Peter's statue stands in the centre of the city he created, but not, imfortunately, in the centre of the noble place it adorns. They have hit the point better with the Alexander pillar. Before the chief front of the Winter Palace the vast edifice of the Generalty expands its enormous bow, to which the strait line of the palace front forms the string. Between the bow and the string, at a Hke distance from either, the stately column rears itself. It is the greatest monoHth raised in modem times — above 80 feet in height, and, with the angel on its summit, and the cubic block that supports it, 1 50 feet. The eye is delighted with the slender form of tliis giant ; it is highly pohshed, and reflects the outHnes of the surroimding buildings in its cylindrical mirror. In any other city its enormous size would make a greater impression. Here in St. Petersburg, where the eye expands with the vast surrounding spaces, it is seen under a smaller angle of vision. The place in which it stands is so vast in its dimensions, the houses around are so high and massive, that even this giant requires its whole hundred and eighty feet not to disappear. But when we approach and become aware of its circumference, while its head seems to reach the heavens, the impression is strong and overpowering. The best points of view are the gateways of the Generalty and the Winter Palace ; from them it is contemplated as in a frame, and a pomt of measurement gained for the eye by which the height may be estimated. It is incomprehensible why the crown of the pillar has been made so wide and heavy. It extends so far over the shaft that the large angel with the cross is not to be seen from beneath, and miglit as well not be there. To look at it properly we must ascend the second story of the Palace, or go the distance of a verst on the Admiralty Place to observe it thence with a telescope. The thick-headedness of the pillar injures the effect of the height. Tliis can be proved by a little experiment under the arch of the Palace. Place yourself so that the arch hides the top of the pillar, and it appears enormous : step forward, and let the thick head of it come in sight, and it looks as if it had fallen on it and was pressing the column down, whereas it ought to raise it. The worst of all is, that aheady an abominable worm is gnawing at this beautiful and still so new monolith. It has already received a very sad and offensive rent from above towards the middle. It may be that tho stone was at first badly chosen, or that the cold of St. Petersburg will not tolerate such monuments of liunian art. There arc people in St. Petersburg who hold it for a patriotic duty to deny the existence of the rent, which has been artfully i/lled with a cement of granite fragments. But in the sunshine, when the polish of the rent shows differently from that of the stone ; or in the winter, when the hoar-frost forms in icicles on the cold stone, but not on the warmer cement, the wicked line is but too apparent.
The idea of this column is, like every thing else in Russia, rehgiopohtical. It was erected in honour of the Emperor Alexander, and is meant to eternalize, with his memory, that of the re-confirmation of the political constitution and of the security of religion. The attack of the irreligious, unbelieving Napoleon, is considered in Russia, not only as an attack on the state, but also as one on the faith. Hence the erection of the angel with the cross on the summit. This column, whose capital and ornaments on the pedestal were formed from Turkish cannon, throws into one category all the enemies of Russia, the Turks, the French, &c., and is the sealing, ratification, and immortahzation of all the modem victories of the Russian eagle. Till the present time this monument is the summit of Russian glory. God knows what catastrophe vrill next give occasion to surpass those 150 feet. Will the inscription on the next monument run thus ? " The victorious Slavonian nations, united under the Russian sceptre, erected this monument ingratitude for the conquest of the German races whose century of injustice has been at last atoned for, the dominions wrested from the Slavonians having been again incorporated with the Slavonian empire."