In remarkable contrast with the little modest cabriolet of the roadmaking and measuring emperor is the great triumphant car, with its flags and kettle-drums, which Peter the Second drove before the band of his guards, at the time when the ladies wore hoop -petticoats and the gentlemen long perriwigs. Paul's rocking-horse ; Peter the Tliird's IIolstein cuirassiers, who were so great a cause of vexation to the native Russians ; Senka Rasin's state chair of ebony, garnished with rude pistols instead of lace ; the uniform of General Mdoradovitsh, in which the hole made by the buUet that pierced his heart in the revolt of the 14th of December, is yet to be seen- — all furnish employment for the imagination of the historian.
In this collection, the accoutrements of neighbouring states have not been neglected ; even the equipments of the Japanese and Chinese may here be studied. The cuirasses and coats of mail of the Japanese guards are made of tortoisesheU, which cover the whole body, and are put together in smaU scales : the face is concealed in a black mask representing an open-mouthed dragon. The Chinese soldier is clothed from head to foot in thickly-wadded cotton : if he cannot move about much in battle he must be, at aU events, in some measure protected against arrows and cudgels. Grimacing masks are also in use among them. The timid have ev^ry where a great wish to infuse into others, by means of disguises, that terror v/iiich they cannot inspire by their own courage. The Chinese weapons aj^pear to have the same aim : among them is a halberd, of which the edge of the axe is nearly six feet long, an instrument of mmder which would require a free space of ten feet diameter for every soldier to wield properly ; it seems destined for the destruction of giants, but a Roman soldier with his short sword would have been quite safe from them. Countless as are the uniforms, there is scarcely one to which the Russians have not once been opposed, the Japanese not excepted — and scarcely one from which they have not torn some trophy of victory.
Those in the arsenals of St. Petersbiu'g are splendid silver shields of Turkish leaders ; Polish, Prussian, French, and Persian flags ; and at least a thousand ells of silk in Turkish standards, besides a whole heap of crescents taken from the mosques. In one room we have an opportunity of admiring the singidar forms of keys among various nations belonging to Persian, Grusinian, and Turkish fortresses stormed by the Russians. By every bunch of keys is a view of the city that surrendered them.
A cannon -foundry is annexed to the new arsenal, where a powerful
The command of the emperor to deposit the uniform of a general or commander in a public place, the arsenals of St. Petersbm-g or Moscow, or in any church, is a peculiar distinction which has only fallen to the lot of a few patriots. '
steam-engine is at work. The borers are held firm, and the heavy metal pieces of ordnance are made to turn on them by steam-engine ; more force is thus given to the thrust by their own weight than the hghter borer could impart. I should like to see the man who has now and then cast a glance on the dial-plate of time, and could walk among these fire vomiters without emotion. Truly, in the schools, in the workshops, they are labouring also at the grandeur of the empire : the merchant in his speculations, and the mechanic improving in his manipulations, are toiling indirectly to increase its power and extent ; but the cannon-founder stands in more immediate reference to future battle, and all his work betrays too evidently his hostile purpose. Every touchhole that he bores, every gun's mouth that he polishes, excites, in a warlike and growing state like Russia, hope fear, compassion, and the lust of battle.
From this foundry, the marine as well as the land artillery is supplied ; we saw here guns to carry 1 20 pound balls. God give these monsters full draughts from Ocean's beakers and sink them to his lowest depths, where, oblivious of their fires, they may become the life-bowls of the shark, and a safe dwelling and deposit for the oyster and its brood ! Such must, in fact, be the destiny of many. The workman loiows not whether he toils at a fire-vomiter or a water-drinker — at a giver of death or a protector of life — at a hm'ler of thunder or a house for a mute fish.