IN CONCLUSION of the Travels into Siberia, from the laft N the preceding part of our account of this work, we have defcribed the nature of the leffer Knout. We willingly pafs over the Author's defcription of the greater Knout, and of the other punishments used in Ruffia: confining ourselves to his account of the exile into Siberia, which is not merely a banifhment into a cold, barren and defolate country, but is, in many cafes, attended with the moft ftrict and rigorous confinement. The Author enters into a detail of the circumstances attending the exile of Count Leftoc, which will exemplify the nature of this punishment, and from which we fhall therefore extract a few particulars. This nobleman, to whose fingular intrepidity and address the late Empress Elizabeth owed her crown, was, about feven years after that event, ftripped of all his poffeffions, and together with his Countess condemned to exile, in confequence of the intrigues of Count Bestuchef, the prime minifter, on an accufation of having received money from a foreign power at that time in alliance with Ruffia. Being interrogated by the fecret tribunal which paffed this fentence, and which confifted of the declared enemies of Leftoc, concerning the value of the fum received by him, "I have now forgot," he anfwered, "but the Empres Elizabeth can inform you." In fact, the offer had been made to him, in compliment to her; he had acquainted her with it, and had received the prefent with her permiffion. His Countefs, who had been maid of honour to the Emprefs, being interrogated at the fame time, and conscious that innocence was no fecurity before fuch a tribunal, begged no other favour of her judges, than that they would cut off her head, but that they would fpare her fkin; alluding to the punishment of the Knout: and her imperial majesty's gratitude for the important fervices performed by her husband operated fo far as to prevent their receiving that punishment, which Beftuchef appears to have intended them, previous to their departure for Siberia. They were fent into different parts of that country, where they were not fuffered even to write to each other. The Countefs was confined to a fingle chamber, where, through the absolute want of clean linen, fhe was almoft devoured by vermin, and which fhe had not the liberty to leave for a fingle moment, on any occafion whatever: her four guards lying in the fame room, and never lofing fight of her. The appointments for her fubfiftence Those who do not regularly take in the Appendixes, and yet are defirous of having this account of Ruffia and Siberia compleat, may fend to the bookfellers for the Appendix to Vol. XL. were were in the hands of the officer of the guard, who kept her in want even of neceffaries: fo that he was frequently induced to try her fortune at cards, with the foldiers her keepers, with a view of winning a few pence of them, who did not however always permit her to difpofe of her winnings. The Count's treatment was equally rigorous, and the misery of bis fituation was aggravated by an impatience of difpofition which was natural to him. After fome years they were suffered to come together, had the use of several apartments, and a little garden, which the Countess cultivated. She fetched water, brewed, made her own bread, and washed, and they were fometimes permitted to fee company. Beftuchef having been exiled in his turn, the grand chancellor, Woronzof, frequently interceded with the Empress to recall Leftoc, whofe innocence was univerfally known and acknowledged; but without effect. Her Majefty however, in her great clemency, frequently ordered wine to be fent him, of which he knew he was particularly fond. On the acceffion of the late Czar, Peter III. they were recalled from banishment; and Leftoc, then 74 years of age, arrived at Petersburgh, clad in a fheep fkin; where our Author received from his own mouth the circumftances which he has here given, relative to his exile. The Abbé relates likewise, on the fame authority, the particulars of that fudden and aftonishing revolution, in which the Count acted fo capital a part, and which was effected without fhedding a drop of blood, or employing any other weapon than a pen-knife, with which Leftoc filenced a drum belonging to the body guards, which was about to found the alarm, when, with three attendants, fupported only by twenty foldiers, he was conducting Elizabeth, in the dead of the night, to take the regent, the Princefs of Brunswick, and her fon, the Emperor Iwan II. out of their bed, and to place Elizabeth on the throne of her father. The Author next treats of the state of population in Ruffia, of the commerce, finances, and of the land and fea-forces of that empire. With regard to the first, he calculates that this immenfe empire, extending 1900 leagues (25 to a degree) in length, and 500 leagues in breadth, does not contain fo many inhabitants as France, and that their number is continually decreafing from various caufes. The univerfal debauchery in the articles of drink and women; the small-pox, which carries off near half the children which are born; the venereal difeafe, which he found raging in every part of the route from Peterfburgh to Tobolik; the fcurvy, together with the almost univerfal want of medicines, and of perfons to adminifter them, depopulate the country to fo great a degree, that, according to the Author's account, the human race is in danger of becoming extinct in this country, if the government does not find a fpeedy remedy. remedy. He confiders, too, Siberia as an immenfe gulph, which fwallows up a very confiderable number of its inhabitants; and the defarts of that vaft province as draining Ruffia much more than Spain has been depopulated by Peru, without furnishing a fimilar, or proportional equivalent. With regard to the political force of this empire, or its military establishments, and the finances which are to fupport them, he rates them exceedingly low, if we compare his estimates, which feem to be founded on authentic papers, with the opinion which the rest of Europe generally entertain on this head. He afterwards minutely traces the military operations of the Ruffians, in the late war against the King of Pruffia, as an additional proof of the juftice of his calculations and reafonings: but we do not apprehend that the whole power of Ruffia either was, or, was meant to be, exerted on this occafion. We shall add, that the power of this empire, according to the Author's geometrical manner of confidering it, is not to be eftimated by the direct, but by the inverse ratio of its very great extent; in which very circumftance confifts a great part of its political weakness: that the high idea entertained of its power, and particularly the apprehenfions of his countrymen, who have fuppofed that it is capable, at a moment's warning, of fending forth fwarms, who, like the Scythians and Huns of old, may ravage and fwallow up our little Europe, are founded on the moft groundless prejudi ces; as where he paffed, inftead of people, he found only marfhes and defarts: and to be more particular, that Ruffia, with a military eftablishment of 330,000 men, principally fubfifting upon the people, who furnish the greateft part of their fubfiftence upon the spot, in kind, cannot bring an army of more than 60 or 70,000 regular troops into the field; where, from the fcantiness of its revenue, it cannot maintain them in a foreign war, or beyond the bounds of the empire, without a foreign fubfidy. He defcribes, at the fame time, the marine of this country as in a very deplorable ftate; and upon the whole, looks upon this power as formidable only to its immediate neighbours. But does not the Author undervalue and confine the importance of Ruffia, as much as his countrymen have over-ra ted and extended it? Surely, taking his own eftimate for granted, a power which, when fubfidifed, can furnish 70,000 troops, and which can at the fame time maintain 260,000 at home, may be formidable to other powers befides its immediate neighbours. Such is the unfavourable account which the Author gives of the military establishment in this country. He defcribes the Ruffian generals as almoft totally ignorant of tactics; and the order, the disorder rather, of a Ruffian march, as much more refembling the emigration of a people, than the march of a reREV. Dec. 1769. Ff gular gular army. Their cavalry he reprefents as abfolutely the worst in Europe; and though he acknowledges that their regular infantry is exceedingly well difciplined, he allows them no real courage. A Ruffian foldier, according to him, fights not for honour, but for felf-prefervation. When hard-preffed, and there is no retreat, then, and then only, he gives aftonishing proofs of apparent valour: but when he finds flight practicable, he flies; and he becomes truly formidable only when it is not in his power to retreat. In fhort, whether he flies or fights, it is merely to fafe his life. In the following fection the Author gives an account of a remarkable revolution, which happened in the year 1757, in the country of the Calmuck Zougore Tartars, who live to the fouth of Siberia, and whofe country extends from the goth to the 120th degree of longitude, and from the 35th to the 48th degree of latitude. This populous nation, who on different occafions have brought armies of 150,000 men into the field, was, after a war of ten years, totally extirpated by the Chinese; the small and miferable remains of it, to the amount of 20,000 families, having fled into Siberia, and fettled on the borders of the Volga, under the protection of Ruffia. The Author gives an account of their religion, collected with great pains from conversations which he had with two of their ambaffadors, whom he reprefents as of an amiable and communicative difpofition, and who were foliciting the affiftance of Ruffia at the very time when their country was no more. The information which he received from them was afterwards authenticated by one of their Lamas or priefts, whom he found at Petersburgh. He collected several of their idols, fome of which are formed of copper, brass, bronse or earth, and others painted on cloth. Thefe he has depofited in the Royal Obfervatory at Paris, as monuments of an extinct people, and of their mythology, and as fpecimens, fo far as they go, of the ftate of the arts among them. Several plates of thefe idols are here given, accompanied with a particular defcription. One of these represents the female divinity, Bourfa, whom we lately mentioned as having a power afcribed to her of curing the venereal disease. The two Calmuck ambassadors, on their return from Peterburgh, found themselves in a condition to folicit her affiftance, and, in full confidence of her power, applied to the Author for a little of the powder rafped from her earthen idol in his poffeffion. The Anti-fyphilick divinity, we find, was not propitious to them on this occafion. Towards the end of our Author's aftronomical operations at Tobolfk, he was feized with a spitting of blood, which induced him to haften his departure from a country where no other re * Review for October, p. 286. medies are used or known, except ftoves and vapour-baths. He had indeed brought with him a medicine-cheft excellently stored, together with a paper particularly specifying the virtues of its contents and as, according to Pope, Ward tried on puppies; and the poor, his drop; our Author had made the firft effay of his medical powers on a rugged Ruffian, who had a flight indifpofition, and very nearly poifoned him. He was little difpofed, after this, to practife upon himself; but fhut up his medicine cheft, and left Tobolsk on the 28th of Auguft 1761, taking his route by Ekatering-. bourg, through the fouthern parts of Siberia, very much to the fatisfaction of the people of Tobolfk, who attributed to him the overflowing of the river Irtizs, which, juft at the time of his arrival, drowned the whole plain, as far as the eye could reach, on which the city ftands, and which they were con vinced would not return into its bed till after his departure. At Sowialova the Author was ftruck with the fingular appearance and drefs of the people who inhabit that place, who are called Wotiakes. Their height does not in general exceed four feet and a few inches. The females add a foot to their height. by a very fingular head-drefs, not much unlike a bee-hive, covered with a fringed cloth, embroidered with thread and wool of various colours. The Ruffians have long been employed in converting this people to Chriftianity: the Author did not find however that they had the leaft idea of that religion, but that they retain all their old fuperftitions. He found a Ruffian miffionary among them, who did not understand a word of their language, but who was nevertheless Chriftianifing them at a very great rate; that is, baptizing them, and teaching them, we fuppofe, to bawl hallelujah precifely three times, which muft improve them mightily. In his approach towards Cafan, in the latitude of 55°. 47′, the Author found the face of the country continually improving upon him. His eyes, hitherto accustomed only to the fight of the fir-trees of Siberia, were captivated with the view of or chards containing fruit trees, and of oaks, the first which he had feen fince his arrival in Ruffia. He here enjoyed the luxury of eating white bread; and in a vifit which he made to the governor, a Tartar prince, was regaled with water-melons, which are not only common at this place, but in the Author's opinion are fuperior to any which he had before tafted. He was accordingly induced to procure fome of the feed, which he fowed at his return to Paris, but without fuccefs. When we confider the country which he had juft quitted, we doubt whether the Abbé's organs of tafte did not impofe upon him, on this occafion. At Tobolsk the Author was invited to a magnificent dinner, at which a fingle apple, of the fize of a crab, the in Ff2 tire |