends determined to raise a public monument to his memory, and the Hill of Hoad, near Ulverston, was fixed upon for its erection. The site was selected by Captain Washington, R.N., and approved by Sir Francis Beaufort, the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, as also by the Trinity House; and the

*

MR. MOTTE is noticed in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes as an eminent bookseller opposite St. Dunstan's church in Fleet Street, and as publisher to Swift and Pope. He was the successor of Mr. Benjamin Tooke;t and, dying March 12, 1758, was followed in his business by Mr. Charles Bathurst, who published the first collected edition of Swift's Works, edited by Dr. Hawkesworth, in sixteen volumes, 1768.

One evening, after dark, in the autumn of 1726, the manuscript copy of the Travels of Lemuel Gulliver was left by a stranger at Mr. Motte's door. At the beginning of November the book was published, and almost immediately it was in the hands of all who then indulged in the luxury of reading.

Though it appeared anonymously, the world was not slow to guess its authorship; and Swift's literary friends in England, whom he had recently visited, hastened to congratulate him on its success. The letters of Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gray, written upon this occasion, are all preserved, and are given in the various editions of Swift's Works. They all, more or less, humoured his passion for playing the incognito; but Sir Walter Scott has shown that the progress of the work had been known to them for many months before.

Dr. Arbuthnot, having recently published "Tables of Ancient Coins," to which Swift had subscribed for some

Vol. i. p. 213.

copies, wrote to him on the 8th Nov. 1726, saying that his book had been printed above a month, but he had not yet got his subscribers' names. "I will make over all my profits to you for the property of Gulliver's Travels; which, I believe, will have as great a run as John Bunyan. Gulliver is a happy man, that, at his age, can write such a merry book." He afterwards relates that when he last saw the Princess of Wales, "she was reading Gulliver, and was just come to the passage of the hobbling prince; which she laughed at. I tell you freely, the part of the projectors is the least brilliant.§ Lewis | grumbles a little at it, and says he wants the Key to it, and is daily refining. I suppose he will be able to publish like Barnevelt in time."-This alludes to one Esdras Barnevelt, apothecary, who had pub'lished a Key to Pope's Rape of the Lock.

From these expressions it appears that Arbuthnot was well aware of the authorship of Gulliver. So was Pope also: but, eight days later than the above, the poet of Twickenham chose to write to Swift as if he merely suspected it-perhaps, as Sir Walter Scott suggests, because letters were then not always inviolate at the post-office.

I congratulate you first (writes Pope) upon what you call your cousin's wonderful book, which is publicá trita manu at present, and I prophesy will be hereafter the admiration of all men. That countenance with which it is received by some

and Tories.

Erasmus Lewis.