of those persons were unfitted by their previous
habits for any other callings than those from
which they had been ejected. Yet no nation has
ever offered to wisdom and valour such speedy,
and such splendid rewards. By her wise
magnanimity she has attracted to her land, much of the
wit and nerve of foreign countries. Youngest
among the sisterhood of nations, she has
borrowed the best jewels of the rest.

Even the imperial family are foreigners rather
than Russians. Every soldier who had a brave
heart and a stout arm has been sure of a right
royal welcome here. To the artist and to the
man of science, Russia has awarded admiration,
respect, wealth; to the mechanic or the
labourer, she has given that which has raised him
far higher than he could ever have hoped to rise
in other countries. This is the policy to which
England owes, not only much of her commercial
prosperity, but much of her fame in arts and
arms. The gain of Russia has been equally large.
The bravest of the brave chiefs who kept the
walls of Sebastopol against the united strength
of four great nations, was a German also. The
first ambassador whom England sent to the court
of Russia, was an Englishman who had won
renown and fortune in the Russian service. Some
of her largest landowners are French, but one of
the finest estates in the south was given to a
General Cobley, an Englishman, and has now
passed by inheritance to an Italian. The docks
at Sebastopol were built by an Englishman.
The lucrative wool trade of the south, is chiefly
in the hands of Frenchmen. The largest mercantile
house in the Azoff, is English. The corn
trade is in the hands of Greeks. The chief
bankers in Russia are Jews. The retail shop-
keepers are chiefly French and Germans; but
the best retail trade in Russia has been for many
years the property of an English firm, Messrs.
Nicholls and Plinkie. I live in one of a row of
fourteen of the stateliest palaces in Europe: four
belong to Italians, four belong to Jews, two belong
to Frenchmen, one belongs to a German, and
the remaining three are public offices. In no
country has even second and third-rate ability
been so handsomely and universally
acknowledged.

Therefore, when I, with many others, was first
cast upon the world, we were much dispirited;
many of us were not disposed, and are not yet
disposed, to do full justice to the motives which
dictated our dismissal. Hence the present
discontents. Those discontents are very serious, for
they are very widely spread. It is hard to do
good, without doing evil also. God send the
emperor safely through the noble and arduous
task he has undertaken! It is unfortunately too
true that at this moment no class in the vast
Russian empire can be called contented. A
powerful and wealthy nobility have lost much of
their authority, and as they fear, though
groundlessly, much of their wealth. Commercial
restrictions have only partially been removed.
The peasantry feel that they have been duped by
half measures. The very students, carrying angry
thoughts away from their homes, have broken
out into insubordination, and are now wandering
by hundreds, filled with the restless thoughts of
youth half taught, and quite undisciplined.

I was never one of those dangerous malcontents
who now swarm over the country. If a
little sad at my dismissal, I was at least
resigned to it. I come of a peaceful family. My
father was an old servant of the state, and
the emperor rewarded him with a royal hand.
His large experience taught me both the
wisdom and the reasons which lead to hope.
Soon, also, my good character in the regiment,
and, what my superiors were good enough to call
my former services, singled me out for further
employment; and one day our little family were
much pleased and rather startled to find that I
had been appointed captain of a fine steamer,
belonging to the Imperial Steam Navigation and
Trading Company. It was the only place that
could be found for me, I suppose; anyhow, I
accepted it with thanks, and set about to render
myself fit for it. But I remember the first time
we lit our fires, and I stood on the paddle-box
shouting out my orders, that the sailing-vessels
and small tugs in the offing showed rather a
nervous alacrity to get out of my way, and that
I steamed out of the harbour, having a very wide
berth indeed.

My new masters have about fifty vessels of
various tonnage. They are liberal, and my place
is a pleasant one—well paid, honourable, easy.
The company have given employment to many
of the officers of the late Black Sea fleet, and
numerous other persons similarly circumstanced
have found good pay and good quarters under its
protection. But the truth is, we are not sailors.
Our navigation is distinguished by courage rather
than by seamanship. We go out in all weathers,
but we more often come to grief than otherwise.
We are terrible fellows for running into small
colliers, and merchantmen generally. Not
unfrequently we lose our reckoning and don't
exactly know where we are: so we now and then—
in fact rather oftener than otherwise—get ashore.
We are not ashamed of it. We have no need
to be so; for if we have not much of the
knowledge and experience of Cooks and Franklins,
we have warm hearts under our smart military-
looking uniforms, and have more than once
rendered kind and gratuitous services, even to
British men-of-war, in distress from chance or
circumstance. I do not say this boastingly as of
myself; I say it in the name of my countrymen
and comrades. I have never had the good
fortune to be of much use to others; but I hope,
if occasion offered, I would try to do my best.

At all events, though I, like many of my
brother-officers, have not been brought up to
sailoring, we cannot do much harm. Our ships
are mostly English built, and are stout and sea-
worthy. We have English stokers and pokers,
and a good many English hands on board; for
we pay handsomely, and our own sailors are