The director of the Foundling Hospital of St. Petersburg is a German, from one of the Baltic provinces. Indeed, nearly all the charitable institutions in Russia are presided over by Germans. When I went to pay my respects to him, I found him busily writing in an elegant study ; and as his work did not admit of delay, he invited me to sit down till he had finished. There is some interest in examining the study of a man through whose hands there pass annually from 600 to 700 millions of rubles (for that is supposed to be the amount of revenue belonging to the hospital), and on whose judgment depends, in a great measure, the welfare of nearly 30,000 human beings ; and I was therefore not sorry of the leisure thus afforded me for contemplating the director's birds and flowers, for some notion may be formed of a man's character from an examination of the objects by which he chooses to be habitually surrounded.
At length the director laid his pen acide, and said to me in a friendly tone, " Now, sir, I am at your service. Put what questions you please to me, and then we will go and see whatever you wish to see." And thereupon he proceeded, while walking up and down the room, to inform me of the history, condition, and statistics of the vast institution.
The Vospitatehioi Dom, or House of Education, of St. Petersburg, is of more recent origin than that of Moscow, of which it was only a dependent branch, when instituted by Catherine in 1770. The new establishment was at first one of very Hmited extent, containing, in 1790, not more than 300 children. Since the commencement of the present century, the number has increased with astonishing rapidity, for in 1837 no less than 25,600 of the rising generation were under the direction of this colossal institution. The number of children annually brought in has been continually on the increase. In 1829 the number amounted to upwards of 3000, from 1830 to 1833 it was between 4000 and 5000, and from 1834 to 1837 between 5000 and 7000.
No condition is annexed to the reception of the children ; all are received, and the government has hitherto provided with the utmost Hberality for the increasing wants of the hospital. The original endowment of Catherine was insignificant compared to the present wealth of the establishment, which has been enriched by presents from private individuals, and by large gifts fi'om Alexander, Paul, and Nicholas, till it has become one of the wealthiest landed proprietors in Russia, not to speak of some dozens of milHons lent out on mortgage. Alexander, moreover, made a gift to the hospital of the monopoly of cards, and of the revenue of the Lombard ; ajid the constant ebbing and flowmg that goes on in the St. Petersburg purses, makes the Lombard a place of very great importance. Thus it is that, in one way or another, the annual revenues of the Foundling Hospital do not fall short of from 600 to 700 milhons of rubles, or about twice the amount of the national revenue of Prussia. The annual expenses of the institution are estimated at 5,200,000 rubles, and in 1837 the buildings then in progress for its accommodation were expected to cost two inillions. Among others, a neat church was in the course of erection, on which it was intended to expend 600,000 rubles.
Within St. Petersburg itself are the principal buildings, where the children are usually kept during the first six weeks, after which they are sent out to nurse among the peasantiy, within a circuit of about 1 30 versts. When about six years old, they are taken from their foster-parents, and the girls return to St. Petersburg for their education, while the boys are sent to a branch establishment at Gatshina.
It must not be supposed that the buildings at St. Petei-sburg have at all the air of a school or hospital ; on the contrary, their spaciousness and magnificence give them rather the appearance of palaces. The Vospitatelnoi Dom, with its courts and gardens and its dependent buildings, occupies a space of 30,000 square toiges,f close to the Fontanka, and therefore in the best part of the town. The main building is composed of what was formerly the palaces of Prince Bobrinski and Count Rasuinoffski. These were purchased for the institution, but a number of additional buildings were erected, and the whole may now be said to form a little district of its own.
The establislinient where money is lent on pledges, an institution which in almost every contin'ontiQ state is in the hands of the government, t More than 28 English acres.