The dehghtful hospitality, the cheerful, friendly, social spirit which reigns at Dorpat, as throughout the Baltic provinces, is probably the cause of the extreme dearth of all literary, that is, bookwriting acti\'ity. It is very seldom indeed, that the Baltic Provinces give birth to a book of the least importance or interest. Now at Dorpat alone there are forty professors, and in the rest of the Baltic provinces about eighty more. When to these we add the many hundreds of preachers, lawyers, and tutors, who have studied and still study, we shall easily find some thousands of the inhabitants who have the requisite ability and leisure to communicate their ideas and the results of their experience to the world, through the medium of the press. AJl these men, put together, only published 122 works of any kind, from the 1st of January, 1840, to the 1st of October of the same year. Of these, seven were in Latin, seven in Russian, six in Esthonian, eighteen in Lettish, and eightyfour in German. The Latin were dry dissertations of Dorpat professors, The Lettish and Esthonian were religious tracts, prayer-books, and small religious tales. The eighty-four German works consisted chiefly of birthday and funeral odes, small songs and pieces of music, dedications, reports of Bible societies, and other such trifles. I sought in vain among them for one book of any importance.
The whole Baltic provinces have about twenty periodicals ; six political (at Reval, Libau, Pernau, Mitau, Riga, and Dorpat), four literary, and three scientific papers ; a few devoted to the Lettes and Esthonians, and then a few official papers.
As in these provhices every literary and scientific undertaking of Germany finds its echo, the numerous societies and associations lately instituted among us have met with imitators here. Female associations, musical societies, singing clubs, benevolent associations, Bible societies, literary societies, and scientific societies, abound as in Germany. The following are the principal literary and scientific associations.
Istly. The Courland Society of Literature and Art— 2dly. The Riga Society of History and Antiquities— 3dly. The Literary Society of the Lettes at Mitau — 4thly. The learned Esthonian Association at Dorpat — and, othly. The Literary and Practical Association of Burghers at Riga. The collections of the University are not very important. The hbrary contains 30,000 volumes. The zoological and mineralogical collections are very small, though prettily arranged. The greatest lion is in the collection of astronomical instruments ; a gigantic refractor presented to
Dorpat by the Emperor Alexander. Of all the collections of the University, however, that of plants, in the Botanical Garden, is the most complete. It contains more than 15,000 living plants, among which are many not to be found in other botanical gardens of Em-ope.
There are but three booksellers at Dorpat. This is little enough, but the professors generally send to Germany for what books they want. Dorpat has had armed fraternities, hke Riga, which here as there have dwindled into mere convivial clubs. Among the treasures of the association are preserved many bacchanalian ciu'iosities ; such as a magnificent goblet of glass and gold, two feet high, in the side of which are engraved a beetle, a humming bird, and a butterfly. Whoever could only drink to the beetle was fined two bottles, whoever came to the humming-bird only one, and whoever reached the butterfly was exempt from fine. Dorpat has now 12,000 inhabitants, and its number is perpetually increasing. It belongs to the towns of the second rank, such as Mitau and Reval. AU the large towns of the Baltic provinces are continually increasing in population, and the smaller ones decreasing. The reasons of this rise and fall are too complicated to be entered upon at present, but I shall take a later opportunity to make a few remarks upon them.
Pernau, a cheerful little town, stands in the same relation to Riga as Windau does to Libau ; it lies at the mouth of the river Pernau, and contains about 6000 inhabitants. The Pernau flows from east to west, and joining the river Embach, runs across Livonia into the Peipus lake. Tliese natural advantages determine the commercial relations of the place. Its chief trade is with Dorpat, though the continuous line of navigation between the two towns has been made, in some measure, unserviceable by mills and other works. About 100 ships, in all, yearly come and go to Pernau, and they employ a capital of about 4,000,000 of rubles. The exports are principally corn, wood, and Unseed ; the imports consist entirely of herrings and salt.