The case is much the same with their temperance as with their honesty. The nation is inclined to cheating from top to bottom, and yet people most pedantically honest may be found amongst them, and a hundred instances might be cited in wliich a Russian rogue would be more punctiliously honourable than a German Herrnhuter ; the whole nation is most undeniably voluptuous and addicted to intemperance, and yet affords examples, not only of exemplary sobriety, but there are times when tlie most intolerable bibber amongst them will practise the severest abstinence. It is said that the Russians surpass all other nations m the con-
The iadiivois are eoniinon musliiks, who act as couriers in tlie imperial palaces. They may be seen gall()piiiT about on their meau^re steeds in all directions in and about St. Petersbnrji;, charged M'ith messages of various kinds. At first they receive a few rubles monthly, as salary, but in time rise to more lucrative situation in the imiKTial household.
sumption of brandy, and yet strange to say it does not seem to do them much injury. The fearful lessons given by Hogarth in his celebrated pictiue " Gin Lane," are httle applicable in this country ; these people who as infants have had drams administered by their depraved mothers, reach the age of eighty and a hundred years, and are withal as fresh and healthy as if they had swallowed so much new milk ; they may say of brandy, what Voltaire, in his eightieth year, said of coffee, — that it must be very slow poison. When they get any money, they are seen to swallow this unholy fire-water in incredible quantities, not sipping it out of thimble-sized glasses, as we do, but out of tumblers, or, yet more unceremoniously, out of the great pewter measures in which it is handed to them. Women, girls, boys, and even sucklings (Hterally I mean) take a share, which in other countries would have the worst consequences. Nevertheless, there are individuals to be found who have never put their lips to brandy, and others who will sometimes make a vow against drinldng, and keep it, for years together. As extremes meet, and are said to call forth each other, there are also individuals, who after exhibiting examples of sobriety in their persons, seem all at once attacked bv a perfect frenzy of drimkenness ; and for months together will be found in a situation that assimilates them to the beast. In Lesser Russia, where the brandy idol has his chief seat, and where on holidays whole villages of drunken people may be found, this strange madness has most form and substance, it would be well worth while for all who have any cognizance of the facts therewith connected, to put the result of their observations together. The Russians look on this mania for drunkenness as a disease, and call it Sapoi.
The great sums which the government draws from the monopoly of brandy, the enormous wealth of the Otkuptshiks (the brandy farmers) who invariably giow rich by their thrice shameful trade, the ruined circumstances of hundi-eds and thousands, are the sad testimonials of the degree in which this poisonous flame -emitting idol rules tliis land, to whose altars all throng to offer up in sacrifice their own welfare, and the welfare of their families, and for whose insnaring gifts all pine and lust with a greediness of desire, that awakens at once the deepest disgust and the strongest compassion. The poor tormented soldier knows no other means of forgetting his condition for a moment but brandy ; the most fervent prayer of the beggar is for brandy ; the servants and peasants thank you for brandy as for God's best gift.
In the countless booths and drinking-houses in St. Petersburg in the year 1827, brandy and other liquors were sold to the amount of eight millions of rubles ; in 1833 to eight millions and a half. That gives for every inhabitant, women and children included, twenty rubles yearly for brandy, or about two and a quarter pailfuls. If we exclude the children, foreigners, persons of rank, and the sick, we may fonn an idea, what immoderate topers there must remain amongst the adults of the Tschomoi narod ! The government is endeavouring to bring beer more into use, and thereby diminish the consumption of brandy. It is therefore consolatory to hear that beer is now better made and much more dnmk in St. Petersburg than formerly. In 1827 the amount consumed in beer and niead was forty-two thousand i-ubles ; in 1 832 seven hundred and sixty thousand rubles. In the last four years the consumption of brandy in St. Petersburg increased in the following ratio : — 100, 105, 110, 115,
somewhat less than the increase of the population ; the consumption of beer as 1, 3, 6, 11. The finer kinds of brandy and liquors show the greatest increase ; a proof that the taste is more refined, and that the amateurs must be on the increase among the upper classes.