The assembly, which is by no means in all its elements " gentlemanlike," and where an Englishman may feel much silent disgust at the obtrusive Polish Jew, Tartar, or Bokharian, is in the highest degree interesting to one who knows the interior of the country, and can rightly interpret the dumb pantomime, or listen to the long echo that a few words spoken in this hall, finds m the vast countries lying beyond. The broker notes down with a pencil some thousand cwts. of tallow ; on either side a nod is given, and sentence of death has gone forth against hundreds of oxen grazing in unconscious innocence in their far father-kind. What wnting and talking — what hallooing to herdsmen — what toil and trouble — what a waste of breath and sweat of brow — what scenes of blood and slaughter, will have resulted from that simple nod, before the doomed fat can have found its way to the Neva, and from the Neva through the east, west, and northern seas to London, — tiU. at last, in Dublin or Glasgow, or heaven knows what other corner of the earth, the order is given to John to bring in the candles, when the product of this thousand-fold turmoil wastes away into the aU-dissolving element !
" Gospodin MuUer and Co. don't you want some of my ship timber, I think you will be satisfied with what I can offer you," says a long-bearded caftan to a German great-coat with both hands in its pockets. " We will try you, Gospodin Paulow. Note down for me 1200 mast timbers first size, 6000 yards, and 3000 score of oak planks 1^ foot broad and two inches thick," answers MuUer and Co. without a shadow of a thought of the myriads of wood-pigeons and owls which his reckless commission has driven forth nestless to the four winds of heaven ; of the chorus of hamadryads groaning under the strokes of the pitiless axes of the ruthless peasants of Vologda and Viatka. In his inveterately prosaic fancy, does he even dream of the desolation that a few days wiU cause in those primeval forests, or among the gnomes and sylphs who have rejoiced for ages in their shades ? Muller and Co. know and care nothing about it. In a year and a half (for so long it must be before the mighty trees which the merchant's word of power have uprooted from their native soil will find their way through the watery veins of interior Russia) the timber will appear on the Neva : so much will then be put down to the credit, so much to the debit side of the account, due notice will be sent of its arrival in London, and little recks MuUer and Co. what flag shall dare the breeze from, those lofty masts, what seas shall be traversed by that timber, what rock shall rend its strong sides asunder, or in what unknown depths of the Antarctic Sea it shall slowly decompose. The hall of the St. Petersburg Exchange is so large that the music of all the regiments of guards might conveniently find an echo there ; but it is built for whispers only. What is spoken aloud are trifles : " How is your lady ?" " We had a charming day on the Neva." " A.'s is a good place to dine at." " I think it is more comfortable at B.'s ;" &c. But when a few heads are seen close together, speaking piano, pianissimo, and fencing off tlie circle so closely with their backs that a mouse could not make its way through, something more important is going on. " It is too much: three thousand" — " fourfive" — " twenty
—a hundred thousand"—" October," " Novembei," « London," " Hull," " Baltimore"—" WeU, I'll take it"—" It's a bargain, Mr. Curtius."