Peter the Great designed Vassili Ostrof from the first for the seat of commerce, and it was his intention to have intersected it with canals, after the fashion of Amsterdam, which in his judgment presented the very model for a commercial city. Some of these canals were actually cut, but were afterwards filled up again, and the whole plan was eventually abandoned. Vassili Ostrof, as it now stands, looks as unlike Amsterdam as any thing can well be imagined. The houses have the air of palaces ; the clerks that move among them are all handsomely dressed, the equipages are elegant, and the streets unincumbered by drays or waggons. The warehouses of the merchants are either at Cronstadt, or, at all events, away from the dwelling-houses.
The Petersburg Island, which is in turn divided by smaller arms of the river from the Apothecary Island, the Petrofskoi Island, &c., owes its chief interest to the citadel, which from the tower of the Admiralty may be examined in all its details. It is weU that the people of St. Petersburg have other things to think of, than the evident destination of this bristling fortress imbosomed in the very centre of their city, where it can command nothing but the town itself, and would be harmless to a foreign enemy. The citadel is certainly not maintained as a means of defending, but as a means of controlHng, the city ; as a refuge for the imperial family and the heads of the state, either in case of a foreign invasion, or of a domestic insurrection. Against an attack from the sea-side, St. Petersburg has no other fortification than Cronstadt. Should this ever be forced by a maritime foe, the defenceless capital will have more cause than her assailants to tremble at the dangerous weapon that she carries in her breast. Nor is such an event beyond the range of likelihood. England is the only great power with which there seems to be any probability that Russia will come into collision. The Russian Baltic fleet could not maintain itself against the combined fleets of England, Denmark, and Sweden. The Russian ships, after the loss of a battle, would have to retire behind Cronstadt. Should Cronstadt then yield, either to the gold or to the artillery of the enemy, the Russian garrison would be forced to seek shelter in the citadel, the English men-of war would enter the Neva, and in the cannonade that would probably ensue, the finest part of the capital might be laid in ashes by the fire of its own citadel. The mortification of such a catastrophe would drive the government to realize the idea frequently entertained, of returning to the ancient capital, the City of the Czars, to the Kremlin of Moscow ; Petersburg would shrink together into a mere maritime city of trade, and Vassili Ostrof would perhaps be all that would remain of it.
No modern city can boast that it is so entirely composed of palaces and colossal buildings as St. Petersburg. Even the dwellings of the poor have a show of magnificence about them. There are several houses in the town in which thousands of human beings have their residence. The Winter Palace, for instance, has 6000 inhabitants; in the Infantry Hospital 4000 beds are made up; in the Foundling Hospital there are 7000 children; and in the Corps of Cadets there are some thousands of those young gentlemen. There are single houses from which their owners derive princely revenues. Of many the annual rental exceeds 50,000 rubles, of some 100,000. The ground occupied by the Corps of Cadets forms a square of which each side is about a quarter of an English mile in length. There are other buildings, such as the Admiralty, the Hotel de I'Etat Major, the Tauride Palace, &c., that occupy ground enough for a small town. Then come buildings of a second rank, such as the Smolnoi Convent; the Neva Convent; the Commercial Bank; several hospitals and barracks; the hemp, tallow, and other magazines; the Marble Palace; the Imperial Stables; and the old palace of the Grand Duke Michael. Next come what may be called the buildings of a third rank: the large theatres, the large churches, the smaller hospitals, &c.