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Storch's Materials: "The custom of treating guests with various kinds of intoxicating liquors is fallen into difüfe even in the villages;" the author, probably, only meant to intimate,. that, except at meals, thefe liquors are no longer prefented to strangers, as perhaps formerly they were in the place of the tea or coffee ufual among us. I also found the ufe of punch very general in Petersburg: as far as my experience goes, feldom is an evening spent in company without a bowl of that liquor. However, I never obferved any thing that could be interpreted to countenance or excufe a flight degree of inebriation in perfons of the female fex; except perhaps that expreffion means no thing farther, than what we find take place in other countries. A certain vivacity after a few glaffes of champagne cannot furely be found fault with even in the moft polifhed nation of Europe. I must add another obfervation, which fhews that perfons of the higher orders in Ruffia are gradually becoming weaned from the habits of drunkennels; for, however prevalent the ufe of brandy before meals, yet I obferved that at Mofcow young folks abftained from it until their 25th year; and fuch as allowed themfelves ever fo little, were confidered as deferving of repre

henfion.

Neither among the lower claffes have I found that general drunkenness, of which they are even now accused; with refpect either to the number of days, or of the number of individuals who are habitually addicted to that vice. Not on all feaft days, of which Meiners, as quoted above, enumerates 204, and on the days immediately following, do we obferve any ftriking remains of the formerly reigning cuf.

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but only on fuch as precede or follow a long faft, as for example, the Christmas and Eafter holidays. During Shrove-tide week efpecially, which is properly the carnival of the common people, many a one is drawn along with the ftream, who at other feasons leads a very fober life. During that time Gmelin was

quently of a better fort than in Germany and France, except during the time when the prohibition of all French merchandife extended to wines. This favoured the introduction of Port-wine, and partly caused the

French wine in ftore to be adulterated.-The prohibition was fo ftrictly put in execution, that the Champagne that had been feized was poured into the freets; and at laft the importation of all red wine was prohibited, becaufe French wine had been imported under another

name.

obliged to defer the profecution of his journey, because it was difficult to find any perfon in a state of foberness; and even now in Mofcow they give travellers a caution to beware of that week; and poffibly fome inconveniences may then arife from the drunken poftilions-I fay may arife: for, in fact, it in fome measure happens to the inhabitants of Moscow as to the travellers themselves: the former no less than the latter think more of what

was ten or twenty years ago, than of what is at prefent the real state of things. In the carnival week, and efpecially on the Sunday following, I was cautioned not to venture on foot, or on a common fledge hired in the ftreet, among the crowd of innumerable carriages; whose confufion and entanglement in the partly very narrow streets, could excite no furprise, fhould the drivers be ever fo fober. However, notwithstanding the remonstrances of my friends, I ventured among them ; and did not experience, oblerve, or even hear of any material accident. But though during fuch feftivals the common people may be even at prefent much addicted to drinking; yet muft we thence as little form an opinion of their character and conduct in general, as of the inhabitants of the towns of France during the carnival, of the Saxon boor from his wakes and marriage-fealt of eight days duration, or of the common people in England from the drunken celebration of the king's birth-day, for which the failor, many thousand miles diftant from his country, and in the midit of the ocean, provides by being for several weeks more fparing in the expenditure of his money; as Reinhold Forfter fomewhere relates, Popular feftivals are in all countries accompanied with noife, tumult, and drunkennefs: the greater or lefs degree conftitutes the only difference: and as this is no longer very striking in Ruffia; we muft fix our attention not fo much on these irregularities, as on their common and general habits of life, and on the confequences that either really do, or might be expected to, fpring from them.

Storch, in his Picture of Ruffia, parti. p. 353, informs us, that between the age of twenty and fixty more perfons die in Petersburg than in London, and that of difeafes which are occafioned by the immoderate ufe of fpirituous and other ftrong liquors. This however

but little proves against the happy change that during the laft twenty years may have taken place with respect to the ufe of fpirits. For fuch a change cannot have any influence on the bills of mortality, till, after ten or 5 U 2

twenty

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twenty years befides, the regifters which Storch examined, reach no lower than 1790; and at any rate we ought not, from what happens in Petersburg, or even in Moscow, draw conclufions, concerning the whole empire. How numerous is in Petersburg that class of men, who in all great cities are not reckoned among the beft of the inhabitants, viz. the fervants of every denomination, and who there, more than in other places, are tempted to relieve by drinking the tedium attendant on their idle mode of life. Not only is their number much greater in proportion; but they are not even able, at least a part of them, to spend their leisure hours in reading, or in other fimilar enjoyments and paftimes. Tobacco, which in other countries contributes to difpel ennui, and to lull the mind to repofe, is not in ufe here. A fimilar want of refined, or at leaft innoxious, enjoyments, affects likewife the great body of Ruffian fhop-keepers and artificers; and though they have not fo much idle time to fill up, yet they have ftill leifure enough on their hands, and from their proportionally confiderable earnings more ability to procure to themselves their favourite brandy. To this must be added, that by far the greater part, as the fervants of the nobles and gentlemen, are either not married, or at least have not their wives and children refiding with them.* All this occurs likewife, if not wholly, at least in part, in the fecondary towns of Ruffia: and therefore the refults from the bills of mortality in Petersburg are more applicable to them, than fimilar conclufions from the greater to the fmaller cities in other countries.-But that in Ruffia it may be applied to the whole nation, I am greatly inclined to doubt from the following obfervations and matters of

fact.

During my journey to and from Mofcow, I never observed the smallest trace of drunkenness among the poft-boys; not even one of them ftopt on the road to drink, though fome of the ftages were from 18 to 24 miles long. Still more ftriking was the behaviour of the coachdrivers, with whom I twice travelled for feveral fucceffive days. During a dreadful fall of fnow, and an almost intolerable degree of cold, they fometimes drove for 18 miles without drinking a single glafs of

* According to Storch's Statistic View of the Ruffian Empire, there were reckoned in Petersburg, in 1789, 148,743 males, and only 69,463 females; a proportion which probably exifts in no other city on earth.

be

fpirits: and only on fome days at dinner afked a few copeks for that purpose. On the other days, neither at noon nor in the evening did they go to a public house. In the villages there are no accommodations for travellers at these public-houses; and they are obliged to take up their quarters at the firft beft boor's houfe. I can therefore affirm with a tolerable degree of certainty, that the expenditure of each driver during two days for fpirits did not exceed five copeks, for which only a small quantity can be purchased in the interior of Ruffia; with that fmall quantity, however, they were satisfied. Nor was their abftinence owing to a want of money: they performed the journey from Plefkow to Mofcow, without demanding in advance any part of the hire I had agreed to pay them. To draw a conclufion of the general character of a nation from the conduct of a few individuals, may undoubtedly deemed hazardous in moft cafes. But when among a clafs of men, who are cer tainly more than others expofed to the temptation, and who in other countries prove the ftrength of fuch temptation, no trace of the vice could be found, not even in twelve individuals (that was the number of drivers belonging to the company I travelled with) whom we had an opportunity of watching, and of whom only the finaller part had been hired in confequence of fome fort of recommendation, the others only by chance; fuch an obfervation is of itself of great weight, and becomes ftilk more important when it is confirmed by other obfervations, fuch as the following In the houses of the boors, in which I ufually put up at mid-day and in the evening (there were at least thirty of them, and always belonged to those who seemed to be in good circumftances)-I only once noticed in my hoft an inclination to drunkennefs, and even here his wife complained of it. A similar inftance I met with in only one fmall town. And the complaints of the wife may ferve as a proof, that, on the whole, the fentiments of the nation are greatly changed for the better; if indeed they ever were fo corrupt with refpect to drunkenness, as is pretended. People do not begin to complain of a fault, until they are convinced of its really being what it is.

Finally, we may oppofe one calculation to the other; and thereby place almoft beyond all doubt whatever may perhaps reFrom authentic acmain doubtful. counts, it appears, that in the year 1789, * Hupel's Staatsverf. des Ruff. R. part i. P. 412.

the

the government of Petersburg confumed 583,126 eimers of brandy, or malt fpirits; and the adjoining government of Plefkow, in the year 1783, not more than 127,000 eimer; although the number of inhabitants in the latter is hardly lefs than in the former, even though we should include in the calculation, the ftrangers who arrive in the fhips. Still fmaller in proportion is the confumption of brandy in the gavernment of Permi. The difference between the confumption in the fecondary cities, and the open country, appears from the following ftatement. For 799,000 inhabitants, only 164,831 eimers are required. Of thefe 164,831 eimers, the city of Plefkow and its diftrict confumes 40,000. If we allow for the city of Toropez and its diftrict, only 30,000 eimers, because it is not fo great a thoroughfare; then there remain for the other feven diftricts only 57,000 eimers; which number feems the more probably the true one, as the quantity used in the diftrict of. Petschuri is exprefsly ftated to amount to only 6000

eimers.

inhabitants of Freyberg and its environs to be 10,000, which is the highest that can be admitted according to the actual cenfus; the proportion annually for each individual would amount to 1o 44 kann; in the government of Plefkow, on the 'contrary, to 2o 82 kanns.

A comparison of the above statements with thofe in other countries would, in my opinion, clearly fhow, that excefs in drinking does not prevail in Ruffia to fuch an extent as is commonly imagined. If, in-`· deed, it were true that in Berlin, in 1797, only 4492 quarts of spirits were sold, as Biefter ftates in the Berlin Wochenblatt; the difference between that city and Petersburg would be fo enormous, that, all local circumftances confidered, ftill Peterburg muft certainly be confidered as an immenfe dram-fhop. But Biefter's Atatement is evidently falfe; being taken from the Annals of the Prussian Monarchy, which give the above quantity only as that fold in the thirteen licensed public-houses in Berlin. But how many other places are there not in that city, where fpirituous liquors are fold!

Of many cities I do not poffefs accurate information in this refpect. But one, of which I do poffefs fuch information, feems to be peculiarly adapted for drawing the comparifon. The city I allude to is Freyberg in Saxony, where there is no confiderable frade carried on, no particular clafs of men, whofe great earnings enable them to drink a great deal, and who really drink a great deal, as is the cate in manufacturing towns, and where on the whole no notorious excess prevails. In Freyberg, according to the statement of the duties paid to the city, 12,600 Drefden kanns were diftilled in 1797, and befides 1819 kanns inported. If we take the amount of the

This is undoubtedly ftill a very material difference. However, when treating of excefs and drunkenness, it must not be forgotten that in the Ruffian towns and cities almost every adult, of both fexes, and many likewife in country places, daily take a glafs of fpirits before every meal; and that this cuftom is followed by perfons of both fexes belonging to the middling claffes, who, among us, would on fuch occafions drink beer or wine instead of brandy or any other fpirituous liquors. If of 600,000 perfons we reckon 10,000 who are thus in the habit of drinking fpirits before meals; there will remain for the relt a quantity which is exactly proportionate to that confumed in Freyberg. However, did the proportion prove not wholly exact, we ought to make some allowance for the difference of climate, efpecially when a propenfity to drunkenness is made a trait of the character of the Ruffians.

For the Monthly Magazine.

ACCOUNT OF THE NEW METRICAL
SYSTEM OF FRANCE, WITH ITS EX-
ACT REDUCTION TO ENGLISH MEA-
SURE, AND ITS ADAPTATION TO SE-
VERAL PRACTICAL PURPOSES.

HIS is a new fet of measures, both
TH
for lengths, furfaces, capacities, and
weights, which the French nation has been
occupied about for many years. The fub-
ftance of the meafurements and operations
that have been carried on for this end, is
contained in feveral memoirs that have been
lately prefented to the National Institute
at feveral meetings; and a great number,
it appears, of the most learned men of
different nations have been occupied in
completing this grand bufinefs; fome in
performing the numerous and delicate ex-
periments; and others in making the ne
ceffary calculations and deductions; and
others in arranging the refults and drawing
up the reports. The refult of the whole is
contained in a report made to the Institute
the 17th of June, 1799; the abridgment.
of which is as follows.

The first object was to fix upon 'a ftandard of length; from thence to deduce the measures of all the other kinds abovementioned.

* See Page 435, of No. 18, Vol. iii.

mentioned. To employ, fays the reporter, Van Swinden, as the fundamental unity or ftandard of all measures, a ftandard taken from nature itself-a standard as unchangeable as the globe we inhabit; to propofe a metrical fyftem, having all its parts intimately connected, with its multiples and fubdivifions following a natural progreffion, which is fimple, obvious, and always uniform; this is a beautiful, grand, and fublime idea, worthy of the prefent enlightened age. This ftandard is founded on the bafis of the circuit of the earth being the fourth part of the terreftrial meridian, contained between the equator and the north pole. The ten millionth part of this quadrantal arc was adopted to be the lineal measuring unit, which they called metre, applying it equally to fuperficial and folid meafures, taking for the unit of the former the fquare of the decuple; and for that of the latter the cube of the tenth part of the metre. They chofe alfo, for the measuring unit of weight, the quantity of diftilled water equal in bulk to the fame cube in a con. ftant ftate prefented by nature, viz. of a certain temperature. And lastly, it is decided, that the multiples and fubmultiples of each kind of meafure, whether of weight, capacity, furface, or length, fhall be always taken in the decimal or decuple progreffion, as the moft fimple, natural, and ealy for calculation, according to the fyftem of numeration which all Europe has ufed for many centuries.

As the bafis of this new metrical fyftem depends on a quarter of the terrestrial meridian, it is necessary that the magnitude of this are fhould be known to great precifion. Therefore, although many different degrees of the meridian have been carefully measured at feveral times, and in different countries, the Inftitute ordered a new and actual measurement of the whole arc of the meridian, extending the whole length of France, viz. from Dunkirk, on the north, to Barcelona in Spain, and paffing Paris; an extent of almost ten degrees. The measurement of this arc, in feveral years, was at length completed by Mechain and Delambre, two eminent altronomers; in which they employed rules or rods made of platina, of two toiles or 12 feet in length, for measuring the bafes; and whole circles, accurately made, for taking the angles, to tenths of feconds, by repeating the measures in many different parts of the circumference, and taking mediums of the whole. The precifion

with which the angles were observed is fuch, that out of 90 triangles which connect the extremities of the meridional arc, there are 36 in which the fum of the three angles differs from its proper quantity by lefs than one fecond; that is, in which the error of the three angles, taken together, is lefs than one fecond: there are 27 triangles, in which this error is less than two seconds; in 18 others it does not amount to three feconds; and there are 4 triangles, in which it falls between the and four feconds; and three triangles only in which it is more than four, but less than five feconds.

Every care was taken to fupport and difpofe the platina rods properly in meafuring the bafes. The extremities of the rods were never brought into contact; an interval being left, which was measured by a tongue of platina, fliding from the end of one of the rules, and carrying a vernier and microscope. The corrections or allowances for differences of temperature, for obliquities of the line actually measured, and for the elevation above the level of the fea, were alfo attended to, and allowed for. One rod was kept unemployed, for a module or standard, which was exactly equal to the double toife of Peru, in ten degees temperature of Reaumur's thermometer, or fifty-four of Fahrenheit. With this module, and alfo with the toise of Peru, the other measuring rods were compared, both before and after the operations of measuring, and found not to be at all altered.

The celestial latitudes, &c. alfo obferved with the fame repeating circle of Borda, are fuch as not to have an error of any thing near half a fecond.

The fettling the article of the measure of weight was deputed to Lefevre Gineau, together with Fabroni of Florence; and the calculations from the measures of Mechain and Delambre, and the management of the whole bufinefs, were under the direction and conduct of a number of commiffioners, feveral of whomwere'deputed fromother nations: their names were Meffrs. Æneæ, Balbo, Borda, Briffon, Bugge, Cifcar, Coulomb, Darcet, Delambre, Fabroni, La Grange, La Place, Lefevre-Gineau, Legendre, Franchini, Mascheroni, Mechain, Multedo, Pederayes, Prony, Tralles, Van Swinden, and Vallali. And the refult of the whole bufinefs is, contained in the following synopfis of the measures in numbers, which we have here allo reduced to English meafures.

The

The Module

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2 toifes 12 feet French 12.789 feet English.

METRE 0.256537 module 3.090444 feet Fr. 3.28084 feet Eng.
Seconds pendulum at Paris 0.993827 metre 3.260587 feet Eng.
Merid. arc from Dunkirk to Mountjouy

9.6738 degrees

275792.36 modules.

Middle of faid arc is in latitude 46° 11′ 5′′

Length of 1° in lat. 46° 11′ 5′ = 28509.206 modules
Meridional quadrant = 2565370 modules

69.054 miles Eng,

6213.74 miles.

24854.93 miles

MEAN DEGREE of lat. 28504 modules = 69.041 miles.

Meridional circle = 10261480 modules

Flattening of the earth at the poles the 334th part.

Equatorial circle 10276872 modules 24892.22 miles.

Mean circumference of the earth = 10269176 modules 24873.57 miles,
Polar axis 3261436 modules 7899.72 miles.

Equatorial diameter 3271230 modules 7923.44 miles.
Mean diameter = 3266333 modules 7911.58 miles.

Diff. of polar and equat. axes 9794 modules 23.777 miles.

KILOGRAMME⇒ 18827.15 grains Fr. = 2.255 lb. avoird. — 2 lb. 4'oz.14'dr. The Kilogramme is the unit or standard of weight, being the weight of the cube of the decimetre, or of the roth part of a metre of diftilled water, weighed in vacuo, when at its greatest density, which is in the temperature of 39 degrees of Fahrenheit's ther

mometer,

Further particulars on this very interesting and important subjeƐ will be given in our next Number.

Jo

ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS.

MEMOIRS OF COUNT BRUHL. From the German of M. von Zach.) OHN Charles Count von Brühl, Privy Counsellor to the Elector of Saxony, Envoy Extraordinary from that prince at the court of Great Britain, and Knight of the Order of the White Eagle, was born on the 20th of December, 1736, at Wiederau, in the Electorate of Saxony. His father, Fred. William Count von Brühl, of Martinskirch, Bedra, and Wartenburg, who died in 1760, was likewife Privy Counfellor to his Majefty, the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and Intendant of a Province. The beautiful ode by Gellert, on the fourteenth birth day of the young Count, then a student at the Univerfity of Leipzig, and likewise the epistolary correfpondence that paffed between him and Gellert, till the death of the latter, evince the great expectations even then formed from his talents and character.

In his 19th year, 1755, he went to Paris, where, till 1759, he had an important fhare in tranfacting the ambassadorial affairs of his court; and there chiefly fupported his countrymen, whom the war had driven to take refuge in that city, and to apply for affiftance from him. In 1759, he was called to Warsaw, where he was made a Chamberlain, and appointed Intendant of Thuringia. From the confidential regard and credit which his excellent character and multiplicitous

knowledge had procured him with the whole court, and efpecially with his uncle, the then prime minifter, Count von Brühl, he often found an opportunity to draw forth unnoticed men of merit from the obfcurity that impeded their progress, and to place them in a sphere of action where their talents might be usefully employed. Among those who thus owed their advancement to his difcernment, was the late privy cabinet minifter of the Elector of Saxony, Baron von Gutschmidt, who died a few months ago. In 1764, Count von Brühl was fent as Envoy Extraordinary to the court of Great Britain, in which character he ftill refides in England, poffeffing the confidence of both courts. In 1778, the Elector of Saxony nominated him one of his actual privy counsellors.

Count von Brühl has been twice married in London. His first wife was a daughter of Lord Carpenter, and relict of the Earl of Egremont, formerly fecretary of ftate. After her decease, in 1794, he mar ried Mifs Cherone, a lady descended from an ancient English family. By his first countefs he had one fon, George, who is a captain in the fecond regiment of horseguards; and a daughter, Henrietta, who is married to Mr. Scott.

The Count has acquired too much celebrity in the republic of letters, and his literary merits are too well known, to require here a particular developement. Not only did he prove himself an intelligent ftater

man,

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