The flags are dreaded above all, for St. Petersburg knows its weak side to be that turned towards the sea. About fire they concern themselves little ; for if a St. Petersburger were to get out of bed for every fire, he would scarcely ever have a quiet night. " I went to my window one evening in my house on the English quay,"' said a friend of mine once to me, " and saw a great fire somewhere. Wliere is that fire ?" I inquired of my servant. " Oh, some houses are on fire on the Viborg side !" " But there is another!" " That is the galley harbour in flames !" " And from a third window I saw a third fire I" " That is the Winter Palace," said my servant. There is hardly a public building or a quarter in St. Petersburg that has not been at some time or other a prey to the flames. The carelessness of the people, the many stoves which must be heated through the greater part of the year, the numerous lamps kept burning day and night before the pictures of saints, — and more than all, the immense quantity of wood used in building, are the causes of those frequent conflagrations. Petersburg has more wood, consequently more fires, than Berlin ; Berlin more than Vienna where stone is more in use. The Russian government is directing its attention to the transformation of St. Petersburg and other cities into stone ; and this petrifying process has already made such progress in Moscow, that a second conflagration like that of 1812 would be impossible ; if, therefore, another Napoleon came, he would be harder to drive out. The more Russia becomes civilized, the easier will she be to attack from the west.
The following details are selected from the journal of the minister of the interior :
The increase in the use of coals in St. Petersburg has kept pace with the increasing industry of the city. In the year 1822 St. Petersburg consumed but 8000 chaldrons, 10,000 in 1829, 13,700 in 1834, and in 1840, 20,000.
In St. Petersburg, which lies so far distant from its inland salt-mines, the greater part consumed in St. Petersburg is foreign salt, Norwegian, Portuguese, and German ; 30,000 poods of native, to above 400,000 poods of foreign salt.
There are fewer suicides in St. Petersburg than in any capital in Europe On an average, not 50 occur in a year ; for every 10,000 inhabitants, therefore, not more than one yearly lays violent hands on himself. Taking the average period of life at 35 years, not more than one out of 300 commits suicide.
ELEMENTS OF THE POPULATION.
No city in Europe contains so many nobles, so many serfs, and so many soldiers as St. Petersburg. Among its 500,000 inhabitants 50,000 are nobles, I 1 0,000 serfs, and 70,000 soldiers. Therefore every tenth man m St. Petersburg is a noble, every fourth a seif, and every seventh a soldier.
The most important members of the population are of course the nobles
and the niercliants. The division of the town property between these two classes is remarkable. If the whole were divided into 154 shares, the nobles would hold 63, and the merchants 70 shares. The number of merchants is estimated at 10,000; the nobles, as before said, at 50,000. Then on an averag-e, every merchant has more than five times as much land in the city as the nobleman. Of course what the nobles possess without the city does not enter into this calculation. The above relation shows, however, plainly, of what importance the mercantile class is to the internal affairs of the capital. The class of artisans have only seven shares in the 154, and the foreigners, who, naturally, as much as possible, avoid purchasing, have only two shares.